2o6 Forestry Quarterly. 



They are then called seedling sprouts, and it is often difficult to 

 tell them from seedlings. 



The extent to which fire delays the growth of hardwood seed- 

 lings is scarcely realized even by foresters. It is the writer's 

 observation that fully half the seedling reproduction in parts of 

 Connecticut is so delayed from three to ten years. 



A crop of seedlings is killed back by fire. The roots send up 

 sprouts, usually several weak rather than one strong one. A few 



Seedling Sprouts. 



(a) Red Maple (Root 20 years old, top 3 years old). 



(b) Black Cherry (Root 16 years old, top 3 years old). 



(c) Black Oak (Root 12 years old, top 3 years old). 



years later another fire necessitates the repeating of the process, 

 and so on till even the most vigorous have succumbed. For seed- 

 ling sprouts apparently follow the same laws as sprouts from older 

 trees although we do not know that the relative sprouting abilities 

 of seedlings and mature trees is the same for the same species. 

 Seedlings sprouts do seem to differ from those produced by older 

 trees in not forming an independent root system. Each generation 

 of them appropriates that used by all before. Thus large roots 

 may have almost no tops. We might suppose that these tops 

 would grow sufficiently fast to offset the killing back. Field 

 observations seem not to confirm this. The sHghtly accelerated 

 growth is over in two or three years and thereafter development 

 is that of a seedling rather than a sprout. Also among the many 



