78 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



stratification of their crowns at two levels, with scattering 

 low shrubs nearer to the ground. This is the way in which, 

 left to themselves, each "finds its level" and its proper 

 situation. Too much interference of the axe may keep down 

 some of them and may make unusual opportunities for 

 others; but it does not change the nature or needs of any 

 of them. 



The groupings of the trees of different kinds will be seen 

 to differ obviously, according to their several modes of 

 reproduction. Copses of young trees, clustered about old 

 ones, will be found springing up as "suckers" from the 

 spreading roots of beech and choke-cherry and nanny-berry. 

 Thickets composed of a mixture of tree-species spring up as 

 seedlings in the place where a giant of the woods has fallen, 

 leaving a good site temporarily unoccupied. In such a place 

 the struggle for existence is apt to be severe. Groups of a 

 few trees on a common root result from the growth of sprouts 

 from stumps. Some trees, like the chestnut, when cut will 

 come again unfailingly, and replanting is unnecessary for 

 their maintenance. Others, like the white pine, rarely sprout 

 from the base when cut down, and are renewed only from 

 seed. Most trees sprout more freely if cut (or burned) 

 when young. Dozens of sprouts will promptly spring from 

 a healthy stump of oak or elm, but only a few of them 

 two or three or four as a rule can grow to full stature: 

 the others are gradually eliminated in the competition for 

 light and standing room. The changes in composition of 

 the wood-lot that follow in the wake of the ax are not so great 

 as one would at first suppose; for nature, if unhindered by 

 fires or by grazing, has her own ways of keeping a place for 

 each of her wild species. 



Let us study the wood-lot first to see what nature is trying 

 to do with it, and to find out what kinds of woody plants she 

 is endeavoring to maintain there. There will be time enough 



