50 THE BOOK OF FORESTRY 



the openings in the canopy increase in height, they be- 

 come larger in size and area as well, due to the falling 

 of the encircling veterans. The seedlings become sap- 

 lings; the giants fall, decay, become moss-covered, and 

 finally go back to the soil from which they sprung, 

 enriching it with the mold of their enormous trunks. 

 The young saplings increase in length and girth, finally 

 become veterans and in turn fall, to mold beneath the 

 shade of their posterity. Long, long before, every trace 

 of man's handiwork has disappeared and the forest 

 apparently untouched has reclaimed the land which 

 man wrested from its grasp for so short a time. 



