6 FIRST BOOK OF FORESTRY 



given us a hint this very hour, shade them down by keep- 

 ing a close stand of trees. You will say : " But what if 

 the trees are mature and must be cut ? " Then, of course, 

 these weeds start up, and all that we can do is to get a 

 new stand of trees as soon as possible. However, we shall 

 hear more of this later on. 



Have you noticed that the red oaks, maples, ash, and 

 basswood are fairly laden with fruit ? Of course it was 

 not so conspicuous over there in the dense old stand, but 

 here among this younger timber, where the trees have a 

 little more light, they bear a heavier crop. This would 

 be a fine season to gather seed from which to raise young 

 seedlings. 



Why is it that the white oaks and beech do not bear 

 more fruit ? If we came here every fall, and really it 

 would be delightful and instructive to *do so, we should 

 learn before many years that these trees do not bear a 

 full crop of fruit and seed every season. They usually 

 bear a little seed every year ; but at intervals of three to 

 five years there are regular seed years, when they bear a 

 good crop, as the other trees do this season. 



What will become of all this seed ? A little of it will 

 be eaten by animals ; some of it may germinate ; but, to 

 judge from what we have seen, very little will ever grow 

 into trees. 



But supposing we should cut out some of these larger 

 trees this coming winter, and " scratch " the ground and 



