THE SUCCESSION OF FOREST TREES. 45 



small one, as it commonly is, they cut off thus almost 

 every one of these before it fairly ripens. I think, 

 moreover, that their design, if I may so speak, in cut 

 ting them off green, is, partly, to prevent their open 

 ing and losing their seeds, for these are the ones for 

 which they dig through the snow, and the only white- 

 pine cones which contain anything then. I have 

 counted in one heap, within a diameter of four feet, 

 the cores of 239 pitch-pine cones which had been cut 

 off and stripped by the red squirrel the previous 

 winter. 



The nuts thus left on the surface, or buried just 

 beneath it, are placed in the most favorable circum 

 stances for germinating. I have sometimes wondered 

 how those which merely fell on the surface of the 

 earth got planted ; but, by the end of December, I 

 find the chestnut of the same year partially mixed 

 with the mould, as it were, under the decaying and 

 mouldy leaves, where there is all the moisture and 

 manure they want, for the nuts fall first. In a plen 

 tiful year, a large proportion of the nuts are thus 

 covered loosely an inch deep, and are, of course, 

 somewhat concealed from squirrels. One winter, 

 when the crop had been abundant, I got, with the 

 aid of a rake, many quarts of these nuts as late as 

 the tenth of January, and though some bought at 

 the store the same day were more than half of them 

 mouldy, I did not find a single mouldy one among 

 these which I picked from under the wet and mouldy 

 leaves, where they had been snowed on once or 

 twice. Nature knows how to pack them best. They 

 were still plump and tender. Apparently, they do 

 not heat there, though wet. In the spring they were 

 all sprouting. 



