A THOUSAND-YEAR PINE 



crushed into the earth by the hoof of 

 a passing deer. It may have been hid- 

 den by a jay; or, as is more likely, 

 the tree may have grown from one of 

 the uneaten cones which a squirrel 

 had buried for winter food. Fremont 

 squirrels are the principal nurserymen 

 for all the Western pineries. Each au- 

 tumn they harvest a heavy percent- 

 age of the cone crop and bury it for 

 winter. The seeds in the uneaten 

 cones germinate, and each year count- 

 less thousands of conifers grow from 

 the seeds planted by these squirrels. 

 It may be that the seed from which 

 Old Pine burst had been planted by 

 an ancient ancestor of the protest- 

 ing Fremont squirrel whom we found 

 that day in apparent possession of the 

 premises; or this seed may have been 

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