284 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



wood springs up where a pine wood has been cut away, 

 there is no doubt that it has sprung from seed in the ground. 

 But it has not sprung from seed which has been buried for 

 many years, but from seed buried probably within the year 

 by birds and squirrels, and which has been given a new 

 lease of life by the sun's rays let in by the removal of the 

 dense foliage from above. All through the autumn months, 

 when nuts and acorns are plentiful, jays, crows and squirrels 

 are gathering and storing away the seed among the pines 

 where they resort for shelter. 



Thousands of crows will roost in a pine wood for months 

 during the winter when the leaves are off the deciduous 

 trees. The pines then offer the best hiding-places for all 

 woodland creatures. In some of the large crow roosts 

 among the pines extensive deposits of various seeds and 

 other material are found. When a pine wood is surrounded 

 on all sides by oak and walnut trees, when squirrels, jays 

 and crows are plentiful and the trees bear well, great quan- 

 tities of acorns and nuts will be carried by these creatures 

 into the pine wood, and buried beneath the dead " needles" 

 or hidden away in crevices. Although these nuts and acorns 

 are buried in the mould during the fall, many of them are 

 dug up in the winter months, especially by the red squirrel. 

 But many are never found. 



Note an opening in the pines made by cutting away a few 

 trees. Here young oaks spring up, and we find oaks and 

 walnuts in such openings quite as often as we find pines. 

 Examine the ground under the pines in the summer, and 

 you may find many little oak, walnut and maple trees com- 

 ing up from beneath the pine needles, and you will also find 

 here and there young pines. All these young trees soon 

 die in the dense shade of the larger pines.* 



If the conditions are favorable when the pine wood is cut 

 off, then the young, hard woods spring up and flourish. 

 But why do not pines spring up where pines are cut off ? 

 First, pines do not sprout from the stump ; next, there is 

 not a regular crop of pine seed each year, so that when the 



* If the lot is not favorably situated and if birds and squirrels are not plentiful, 

 and, above all, if the crop of mast has been light the year before, there may be no 

 young walnuts and oaks springing up. * 



