XXVIII. THE CUT-OVER WOODLAND THICKET 



"For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, 

 that it will sprout again. 

 And that the tender branch thereof will not cease; 

 Though the root thereof wax old in the ground 

 Yet through the scent of water it will hud 

 And put forth boughs like a plant." 



— The book of Job, 36:14 



When the great trees are felled, and the forest cover is 

 removed, if nothing more be done, no plowing or pasturing, 

 then the underlings have their turn. Weakling dogwoods 

 and elders and other shrubs that have been leading a lingering 

 existence under the shadow of the oaks and elms, take a new 

 lease on life. They flourish inordinately. They form great 

 climaps, covered with bloom in summer and heavy with fruit 

 in autumn. Their stems are no longer thin and scattered, 

 but stout and aggressive. They spread and try to cover the 

 whole of the area on which before they had such a slender 

 hold. 



But there is hope of a tree — of some trees. The pine tree 

 dies when cut down; but most trees sprout again. They 

 send up a circle of lusty shoots, which, ere the end of the first 

 season, are competing with each other for light and standing- 

 room. Ere the end of the second season, the biggest sprouts 

 are overtopping the competing shrubbery; and thereafter 

 their real competition is with each other. They grow and 

 spread, and gradually bring the imderling slirubbery into 

 subjection again. 



So, after the cutting of a wood, the first season it looks thin 

 and bare, and the stumps stand out boldh\ The second 

 season, it is covered with copses of spreading bushes and 

 clusters of sprouts hiding the stumps. For a few succeeding 

 seasons, it is a mixture, indiscriminate and dense, of small 



205 



