Children's Department 



Devoted to imparting information abotct trees, ivoods and forests to boys and girls so that they may grozv to knoiv 

 how necessary trees are to the health, wealth and future of their country. 



By Bristow Adams 



THE SPROUT GROWTH OF TREES 



WE HAVE seen how new trees are started 

 through seed from the old ones, and how 

 tree growth may be extended from one place 

 to another by means of these seeds. Seeds, however, are 

 not the only source of new growth, because many trees 

 are able to send out sprouts or shoots, and thus get 

 started anew. By means of this power to sprout from the 

 roots, some trees are able to renew themselves after the 

 parent tree is cut down; and the forester takes advan- 

 tage of this power or ability, in renewing the woods. 



The capacity to sprout is not shared by all woods, and 

 as a general statement it may be said that the cone-bear- 



YOUNG PINE SEEDLINGS 



These are smaller, more delicate and tender than young grass, 

 the slightest forest fire means their complete destruction. 



Even 



ing trees, such as pines, spruces, firs, and the like can not 

 and do not sprout from the stump; so that when they 

 are cut down they are gone for good, and can be renewed 

 only through seed. Since seedlings of cone-bearing trees 

 are so tender, being smaller and more delicate in their 

 structure than young grass, the importance of keeping 

 forest fires out of pine woods can be readily seen. Even 

 the smallest of fires just barely burning in the pine 

 needles will set back new forest growth for a great num- 

 ber of years, possibly ten or more, because most conifers 

 bear .seeds in abundance only at intervals of several years, 

 and even when such seeds are borne, conditions are not 

 always right for their springing to life. But more will 

 be said of forest fires and of their effects in a later 



article. Some of the pines have been known to sprout 

 from the root after the tops have been apparently killed 

 by fires, and though this is not general it has been noted 

 as occuring over the so-called pine barrens of southern 

 Xew Jersey, where forest fires have been permitted to 

 run through year after year until now the growth is 

 scattered, and of little value. Northern arborvitae or 

 white cedar sometimes reproduces itself, in the swamps 

 in which it grows, by the process known as layering. 

 Branches on the ground become overgrown with moss, 

 and soil forms about them. These covered branches 

 then send down roots and a new tree may be formed at 

 the tip of the layered branch, with its own root system. 

 Then the branch between the parent trunk and the 

 point of layering may decay and the new tree take up 

 its independent life. 



THE most notable example of the sprouting of 

 conifers is undoubtedly that of the California 

 ,. redwood, one of the largest and tallest trees in 



the world. It sprouts readily from the stump, and there 

 is evidence, even in trees which are full grown and many 

 times as thick as a man's body, that they started as 

 .'vprouts around a parent tree, which either through ac- 

 cident or decay lost its place in the forest and gave way 



A STAND OF YOUNG PINE TREES WHICH HAS SPRUNG UP 



NATURALLY UNDER SEED TREES, WHICH HAVE BEEN 



LEFT 



An example of liow the German foresters take care of their timber and 

 mal-p sure of a new growth to take the place of that which lias been 

 used. 



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