WHITE PINE GROVES 247 



making them distinctly pendulous. By the last 

 of August these greedy feeders have not only 

 ripened the seeds within the still close-pressed 

 scales, but have multiplied their own length by 

 four, being four to six inches long and hanging 

 pretty nearly straight down by their weight. 



Their work is done then. Fifty or more scales 

 has each cone, a hundred or more seeds, if the 

 fertilization has been perfect, are ripe and ready 

 to go forth and produce other pine trees. In 

 early September the sap begins to recede from 

 these ripe cones, the scales lose their green plump- 

 ness and begin to dry and curl back toward the 

 base of the cone. This gives the seed eating 

 birds, the siskins, the pine grosbeaks and especi- 

 ally the crossbills their best opportunity and they 

 eagerly pluck out such seeds as the narrow open- 

 ings will give them a chance at. Between these 

 and the squirrels the pine forests of the future 

 are decimated before their seeds have been 

 planted. Nature provides bountifully for the 

 reproduction of all her favorites, yet far more 

 bountifully in some instances than in others. A 

 thousand young birches spring from seed, to one 

 pine in our Alassachusetts woods, and no wonder. 

 Each birch tree ripens a thousand seeds to one 



