176 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



bigtrees were not reproducing, that there "were no little bigtrees." 

 That was conclusively disproved by Fred G. Plummer, geographer of the 

 United States Forest Service, who made a scientific study of a small 

 grove, measured the trees, and actually counted and classified them. 

 His work showed that there were in the area which he investigated : 



Trees containing 100,000 to 120,000 feet each 2 



Trees containing 80,000 to 100,000 feet each 13 



Trees containing 60,000 to 80,000 feet each 49 



Trees containing 40,000 to 60,000 feet each 112 



Trees containing 20,000 to 40,000 feet each 251 



Trees containing less than 20,000 feet each 353 



"Little bigtrees" 2,682 



Total 3,462 



Bigtree is distantly related to southern cypress, and the shapes of 

 very old trees of both species bear some resemblance. Bigtree leaves 

 do not fall annually as those of bald cypress do. They are from one- 

 eighth to one-fourth of an inch long, and on the leading shoots they may 

 be half an inch in length. Cones are from two to three and a half inches 

 long, and they ripen their seeds the second year, but the empty cones 

 may adhere to the branches several years. The seeds are a quarter of an 

 inch long, and have wings sufficient to carry them a hundred yards or 

 more. The trees bear abundance of seeds, in proportion to the small 

 number of branches. Though shapely and well clothed with limbs 

 when young, the crown contracts with age, and consists of a few enor- 

 mous, crooked limbs, almost destitute of twigs and small branches. 

 One of these trees may actually bear more twigs when the trunk is only 

 a foot in diameter than will be on the same trunk when it is fifteen or 

 twenty feet in diameter. The old tree trunks are often without limbs 

 to a height of 100 or 150 feet. 



The Douglas squirrel is the bigtree's greatest enemy. In proportion 

 to size, this little creature probably eats ten times as many tree seeds as 

 the most ravenous hog that roams the forest. One of the first things 

 that impresses a visitor in a grove of bigtrees is the rich brown of the 

 bark of some of the trunks. All are not brown alike, or at all seasons. 

 The trees on which the seed harvest is ready are the brownest, thanks to 

 the sharp claws, the tireless energy, and keen appetite of the Douglas 

 squirrel. He goes up and down the trunks for three square meals a day 

 among the clusters of cone-bearing branches two hundred or three 

 hundred feet above, and makes several extra trips for exercise: and at 

 each scratch of his briery foot he kicks off scales of bark, until the whole 

 trunk is "scratched raw." The detached scales of bark accumulate in a 



