TIMBER: FORESTRY 403 



372. Propagation of forest trees. In wooded regions, where 

 labor is expensive, it does not usually pay to plant large 

 areas with seeds of trees, or to set out many young seedlings. 

 Self-sown trees will usually spring up in natural or artificial 

 openings in the woods (Figs. 323 and 324). The seeds of coni- 

 fers are blown considerable distances by the wind, and those 

 of some deciduous trees, such as birches, elms, ashes, and 

 maples, are carried in the same way. Nuts and acorns, on level 

 ground, must depend largely on birds 

 and squirrels as carriers (Fig. 325). 



FIG. 325. Tree planting by animals 



The figure represents acorns hoarded by a chipmunk in a prostrate hollow limb 

 of a tree. The acorns have begun to grow, and one or more of them, if left undis- 

 turbed, would doubtless have grown into trees. From photograph by R. E.Webster 



Many trees, as oaks, chestnuts (Fig. 326), and birches, 

 sprout freely from the stump and thus renew woodlands, after 

 cutting, much more quickly than growth of young trees from 

 the seed could accomplish it. Often it is found most profit- 

 able to allow the sprouts to grow only twenty or thirty years, 

 forming a coppice woodland, which is then cut and used for 

 making telegraph poles, fence posts, railroad ties, and so on. 



373. Tree planting. In such treeless regions as the prairies 

 and the Great Plains it is often desirable to establish belts 

 of timber or considerable tracts of woodland. This is done 

 partly for shelter from winds and partly for the timber pro- 

 duced for local uses. The seeds may be planted where the 



