106 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



replanted themselves there, rebutting the lie that they do not succeed each 

 other. If these instances are exceptions to the rule, they count for the rule 

 when conditions warrant it. 



RETROGRESSIVE FORESTRY. 



If we rob the supports of the pines or any other class of trees, of course 

 they will die out and another species of less value may take the ground and 

 hold it. The reason why we observe so many tree rotations is because we 

 interfere and produce the conditions that necessitate them. "When the 

 pine forest is burned over," says Robert Douglas, "both trees and seeds 

 have been destroyed, and as the burned trees cannot sprout from the stump 

 like oaks and many other trees, the land is left in a condition for the 

 germination of tree seeds, but there are no seeds to germinate. It is an 

 open field for pioneers to enter, and the seeds which arrive there first have 

 the right of possession." The cotton-winged seeds of the aspens and other 

 poplars generally get ahead, taking root on high and dry soil, where some 

 other seeds would die. The burnt land is their paradise, and their para- 

 dise is the forest retrogression which our lumbering methods have paved 

 the way for. 



CAUSE OF NON-SUCCESSION. 



Conifer and other seeds may sprout under their parent trees, but their 

 young shoots speedily pale and die, if the shade is too dense. The same 

 result occurs, though in reverse order, where the trees are all cleared off. 

 If they sprout, the sun's excessive heat soon kills them. If a fire burn up 

 the leaf mulch and the root network in the soil, of course the seeds are 

 destroyed, and we have no succession of forest growth there, simply be- 

 cause "we cannot make something out of nothing." Observing there no 

 reappearance of the old species, men aver "The pines once gone are gone 

 forever," and they ring the changes on this "lumber adage," to convince 

 us that it is useless to try to save our pines! 



DOES NOT "RUN OUT." 



Some common sense needs to be drilled into some people's understanding. 

 By the decay of fallen leaves and limbs, mosses and other minor vegeta- 

 tions, aided by water thus conserved, forest trees manufacture their own 

 nutrition and support. Hence forest soil that is riot raided by axe or fire 

 does not "run out" like a farm soil planted with the same kind of seeds 

 from year to year. It is plain that successive tree crops will continue to 

 grow and do well on their own native heath under a practical system of 

 forestry whereby the forest conditions are improved by cutting for the 

 market. 



