VII 



PLANTING THE FOREST 

 SHOULD THE SPECIES BE MINGLED? 



IF the necessity for planting forests to restore them where 

 they have been destroyed be admitted, and it cannot be 

 truthfully denied where productive forests no longer exist, 

 the method to be adopted becomes an important matter, 

 and we naturally turn to see what Nature did when she 

 grew them so abundantly. In the virgin forests of our 

 country several species of trees demanding like conditions 

 of climate, soil, and situation are found growing in close and 

 intimate association. Broadleaf trees lock their limbs in ap- 

 parently friendly embrace while they tolerate the conifers 

 and are by them welcomed. But for all the apparent har- 

 mony and good-fellowship, there is a silent but persistent 

 struggle going on both in the air and under the ground for 

 supremacy and even existence. All must have light, some 

 species more than others, and nearly all more in old age 

 than in youth. This strife never ceases' and it ends in a vast 

 number of fatalities. So, too, all must have mineral food 

 and moisture, and the battle in the ground between the 

 roots is more stubbornly contested than is that in the air 

 between the leaves. In both cases a tree will contend with 

 one of its own species or with that of another, and class will 

 war with class. 



Neither does the conflict show any sympathetic spirit, nor 

 are there any rules of warfare recognized, and the result is 

 simply a survival of the strongest. When mature trees fully 

 dominate the ground they practically suppress all young 

 growth underneath their branches, and not until they fail 

 from some cause can a new forest be grown. They give no 

 opportunity for other trees to grow and rob them of light, 



