66 PRACTICAL FORESTRY IN 



vanishing remnant of a prehistoric species unsuited to pres- 

 ent-day conditions. 



It was next discovered that the suckering habit is no new 

 one, indeed that the majority of the present stand, however 

 old, began as sprouts from roots or stumps of its predecessors. 

 This is evident from the circular arrangement of several 

 trees around the spot where their parent stood. These old 

 sprouts were of very slow growth, for they were shaded by a 

 forest of extreme density. As seedlings they could have 

 neither germinated nor grown, but as suckers they were 

 kept alive by the parent until light supply became available 

 through their increasing height or through thinning of the 

 forest. Under such conditions centuries were required to 

 produce large trees. 



The owner of today, by cutting down the old stand, gives 

 the suckers conditions hitherto unknown to the redwood. The 

 vigor and susceptibility to the aid of light, which originally 

 was necessary in the sprout growth to perpetuate the species 

 at all, now respond to entire freedom and light in an aston- 

 ishing manner. Even after severe slashing fires char the 

 stumps, the latter throw out clusters of sprouts which grow 

 several feet a year. Logging works 30 or 40 years old have 

 come up to trees nearly 100 feet high. Naturally such tim- 

 ber has a heavy percentage of sapwood and is soft and brittle, 

 but it is already suitable for piling, box lumber and like 

 purposes and improves constantly. 



Since reproduction by seed does not enter into the prob- 

 lem, financial possibilities depend almost wholly on the na- 

 ture of the original stand. There are many types of redwood 

 forest, pure and mixed, flat and slope. If the old trees are 

 few to the acre, the sprout clusters will be so far apart that 

 excess of side light will produce clumps of swell-butted, short 

 limby trees, of little use for lumber; that is, unless there is 

 also a seedling growth of fir or other species to fill the 

 blanks and bring up the density. Where such a nurse 

 growth is to be counted on, or where the redwood trees are 



