AMERICAN SYLVICLLTURE 



Post Oak: in 1900 the only mast-bearing oak. 



Black Oak: splendid, full mast year in 1901 in all situations. 



Scarlet Oak: splendid, full mast year in 1901. 



B. Chestnuts: 



I. Primeval Forests: 



Actually primeval forests of Chestnut seem very rare. The 

 Chestnut woods of the Appalachians have been ransacked by fires 

 for many decades of years. The n. s. r. seems to have been of 

 the selection type. Chestnut seems to avoid limestone-soil and 

 ceases to occur where limestone appears (Ky; Ten.). 



II. Culled seed forests: 



The fire-culled forest shows an absolute lack of seedlings, sap- 

 lings and poles. 



The axe-culled forest consists merely of coppice. 



Trees beset with dead branches are invariably wormy 

 (Lymexylon). 



Seed years seem to be getting scarce, possibly under the influ- 

 ence of fires, to judge from the reports of mountaineers. The old 

 trees are frequently stagheaded and fail to successfully regenerate 

 their kind. 



Seedlings one year old are about eight inches high, when found 

 in the woods. They appear individually scattering and not in 

 groups. 



III. Cultured seed forests: 



The ciiltured forest usually has the form of coppice or coppice- 

 under-standards. Plantations in the United States are made more 

 for fruit-growing than for timber-growing. The abandoned fields 

 at Biltmore seem too dry for successful development. Chestnuts 

 planted as an undergrowth below Oak and Pine have done poorly, 

 owing to the ravages of squirrels. 



The poles and trees seem to badly resent any sudden inter- 

 ference with the leaf canopy and with the humus. 



Thinnings and cuttings in the shelterwood system should be 

 light. 



The competition of stoolshoots invariably formed after cuttings 

 reduces the prospects of seedlings simultaneously obtained. Stool- 

 shoots cannot be entirely prevented by deadening previous to 

 cutting. 



Chestnut prodiices a splendid humlis and is an excellent com- 

 panion for Oaks, Hickories, Walnut, Black Cherrj% Ash and Yellow 

 Poplar; also for White Pine and Hemlock. It regenerates in 



IGG 



