RESTOCKING FOREST LAND. 65 



and as from three to six pounds are required per acre it will 

 be seen that at least in this case the first outlay is too large 

 an investment for profit except perhaps in a few cases. 



Natural Reseeding of the land is then almost the only means 

 of restocking the land, which should receive attention here, 

 as other methods are too expensive. It generally takes place 

 in this section, and the only reason why it is not more suc- 

 cessful is the frequent destruction of the young seedlings by 

 fires. The small crooked branching pine and other seeding 

 trees that are always left by lumbermen in their operations 

 and generally considered worthless, perform a very important 

 work in producing seed, and it is a pity that there are not 

 more such trees left to produce seed for our cut-over lands. 

 When such trees escape the first burning after the land is cut 

 over, they often remain for twenty years doing their blessed 

 work of distributing seed each year, and when the conditions 

 exist for germination and growth the seed grows and lives. 

 Sometimes where such trees are not left by lumbermen, or 

 where they have been destroyed by fire, it has taken twenty 

 years to get the land properly reseeded to White Pine by the 

 slow process of seeding from trees at a distance of half a mile 

 or more. 



In some European countries comparatively little planting' 

 of timber trees is done, and most of the young trees of some 

 kinds are expected to come from seed scattered by trees that 

 are left at cutting time for this purpose. Indeed, it is a com- 

 mon practice there to thin out as the time comes for final cut- 

 ting, so as to let the light in onto the ground and thus pro- 

 duce the conditions necessary for the new growth to get a 

 start. 



Renewal of Growth by Sprout3 and Suckers. Many kinds of 

 trees and other woody plants can renew themselves by means 

 of sprouts and suckers, or both. Such, for instance, are the 

 Oak, Willow, Ash, Basswood and some other broad-leaf 

 trees: but none of our narrow-leaf trees (conifers) have this 

 power to any important extent. Young vigorous trees have 

 the greatest power of renewing growth in this way. Such a 

 growth seldom attains large size and is best adapted to con- 

 ditions where fuel is the object sought and the land is to be 

 cut over once in twenty or thirty years. After cutting, the 



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