64 FOREST PLANTING. 



— as is now the practice — left to rot and create dan- 

 gerous fire-traps, or breeding places for noxious insects. 



CHAPTER XII. 

 RAISING FOREST TREES BY NATURAL REPRODUCTION. 



SHOOTS. 



There are a great many trees — to be found mostly 

 among the deciduous varieties — which have the power of 

 forming buds in the stem or exposed parts of the roots, 

 in addition to the usual buds formed upon joints and the 

 base of leaves. 



The formation of these adventitious buds seems to be 

 caused by the endeavor of the tree to ajiply to the pro- 

 duction of new shoots the plant- food taken up by the un- 

 hurt parts of the root. These new shoots grow up into 

 trees and are called coppice or copse- wood. Thus in a 

 very simple way the restoring of forests has been made 

 practicable by saving and properly treating the stumps 

 and roots of felled trees. The more a certain kind of 

 tree is inclined to coppicing, the better is this mode of 

 propagation adapted to it, and it is a method which in 

 many cases will be found to be the cheapest and most 

 successful. In employing it, the cutting of the trees 

 should always, if possible, be exactly even, and in an up- 

 wardly sloping direction, care being taken not to seji- 

 arate the bark from the trunk, because their conjuncture 

 at the line of incision is the place at which the new 

 shoots will appear. Experience shows that trees which 

 can be propagated by sprouts, lose with their advancing 

 age the capability of sending up vigorous shoots. ^Yo 



