. 1910] HOWE—REFORESTATION OF SAND PLAINS 129 
remain. The conditions following the first cutting favored the inva- 
sion of the pitch pine upon areas which it had not previously occupied. 
In the first place, having no value at that time, it was not cut, so that 
seed trees were plentiful, a thing that cannot be said of the white pine; 
in the second place, pitch pine produces seed more abundantly than 
the white pine; -and finally, being more light-demanding and being 
able to endure more sterile soil conditions, it is better adapted for 
regeneration on areas cleared by lumbering. Whatever the causes 
may have been, pitch pine became the controlling tree of the second 
generation, especially on the Colchester plain. A representative list 
chart in a stand 60 years old shows 2.5 pitch pine on 25%". Beneath 
on one square meter are 18_Myrica asplenijolia, 5 Pteris aquilina, 
7 Kalmia angustifolia, 30 Vaccinium pennsylvanicum, 11 Vaccinium 
vacillans, 4 Carex pennsylvanica, 4 Diervilla Lonicera, 3 Solidago sp. 
(rosettes), 2 Rubus allegheniensis. 
The soil on the Burlington and Essex plains being as a whole less 
sandy, there is a larger proportion of mixed stands. On the average, 
black oak and white oak form one-third of the pitch pine stands. 
White pine of the second generation is more common on these two 
plains. 
Three brickyards and a limekiln within the sand plains furnish a 
market for pitch pine as fuel, and the pitch pine forests have been cut 
for this purpose, so that by far the greater part of the area is now in 
its second cycle of reforestation. The stands are usually cut clean of 
both trees and saplings, the latter being taken down to 5°™ in diameter. 
Sometimes a few isolated pines are left for seed trees, but they almost 
invariably die of the exposure resulting from clean cutting. The 
removal of the trees stimulated the development of the undergrowth, 
So that in most cases Myrica and Pteris became the dominant plants, 
and beneath them is a carpet of blueberries (V. pennsylvanicum and 
¥. vacilans). If fire runs through, as it usually does periodically, 
the association becomes so dense as to allow no reproduction of trees. 
Often as many as 60 Myrica plants may be found on a square meter. 
The fire also keeps down the coppice shoots from the oak stumps. 
Some areas cleared 25 years ago are still practically without tree 
Teproduction. 
When the Myrica-Pteris association is 15 to 20 years old, and when 
