242 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 
red cedar ( Juniperus virginiana) and holly (/lex opaca) appear 
as forerunners, the seeds of which have been dropped by passing 
birds. The persimmon and sassafras, hardy oaks, and wild- 
cherry (Prunus serotina) also spring up, and near the sites of 
old dwellings are clumps of the tree-of-heaven (Azlanthus glan- 
dulosus) growing with tropical rankness, root suckers from the 
old trees which were once in favor for shade and ornament; 
now and then also an old sycamore with serpent-like limbs; 
here and there pines appear, the edges gradually close in 
on the field, the solitary forerunners become surrounded by 
their progeny, the gaps are slowly filled: by whatever may 
chance to fall by the many natural means of seed distribution. 
Thus, in time, the whole becomes a mixed forest of many 
species and of all age classes: here a thicket, there a pole-wood 
consisting of softwood and hardwood, evergreen and deciduous 
sorts, many sickly suppressed trees and many much branched, 
rough and knotty trees which were the forerunners, holding 
their own in the struggle for life even against their own 
progeny. Soon come axe and fire; the weaker kinds perish, 
the best are used, and a few pines and a coppice of hardy oak 
alone remain. Sometimes, if surrounded by pine, these old 
fields come up in a growth of pine as thick and green as a field 
of grain.* 
The forests of the eastern United States are possessed of 
marvelous regenerative power. Among the hundreds of native 
species there are many capable of great endurance, and, indeed, 
in the regions east of the western prairies there are few spots so 
sterile and inhospitable that one or more of these species cannot 
survive. There is abundant material for the development of 
new and elaborate systems of silviculture suited to the condi- 
tions and needs which exist. 
A very large part of the Pine-Barren district is oak coppice. 
The area in pine, however, is constantly decreasing, the area in 
oak increasing. Oak of some kind almost invariably follows 
* One must not too hastily conclude that the majority of the Jersey pines are pitch or Indian pines 
(P. vigida). A careful census of many districts will show, especially in the southern counties, that the 
short-leaf pine predominates. Although the pitch-pine endures fire to a greater extent, the short-leat 
pine is more prolific. From a forestal standpoint, this is, in spite of everything, a hopeful condition of 
affairs, because, as I shall endeavor to show later, there is no coniferous forest tree of the dry sandy por- 
tions of the Carolinian zone which is silviculturally and commercially the equal of Pinus echinata, the 
short-leaf or smooth-bark pine, 
