XXVIII. THE CUT-OVER WOODLAND THICKET 
“For there is hope of a tree, tf it be cut down, 
that it will sprout again, 
And that the tender branch thereof will not cease; 
Though the root thereof wax old in the ground 
Yet through the scent of water it will bud 
And put forth boughs like a plant.” 
— The book of Job, 36:14 
When the great trees are felled, and the forest cover is 
removed, if nothing more be done, no plowing or pasturing, 
then the underlings have their turn. Weakling dogwoods 
and elders and other shrubs that have been leading a lingering 
existence under the shadow of the oaks and elms, take a new 
lease on life. They flourish inordinately. They form great 
clumps, covered with bloom in summer and heavy with fruit 
in autumn. Their stems are no longer thin and scattered, 
but stout and aggressive. They spread and try to cover the 
whole of the area on which before they had such a slender 
hold. 
But there is hope of a tree—of some trees. The pine tree 
dies when cut down; but most trees sprout again. They 
send up a circle of lusty shoots, which, ere the end of the first 
season, are competing with each other for light and standing- 
room. Ere the end of the second season, the biggest sprouts 
are overtopping the competing shrubbery; and thereafter 
their real competition is with each other. They grow and 
spread, and gradually bring the underling shrubbery into 
subjection again. 
So, after the cutting of a wood, the first season it looks thin 
and bare, and the stumps stand out boldly. The second 
season, it is covered with copses of spreading bushes and 
clusters of sprouts hiding the stumps. For a few succeeding 
seasons, it is a mixture, indiscriminate and dense, of small 
205 
