98 USEFUL BIRDS. 



wood be cut off, and if the conditions are favorable, the 

 young hard-wood trees spring up and flourish. But why do 

 not pines spring up where pines are cut off ? For this there 

 are several reasons : (1) pines do not sprout from the stump ; 

 (2) there is not a crop of pine seed each year, therefore, 

 when the pine wood is cut there may be little good seed 

 in the ground; (3) young pines need some shade and pro- 

 tection, and if the larger trees are all cut down, many of 

 the young pines may die when exposed to the sun. Those 

 who, with a knowledge of this fact, plant pines on unshaded 

 ground, usually sow rye or some other cereal with the pines, 

 so that the quick-growing grain may shade the young plants 

 for the first year. The shaded trees grow, and in time fur- 

 nish shade for others, and so the wood extends. 



Now let us see why pines sometimes appear where hard 

 woods have been cut off. This kind of succession is not 

 common. The trees growing on most wood lots are cut for 

 cord wood as soon as they are of sufficient size. Immedi- 

 ately on the opening of the season , sprouts shoot up rapidly 

 from the hard- wood stumps, choking many young pines. 

 Still some will live and flourish, and so there comes a mixed 

 growth of pines and hard-wood trees. This is the character 

 of mucji of the wooded region near Boston. But if an oak 

 or walnut wood is allowed to grow until the trees are old, 

 and is cut when the roots have lost their vigor, the sprouts, 

 if they come up at all, are not so vigorous, and the young 

 pines have a better opportunity. Where birds and squirrels 

 are numerous, a considerable part of the fruitage of the pine 

 is removed by them, and cones or detached seeds are buried 

 or scattered about, not only among the pines, but among the 

 hard-wood trees. The winds also scatter pine seed far and 

 wide among deciduous trees ; so, if there are pines near hard- 

 wood lots, young pines usually sprout among the hard-wood 

 trees. When an old growth of deciduous woods is cut off, 

 these young pines, having had a start in the shade, flourish 

 and afford some shade for still younger seedlings, which 

 quickly germinate from the seed in the ground ; thus occa- 

 sionally the pines succeed the broad-leaved trees. 



