66 ELEMENTARY FORESTRY. 
sometimes sown in clear fields with oats, when the straw protects 
from the sun in summer and the stubble holds the snow and acts 
as winter protection. Seed of ash, maple, elm and some other 
trees may sometimes be sown in the hills with corn to advantage 
in prairie planting, and willow cuttings may also be used in the 
same way or with beans. 
Natural Reseeding of the land is then almost the only 
practical means of restocking the land in this section, which 
should receive attention here, as other methods are too expen- 
sive. It generally takes place in this section, and the only rea- 
son why it is not more successful is the frequent destruction of 
the young seedlings by fires. The small crooked branching pine 
and other seeding trees that are always left by lumbermen in 
their operations here, and generally considered worthless, per- 
form a very important work in producing seed, and it is a pity 
that there are not more such trees leit to produce seed for our 
cut-over lands. When such trees escape the first burning after 
the land is cut over, they often remain for twenty years doing 
their blessed work of distributing seed each year, and when the 
conditions exist for germination and growth the seed grows and 
lives. Sometimes where such trees are not left by lumbermen, 
or where they have been destroyed by fire, it has taken twenty 
years to get the land properly reseeded to White Pine by the 
slow process of seeding from trees at a distance of half a mile 
or more. 
The Covering of Tree Seeds in Woodland, whether 
the seeds are sown naturally or artificially, can often be best 
accomplished by stirring up the soil with a strong harrow or a 
brush drag made of the branches of an oak or other tree having 
strong wood. This may sometimes be done most advan- 
tageously before the seeds fall, and at other times alter they 
have fallen. Where the soil is made loose and the forest floor 
is broken up before the seeds fall, they are generally sufficiently 
covered by wind and rain. ‘Shey may sometimes be covered 
most satisfactorily by driving a flock of sheep over the land 
after the seed has fallen, the feet of the sheep pressing the seed 
into the ground. 
Regeneration by Planting Seedlings. This form of 
regeneration is practiced to a considerable extent in sections 
where timber is high in price. Tt is often the most economical 
