6 
there. The soil appears to become more compacted and 
resistant to seed. Even gray birch, perhaps the most prolific 
seeder, makes slow headway on these old treeless fields. 
While white pine has been the most fruitful source of re- 
afforestation, a few fields were given back to oak, ash, and 
other hardwoods. Although white pine has reclothed these 
abandoned lands with dense stands yet to-day beneath these 
pines there is an abundant advance growth of all kinds of 
hardwoods, but particularly red oak, white ash, and red 
maple. These, in the seedling stage, are quite tolerant of 
shade and are growing freely, although the growth is much 
slower than in the open. The striking feature is the absence 
of pine in this advance growth. 
We have here a replacement going on, one step towards a 
reversion to the original highly mixed forest. This replace- 
ment or succession is due to four factors. In the first place, 
the site is as good a hardwood site as it is a white pine site. 
The original forest was mixed hardwood with scattering pine. 
Secondly, the pine has formed a suitable seed bed for hard- 
woods. It is probable that the absence of a seed bed, equally 
as much as the weight of the seed, prevented the hard- 
woods, such as oak, chestnut, and beech, from occupying the 
vacant lands. An examination of germinating acorns, scat- 
tered around under a parent tree, will show that those that 
have lain on the surface of the ground have, in the majority of 
cases, damaged or decayed radicles. Under the pines the 
seed, aided by the agency of small animals, becomes im- 
bedded in the litter of the forest floor and is here protected. 
Generally speaking, the smaller a seed, the better is its 
chance of forming a tree. Size of seed is as important as 
weight. 
How successfully the pine prepared the way for the hard- 
woods is shown by the following example. Along an old 
stone fence which runs north and south there stands a row of 
immense old trees whose diameters are given in the following 
table: 
