i 4 WOODLOT FORESTRY. 



drawn to show the growth in ten-year periods. From their 

 sections it is easy to read the history of the trees, as follows : 



Specimen A came from a tree grown from seed. Up to the 

 fourth year this tree was practically free from hindrance and 

 grew rapidly ; in the fourth year it is probable that a drought was 

 responsible for the very small increase in diameter that is shown. 

 A study of the United States rainfall record, kept at Moores- 

 town, shows that in 1874, the year of small growth on this tree, 

 only 59 per cent, of the normal amount of rain fell in the grow- 

 ing months of May, June, July and August. In the eighth and 

 ninth years this tree had a hard struggle with its neighbors for 

 nourishment. It apparently overcame this opposition, and from 

 that time until its thirty-fourth year continued little influenced 

 by its rivals. After the latter period, especially in the thirty- 

 ninth, fortieth and forty-first years, it shows the effects of 

 crowding by its neighbors. This tree was cut because it had 

 reached a size which made it economical to market it, and it was 

 occupying too much space. 



Specimen B is from a tree of sprout origin. Until it was 

 twenty years of age, this tree made a very creditable growth 

 on the side away from the center of the stump from which it 

 sprouted. At that time the other sprouts from the same stump 

 became so powerful that the necessary food and light was denied 

 this one, and gradually its rate of growth decreased until in the 

 last few years it became quite insignificant. The side of the 

 section with the shortest radius illustrates the effect of over- 

 crowding in the forest. Light and food were lacking here, and, 

 consequently, little growth was made after the sixth year. Com- 

 pare this growth with that on the longest radius. Two and 

 two-tenths inches were made on the short radius in forty-four 

 years, while on the longest radius the same was made in eleven 

 years, or one-quarter the time. After the sixth year a growth 

 of 1.7 inches was made in thirty-eight years on the shortest 

 radius, as against 5.2 inches on the longest radius during the 

 same period. Had this tree had sufficient room it could have 

 maintained a complete growth, as indicated on the long radius, 

 and would then have been 12.4 inches in diameter instead of 8.5 



