RKQBJJERAIION BT ROO.T-SUCKBKS. 3S7 



1. Influence of species, soil and climate. 



This influence has been studied on pp. 78-79, to -which the 

 student is referred. 



2. Influenee of the age of the stems cut back.. 



In reference to. this the student should read Condition XV on 

 page 92. He will there see that trees geue?ftlly continue to throw 

 up root-suckers lopg after they have. cea,sed tQ be able to psodueB: 

 stootshootai 



3. Healthiness and soundness of the parent tree. 



Provided the tree is neither in its- decline nor half-dead nor in 

 full decay, sac]^ers ■will always be produced ; and, indeed, as- often 

 said before^ a certain amount of want of yigour increases the- 

 tei?id,®D.cy of a, tree to develop them, although there can be no 

 doubt that a strong healthy tree wiU, when cut down, throw up 

 stronger, if not more numerous, sncters than a weak tree similarly 

 treated. Local decomposition of the roots is not necessarily 

 opposed to the production of an abundant crop of healthy suckers,, 

 unless of course the rottenness is due to fimgoid disease,, which 

 we know is contagious. 



4. -£j/e of forests reproduced successively hy means- of root-suchers 



alone. 



We have no data for determiniog the relation this period bears 

 to the natural longevity of the species concerned, but it is pro- 

 bable that it is more prolonged. In the case of sissu, we know 

 that this species can go on reproducing itself thus for several 

 centuries, for on no other hypothesis can be explained its presence 

 (since sissu can reproduce itself from seed only on flooded land) on 

 flat ground which is now several hundred feet above the nearest 

 stream and at least two. miles, away from tho main drainage line- 

 of the stream basin. 



5. Manner of cutting. 



If the trees are still young enough to grow up again from the 

 stool, it is evident that unless the stool is grubbed out or cut 

 below the level of the lowest dormant buds, a very- large proportioa 

 of the reserve food wiU be used up in the formation of stool-shoots, 

 thus reducing by so much the number and vigour' of the root-suck- 

 ers produced. If simply cutting d&wn the trees has not the 

 effect either of producing a sufficient number of suckers or of- 

 getting them to come up ovjer a sufficieaily wide area round ea«b- 



