20 BOTANY OF MADISON', LINCOLN, GARRARD, 



thick, and delights the eye with its promised magnificeace. 

 The same facts are seen on the Subcarboniferous beds. 



It has been taught that on some soils in the State the white 

 oak, as a second growth, has largely diminished in proportion 

 to the number contained in the old forests ; hut on the Lower 

 Hudson River beds, wherever the seed are not destroyed and 

 the; proper conditions exist, this species gives promise of its 

 former abundance. This may be noted in little woodlands, 

 which have; been fenced in for grass. The undergrowth is 

 removed, the grass sown, and the ground raked ; the; surface 

 is thus loosened, the light and warmth admitted, and the mois- 

 ture retained. The acorns thus buried produce, as a conse- 

 quence, young trees in great numbers. White oak trees are 

 cut and their bodies taken away ; but often the tops are left 

 lying on the ground, and among them the acorns fall and are 

 moistened, shaded, and saved from destruction, until they 

 germinate and produce young trees. Over parts of the Crab 

 Orchard Shale, whole areas of woodlands have been destroyed 

 and used for fuel in the manufacture of salts. Families giving 

 all their time to this industry, raised no corn and led no hogs. 

 The acorns consequently were not so largely destroyed as 

 usual, and the result was that under these conditions the 

 young white oaks came up in numbers as great as any other 

 species. On the Subcarboniferous soils, persons who had 

 farms raised hogs which had the freedom of the woods. 

 These periods are often marked by the absence, of young 

 white oaks; but afterward, when the farmers abandoned stock- 

 raising for the lumber interests, the disappearance of the; hogs 

 allowed the reappearance of the young oaks. 



Another interesting feature is the fact that nature protects 

 from such entire destruction some seeds, as for example;, the 

 bitt<M- acorns, which produce inferior tree's for lumber, and elis- 

 seminates widely such species as red bud, dogwood, etc., and 

 these often come up so thick that they prevent the propaga- 

 tion of better kinels which require more; favorable conditions 

 for growth. Black walnuts flourish almost equally as well on 

 all kinds of good soil, and if growing with other trees in thick 



