522 | . Causes of Forest Rotation. Hune, 
company cut the pine timber off of their own alternate sections 
for railroad ties and other purposes. This pine forest was suc- 
ceeded at once, to all appearances spontaneously, by oaks. 
I have often heard North Carolinians say the same thing about 
old fields in that State, when abandoned as worn-out land, that 
some timber different from that which had been cut off when 
clearing the land at first, would spring up spontaneously, or ap- 
pear to be spontaneous. 
I can speak only for my own locality, not having observed any 
me other. Here (West central Indiana) we have in many localities 
a prevailing species of timber, but no species that exist to the 
exclusion of all others, as is often the case with pine. But of 
our prevailing timber, or any other kind, sugar maple excepted, 
none seem to be reproducing their kind in their immediate vicin- 
ity. For reasons which will follow, I surmise that nearly all 
forest trees bear and shed leaves which are unfavorable to the 
sprouting and growing of their own seeds. The most notable 
instance I can now think of is the red cedar, introduced into this 
| vicinity from the north and north-east about forty-five years ago 
i for ornamental purposes. I don’t remember at what age they 
= began bearing seed, but I think as early as ten years, counting 
them to have been three years old from the seed when trans- 
planted here. Until certain kinds of birds bezan to eat their 
seeds, they were not found growing wild in the forests. I do not 
know what birds eat the seed, but evidently all do not, else they 
would have been planted as soon as the pargnt trees bore seeds, 
which was not the case for fully fifteen years afterward. When 
these seeds pass through the craw and intestines of birds they 
_ are prepared to sprout when they come in contact with the ground 
of the proper degree of moisture. Nurserymen, when they 
_. gather them direct from the trees, are obliged to put them through 
some process of scalding before planting. The birds drop them 
Ppromiscuously over the country, where they have been appearing 
within the past fifteen years numerously, and only rarely before 
about that time. They are a hardy tree, and bid fair to becom® 
OnE of the forest trees of the future in this part of Indiana. It " 
_ reasonable to presume that these seeds would be more abundan 
4 dropped under and very near these parent trees than elsewhere, 
_ for quite probably the birds that nest in these trees eat their see 
Yet no young cedars are ever seen to sprout and grow e 
