JULY, 1900. BRUNCKEN— ON THE FOREST CONDITIONS, ETC. 
183 
pastures. The process of reforestation, which may be observed 
in all its stages in various localities, appears as follows : At first 
the sward of grasses is broken in such a manner as to allow non- 
gramineous herbs to establish themselves. The places so occu- 
pied afford an opportunity for the various shrubs that form the 
underbrush in this region, such as hazel, witch hazel, prickly 
ash, and many others. After the lapse of a number of years, 
these shrubs may cover the entire field, forming a more or less 
interrupted thicket. When this stage is reached, the trees will 
find little difficulty in sprouting, and in due time they will over- 
top the shrubs and resume their sway. This process is much 
accelerated in localities where stumps had remained after clear- 
ing, from which shoots could grow. A typical area of this kind, 
which has almost completed the cycle, is found on northwest 
quarter section 35, town of Milwaukee. Here there is a dense 
thicket formed by coppice growth of oak and basswood, the vari- 
ous shrubs mentioned above, with the witch hazel particularly 
numerous, and a great many large seedlings, among which, un- 
fortunately, the hop hornbeam is excessively represented. Many 
of the stool shoots are 7 inches in diameter, while some of the 
seedlings are twelve feet high. In places the crowns begin to 
close, and there are traces of a lessened vitality among the witch 
hazel. 
This course of regeneration is of course much retarded and 
often made impossible by the cropping of cattle. The effects of 
pasturing are conspicuous in a peculiar manner in the various 
species of hawthorn, a genus that is very common both within 
the forest and on neighboring pastures. The young plants, being 
constantly deprived of their leading shoots, spread laterally, with 
a great number of short spurs, until they form low clumps of 
semi-globular or pyramidal form, each short spur protected by 
formidable thorns. When these masses become large enough to 
prevent the cattle from reaching the buds in the centre of the 
mass, a leader begins to shoot upwards, and the plant at last suc- 
ceeds in assuming its normal, tree-like form, with the globular 
or pyramidal mass of twigs surrounding the base of the trunk. 
Not rarely, a group of these grotesquely shaped hawthorns form 
a natural fence, behind which other shrubs and trees may grow 
in safety from the nibbling cows. 
Taking it all in all the condition of woodlands in this vicinity 
is far from desperate. For one thing, fire, the curse of most 
American woods, is practically unknown here. While the value 
of the growing timber is at present small, it is not at all improb- 
able that this will change after a while. The two species of tim- 
ber most prosperous here are white oak and hard maple. Both 
