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BULLETIN 244, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 
METHOD OP DETERMINING SPROUT ORIGIN. 
Determination of the sprout origin of shortleaf pines during early 
life is possible by means of external characteristics. The presence of 
a colony of two or more living stems, also the presence of dead stems 
or stubs of the parent tree (charred in the case of fire), and the large 
size of the sapling or pole in relation to its age are clear evidence of 
coppice origin. A clean, smooth base without scars or adjacent stubs 
indicates seedling origin. This evidence is sufficient and dependable 
up to about the eighth year. Dead stems from 2 to 5 feet high, 
when killed by fire, will ordinarily be found standing at the end of 
the third year. In very early life sprout stands may be found to 
contain a considerable number of twin and triple colonies, but the 
number decreases rapidly with advance in age. In the latter stands, 
A B 
Fig. 9. — Determination of origin of shortleaf pine by basal sections at the ground: A, Tree of seedling 
origin; B, coppice tree 64 years old. Diameter of core, or first year's growth, is 3 times and cross-section 
area 8.9 times that of tree (A ) of seedling origin. (From photographs.) 
trees are frequently seen with dead or dying stems, forked at an 
acute angle or emerging from their sides, at distances a few feet 
above the ground. Following the first 6 to 10 years no external 
characteristics are usually apparent except occasionally multiple 
living stems. 
The first year's stem growth of trees of seedling origin is about as 
thick as a darning needle and 2 to 4 inches high, while the corresponding 
growth of young coppice sprouts is commonly as large as an ordinary 
lead pencil in diameter and about double its length. (Fig. 9.) The 
following few years' growth in each case is on a proportional scale. 
Thus the character of early growth, particularly that of the first year, 
recorded in the base of the tree and visible when the tree is cut level 
with the ground, affords a dependable record of the origin of the tree. 
Coppice trees, furthermore, usually have some of the dead stubs of 
