American Nurserymen at the meeting in
Chicago recently.

It is the prevailing and almost universal belief that when native
forests are destroyed they will be replaced by other kinds, for the
simple reason that the soil has been impoverished of the constituents
required for the growth of that particular tree or trees. This I
believe to be one of the fallacies handed down from past ages, taken
for granted, and never questioned. Nowhere does the English oak grow
better than where it grew when William the Conqueror found it at the
time he invaded Britain. Where do you find white pines growing better
than in parts of New England where this tree has grown from time
immemorial? Where can you find young redwoods growing more thriftily
than among their giant ancestors, nearly or quite as old as the
Christian era?

The question why the original growth is not reproduced can best be
answered by some illustrations. When a pine forest is burned over,
both trees and seeds are destroyed, and as the burned trees cannot
sprout from the stump like oaks and many other trees, the land is left
in a condition well suited for the germination of tree seeds, but
there are no seeds to germinate. It is an open field for pioneers to
enter, and the seeds which arrive there first have the right of
possession. The aspen poplar (_Populus tremuloides_) has the advantage
over all other trees. It is a native of all our northern forests, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific. Even fires cannot eradicate it, as it
grows in moist as well as dry places, and sprouts from any part of the
root. It is a short-lived tree, consequently it seeds when quite young
and seeds abundantly; the seeds are light, almost infinitesimal, and
are carried on wings of down. Its seeds ripen in spring, and are
carried to great distances at the very time when the ground is in the
best condition for them. Even on the dry mountain sides in Colorado,
the snows are just melting and the ground is moist where they fall.

To grow this tree from seed would require the greatest skill of the
nurseryman, but the burnt land is its paradise. Wherever you see it on
high, dry land you may rest assured that a fire has been there. On
land slides you will not find its seeds germinating, although they
have been deposited there as abundantly as on the burned land.

Next to the aspen and poplars comes the canoe birch, and further north
the yellow birch, and such other trees as have provision for
scatteri