d just beneath it, are
placed in the most favorable circumstances for germinating. I have
sometimes wondered how those which merely fell on the surface of the earth
got planted; but, by the end of December, I find the chestnut of the same
year partially mixed with the mold, as it were, under the decaying and
moldy leaves, where there is all the moisture and manure they want, for
the nuts fall fast. In a plentiful year a large proportion of the nuts are
thus covered loosely an inch deep, and are, of course, somewhat concealed
from squirrels.

12. One winter, when the crop had been abundant, I got, with the aid of a
rake, many quarts of these nuts as late as the tenth of January; and
though some bought at the store the same day were more than half of them
moldy, I did not find a single moldy one among those which I picked from
under the wet and moldy leaves, where they had been snowed on once or
twice. Nature knew how to pack them best. They were still plump and
tender. Apparently they do not heat there, though wet. In the spring they
are all sprouting.

13. Occasionally, when threading the woods in the fall, you will hear a
sound as if some one had broken a twig, and, looking up, see a jay pecking
at an acorn, or you will see a flock of them at once about it, in the top
of an oak, and hear them break it off. They then fly to a suitable limb,
and placing the acorn under one foot, hammer away at it busily, making a
sound like a woodpecker's tapping, looking round from time to time to see
if any foe is approaching, and soon reach the meat, and nibble at it,
holding up their heads to swallow while they hold the remainder very
firmly with their claws. Nevertheless, it often drops to the ground before
the bird has done with it.

14. I can confirm what William Barton wrote to Wilson, the ornithologist,
that "The jay is one of the most useful agents in the economy of nature
for disseminating forest trees and other nuciferous and hard-seeded
vegetables on which they feed. In performing this necessary duty they drop
abundance of seed in their flight over fields, hedges, and by fences,
where they alight to deposit them in the post holes, etc. It is remarkable
what numbers of young trees rise up in fields and pastures after a wet
winter and spring. These birds alone are capable in a few years' time to
replant all the cleared lands."

15. I have noticed that squirrels also frequently drop nuts in open land,
which will still furth