WHERE SEEDS VANISH.
The justification for condemning the jay and other birds, including the crossbill, is the verdict from a number of prac- tical experiments of real interest. Characteristic bits of forest land were " ribbed and paled in " after various fashions. One was enclosed by wire on all sides except the top. One was roofed and enclosed. One was protected from underneath by a buried tin or stone. One was completely protected under, over, and on all sides. The experiments absolutely proved that if birds and beasts were excluded the forests would naturally regenerate themselves without expense or trouble as they do, say, in Newfoundland, where seedlings spring up in great profusion, as I have seen, after the worst of fires. It is said there that they will germinate in sufficient quantity after two successive fires, but not after three. It was inter- esting after one fire to find the seedlings half-smothered in willow-herb, called there the fireweed because it is the first plant to appear in the fire's wake. - * * *
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