”The seedling represents the most critical stage in the life of a tree. Conditions of seeding and germination may be entirely favourable, and natural seedlings may appear in countless quantities at the beginning of the rainy season, only to disappear largely or entirely within a comparatively short period of time owing to various causes, such as drought, bad soil aeration, competition with weed, shade, or other factors.” ”If the requirements of the seedling of any species are well understood, the problem of the natural reproduction of that species is to a great extent solved, while the subsequent treatment of the crop is usually a comparatively simple matter. The whole system of management of a forest crop is fundamentally influenced by the steps necessary to establish reproduction, and it will therefore be readily realized that no branch of silviculture is of more importance than the study of the requirements of the seedlings of forest trees. Again, problems of invasion, succession, and gregariousness have to be approached from the point of view of the seedling, for it is the establishment of the young plant that determines to a great extent, if not wholly, the occurrence of existing forest crops of various types, and in like measure regulates the transition from one type to another from place to place or during the course of time.”