In late July and early August, 1954, counts of young trees were made again on the upland pasture area, with a total of 200 1/100-acre plot samples. This sample was taken at the end of one of the longest and most severe droughts in the history of the area. Both 1952 and 1953 had drought summers, and up to the end of July the summer of 1954 was exceptionally dry also. The conditions of the young trees at this time, in the relatively dry and shallow hilltop soil, was especially significant. As might have been anticipated, in this 1954 count, young trees were more numerous than they had been on any of the areas sampled in 1952. However, the data for 1952 and 1954 are not entirely comparable, because in 1952 none of the plots sampled was nearer than 50 feet to the edge of the woods, whereas in 1954, the sample was arranged to be representative of the entire field, including the parts adjacent to the woods. The numbers per acre of each kind of tree, and the percentages that were dead or dying, were as follows: crab-apple 167 (33.5 per cent dead); locust 98 (3 per cent dead); elm 69.5 (2.9 per cent dead); osage orange 63.5 (none dead); walnut 36.5 (4.1 per cent dead); red haw 25.5 (none dead); ash 19.5 (none dead); cockspur thorn 17 (17.6 per cent dead); wild plum 14 (3.6 per cent dead); dogwood 9.5 (none dead); prickly ash 2 (25 per cent dead); black oak 1.5 (none dead); boxelder .5 (none dead). Thus, of the species that were prominent invaders of the field, only crab-apple showed heavy mortality. In many instances the mortality in crab-apple was due wholly or in part to attack by cottontails (_Sylvilagus floridanus_), which had completely girdled many of the stems. In general, mortality in the young trees was light in this grassland area compared with the mortality in any part of the woodland. Competition and Mortality The ratios of trees of different species and different size groups reflect, to some extent, the changes to which the area has been subjected. Under original conditions mature trees of oak and hickory dominated the forest. With the opening up of the forest that resulted from cutting most of these mature trees, other kinds of trees increased and spread. Species relatively intolerant of shading became established. Chinquapin oak, honey locust, osage orange, cherry, dogwood, red haw, and crab-apple, being especially intolerant of shading, cannot grow in close competition with climax species, and they become established only in fairly open situations. Their presence in thick woodland, along with climax competitors, usually is an indication that the woodland is either of recent origin or has been much disturbed in the past, permitting invasion by them.