149 
Two Letters on Pinus Banksiana. 
Dr. N. L. BRITTON: 
DEAR S1iR.—I was observing a note of yours made in the 
BULLETIN some years ago, in regard to the size of Pinus Banks- 
tana, The largest trunk I ever saw grew in the southeastern 
part of Grand Traverse County, Michigan. I have a cut three 
feet long in our museum; the top end, including the bark, is just 
one foot anda halfin diameter, measured in either of two directions. 
It is perfectly sound. Several others nearly as large have been 
seen in various parts of the state. 
« At the mouth of the Au Sable River entering Lake Huron, in 
poor, sandy land, these trees grow very slowly. Many of them . 
have a clean trunk for three to eight feet and a spreading top 
considerably like that ofa well-shaped apple tree. I am told that 
this shape is common in Northern Minnesota. Large areas of 
sandy land in Crawford and Osceola counties are mainly covered 
with Jack Pines. In many places the-trees are “ stocky,” twenty 
to forty feet high, with limbs near the ground and a wide-spread- 
ing, conical top. The people in the vicinity speak of them as 
“Black Jack Pines” or ‘‘ Buckwheat Pines.” They are making 
a comparatively rapid growth. In places where the soil is ap- 
parently a little better these trees are thicker and taller, with 
straight, slender, nearly cylindrical trunks forty to sixty or 
seventy feet high, and a diameter from eight inches to a foot or 
more. Such trees are called ‘ Yellow Jack Pines,” and as they 
have small bushy tops, make only a slow growth. 
_ Many people believe that the pitch and leaves of Pinus 
Banksiana are poison to the ground, so that little else will grow 
near them. It is needless to say, there is no foundation for this 
notion. 
Occasionally the trunks of good “ Yellow ” Jack, are used for 
cutting into lumber of an inferior quality, which is graded as 
“Norway” pine. The timber is also, to some extent, used for 
fence posts and stove wood. 
I have seen this pine in the sand south of Lake Michigan in 
northwestern Indiana. : W. J. BEAL. 
AGRIC. COLLEGE, MICH., June I1, 1890. 
