104 THE STUDY OF PLANT COMMUNITIES • Chapter V 



FlG. 49. A white pine stand in New Hampshire after the storm of 1938. 

 Such damage was prevalent over much of New England at the time- U. S. 

 Forest Service. 



Closed forest stands usually suffer no major damage because the 

 trees give support to each other. With greater velocities the wind 

 becomes increasingly destructive. At gale velocities (39-54 m.p.h.) 

 branches are broken, and a full gale uproots trees with ease. 



Many of the destructive storms along the Gulf coast approach 

 hurricane speeds, and it is fortunate that they infrequently reach 

 the mainland. The most destructive hurricane in recent years 

 (1938) moved northward along the Atlantic coast and struck in- 

 land at 70 miles per hour at Long Island and into west-central 

 New England. The destruction in its path was extreme. Whole 

 forests fell before the wind, the trees uprooted or broken off. An 

 added factor in the destructiveness of this storm was the saturated 

 soil, produced by a preceding period of heavy rain, which con- 



