ElvISHA MITCHKLL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. V 



pared with those of other pines, and (3) the fertility of 

 boxed and unboxed trees of the same species, long 

 enoug-h to have obtained accurate results, yet the ob- 

 servations of different persons, thorouQfhly familiar, 

 for many years, with the pine of the barrens, will, he 

 thinks, for most of these cases be found sufficiently 

 accurate, their results being- supplemented by his con- 

 clusions drawn from a personal investig-ation extending- 

 over several years. Althoug-h there were certain years 

 in a virg-in long- leaf pine forest, just as there are with 

 all other trees, when there was no s3ed borne, yet 

 these were rare and the 3^ield of seed was usually 

 abundant. Wm. Byrd, writing- in 1723, says:"^ the 

 mast of this tree is very much esteemed for fattening- 

 hog-s throug-h all of Albemarle County, (North East- 

 ern North Carolina) on account of its g-reater abundance 

 and the g-reater certainty of its occurrence (than 

 that of the oaks). The forests of which he was speak- 

 ing- were larg-ely virg-in at that date. There are to be 

 found frequent statements mentioning- the same fact by 

 other historians, of both an earlier and later date. 



So far as could be ascertained the masts (as the seeds 

 of this pine are called) have not been as abundant for 

 the past fifty years as they formerly were. There 

 seems to have been only three larg*e long- leaf pine masts 

 since 1845. One of these occurred just about that 

 time, the next one was in 1872 and there was one in 

 1892, which was not as larg-e, however, as either of the 

 preceding-. There is a fairly abundant mast about 

 ever}^ four or five years, and on intermediate years the 

 production is small and localized. In North Carolina 

 most of the trees which now bear seed are boxed and 

 have been in this condition for from 50 to 100 years, 



* History of the dividing- line between Virgrinia and North Carolina, p. 2'^. 



