NOTES 



Second-growth White Pine as Related to the Former L'sks of 



the; Land 



In connection with the discussion of reproduction in the southern 

 pineries as being favored by previous pasturage of the land, this note 

 (preHminary to a more extended paper) on the history of the second 

 growth of white pine in New England may be to the point. 



In the last fifteen years certainly 80 per cent of the cut from this 

 region has come from stands 50 to 100 per cent pure — so-called pine 

 woodlots. Even to a person unfamiliar with local economic history, 

 the geometric, sharply defined shapes of these tracts, discernible by 

 their dark color in any stretch of landscape, suggests the previous uses 

 of the sites. In three townships in the best of the white-pine belt 90 

 per cent of the pine woodlots originated on land formerly farmed or 

 pastured, and observations in many other towns between the Connecti- 

 cut border and central New Hampshire indicate that this percentage 

 applies to the whole region. Only under exceptional conditions, such 

 as very sandy soil or the effects of a timely fire, lias pure pine sur\ ived 

 to maturity on other than cleared land. 



The silvical evidence on this point is very neatly corroborated by the 

 historic. The bulk of the merchantable stands are (or have been) from 

 50 to 70 years old. In the reproduction period thus indicated came the 

 Civil War, the western emigration, and the big development of rail- 

 roads and manufacturing along the main streams, all of which factors 

 brought about an abandonment of farms in upland townships amount- 

 ing in many cases to 50 per cent of the cleared area. A knowledge of 

 the history of very many specific cases indicates that ])urc' pine today 

 invariably means pasture or field as the pre\ious condition of the land. 



Not all such areas, however, have reproduced to white pine, even 

 though they furnish, as a rule, the most fa\orable kind of seed bed. 

 It is plain that most of the pine woodlots represent mainly a single fall 

 of seed, since all are nearly even-aged. It is also apparent that several 

 plentiful seed years may occur witii no result, in which case the devel- 

 opment of woody plants or toiigli ground cover may preclude pine 

 altogether. The successful combination of factors seems to have been, 

 first, the weak sod or scanty weed growth of land recently grazed or 

 cropped; second, the prompt fall of sufficient \iable seed, such as is 



