THE CONIFEROUS FORESTS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 65 



growth,! something like the long-leaf pine forests of the south ; 

 but it is more commonly mixed with Jack pine, white pine, or 

 other trees. It grows in dry, usually sandy, soil nearly devoid 

 of humus. Its climatic relations are perhaps sufficiently 

 indicated by its distribution. 



This species withstands fire almost as well as some of the 

 southern pines to be discussed later, and it resembles them also 

 in general appearance. In mature trees the branches and 

 foliage are too high up to be injured by ground-fires, and the 

 bark is thick enough to be reasonably fireproof. But even when 

 the bark is burned through by a severe fire, making a large scar, 

 the tree is not necessarily killed. At what age it becomes 

 immune to brush fires has not been determined, but in the 

 devastated pine lands of Michigan above mentioned there are 

 many vigorous red pine saplings among the birches and aspens, 

 as well as occasional tall trees of the same species which must 

 have survived many fires. 



The wood is so similar to that of the white pine that it is not 

 usually distinguished in the lumber market or in the census 

 returns. But reports on the wood-using industries of Michigan, 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota, prepared in recent years by members 

 of the U.S. Forest Service and published by the respective 

 states, give the amount of each kind of wood used by manu- 

 facturers (/'.<?., that which passes beyond the stage of rough 

 lumber, even if it is merely planed) in each state in a year, and 

 distinguishes between lumber cut within the state and that 

 brought in from other states. From these we learn that the 

 manufacturers of Michigan use in a year about lo million feet 

 of home-grown red pine, those of Wisconsin something over 

 6 million, and in Minnesota 167 million. (The corresponding 

 figures for white pine are 70, 72 and 455 ; and both added 

 together are less than half the total lumber production of the 

 two species for these states as reported by the Tenth Census.) 



^ There are two illustrations of such forests in Minnesota in The Popular 

 Science Monthly for November 1912 (p. 535), and another on page 10 of 

 a report on the Wood-using industries of Minnesota, published by the State 

 Forestry Board in 1913. 



(To be conthiued.) 



VOL. XXXI. PART I. 



