PERIOD OF RAI'ID GROWTH. 



57 



Taiu.e I. — .)feasiiremcnh uf ymtng Inm of l.iitujUdf Pine. 



Stage of slow growth. — Rapid as is the increase in lengtli of the ))riinaiy axis or trnnk, ainoiiiit- 

 iiig during the iiist lialf century, in the average, to 14 or l.T indies aunnally, the rate is sulise- 

 queiitly greatly diminished, averaging trom tlie fiftieth to about the one hundred and lifteeuth 

 year but from 4 to 5 inches, and from tliis time to tlie age of two hundred and fifty years only li 

 inches — thiit is, at a relative rate of 10, 3, and 1 in the three successive periods. The dex^rease in 

 the accretion of wood corresponds with the reduction in the growth of the braiKiies and conse- 

 quent reduction of foliage. From what has been said, it is seen that the Longleaf Pine attains 

 maturity of growth, with the best qualities of its timber, at an age of from one hundred ami eighty 

 to two hundred years. After having passed the second ceiituiy the trees are found freiiuently to 

 be wind shaken and otherwise defective. The deterioration of the weather-beaten crown lessens 

 the vitality of the tree, and the soil, under prevailing conditions, becomes less and less favorable. 

 In consequence, the trees become liable to di.sease and mostly fall jirey to the attacks of parasitic 

 fungi (red heart). Instances of trees which have reached the maximum age of two hundred and 

 seventy-five or three huiulred years are exceptional. 



In order to ascertain the age required to furnish merchantable timber of first tpiality, meas- 

 urements were made of a number of logs in a log camp in the rolling pine uplands of the lower 

 division of tlie coastal jiine belt near Lumbertoii, Washington County, Ala. From the results 

 obtained i: appears tliat in tliis section of the eastern (inlf region, at the lowest figure, two 

 hundred years are retiuisite to produce logs of the dimensious at present cut at the sawmills. 



