82 



TIMliEU PINES OI' THK SOITHF-KN UNITKD STATES. 



Tlie trees of tlii' extensive jiioves of Culciii I'iiic in tiie vicinity of Mobile njion tlie loamy 

 lauds of the coast plain, wliicli have sitning up since ls(>l. when these hinds were completfdy 

 stripped of all arboreal growtb, average at present between "id mid fin irei in lieight by a diameter 

 of from It to 1(> inches breast high. Trees of second growtli, lorniing open groves on lands of 

 similar character, and also more or less deficient in drainage, forty-li\e to si.\tyli\e years old, 

 measure from 05 to 8") feet in height and from \'> to -0 inches in diameter breast high. 



At the edge of a heavily wooded swamp, in a perjietnally wet, sandy, and niiieky soil and 

 skirted by large Longleaf I'ines occiqiying tlie stcei) sloix; rising from the bottom, a tree ineasur 

 ing 114 feet in lieight, with a diameter of 24 inches breast high, the trunk clear of limbs for a 

 length of fully <>() feet, showed one hundred and thirty-five rings of annual growth. Another 

 tree felled deeper in the same swamp, of lank growth, with a poorly develoi)ed crown, rising to 

 a height of 88 feet and towering above the dense growth of black gums, swanij) maples, and white 

 bays, was found to measure only l."i.^ inches in diameter, with almost the same niiiaber of annual 

 rings. Trees of second growth which have si)rung up in clearings with a di'ier surface soil nixlcr- 

 laid by a clayey substratum, with free exposure to sunlight and air, reach in little over liall' the 

 time the full size of those produced in the forest-covered swam])s. 



Table I. — Growth of Cuban Pine during fimt atagea of life, from fnnr Id tiienty i/eara. 



