DESCRIPTION OF THE WOOD OF LOBLOLLY PINE. 117 



At the begiiiuing of tlie second season the immature coues are scarcely one half inch wide and 

 less than an inch long (PI. XX, b), and from that time on increase in size and by the following 

 October have reached their inatnrity. The ripe cones are lateral, almost sessile, broadly conical or 

 ovate in shape, rarely over -i inches in length (PI. XX, c, il), when fully opened 1 i to 2 inches wide, 

 and of a light wood-brow)! color. The pyramidal, swelled, exposed ends (ajjophyses) of the hard, 

 woody scales with a sharp transversal ridge are armed with a stont, straight, or slightly reflexed 

 l)rickle. (PI. XX, e.) Having reached their maturity, the (;ones open slowly, the seeds being grad- 

 ually discharged during the fall and winter seasons. The cones are apt to remain on the tree till 

 the end of another year, and when they linally separate from the branch by the breaking loose of 

 their very short stalk, leave none of their basal scales Ijehind. The seeds are irregularly truncate 

 or rhomboid in outline, iiitlated, sharp-edged, with two to three more or less distinct ridges, rough- 

 ish, dark brown to almost black, and surrounded to the base by the narrow border of their delicate 

 wing (PL XX, g,/), which is over an inch long and from one-fourth to one-eighth of an inch wide. 



THE WOOD. 



Among the i^ines of the southern Atlantic forests noted for their economic importance the 

 Loblolly is held least in value as a timber tree. This opinion is chiefly founded on the lesser 

 durability of its wood, being more sjjeedily given to decay under the combined influences of 

 dampness and air, and also on the supposition of its being of less strength than the other pine 

 timbers. There is scarcely a timber tree existing that shows wider difi'erences in the quality 

 and value of the timber. This is strikingly demonstrated when the timber of a tree of full 

 average growth, grown on land broken by the plow, is compared with the timber of a tree in its 

 highest perfection taken from the ])rimeval forest. In the former case the wood is crossgrained, 

 sai)py, and quick to decay. In the latter it is finer grained, resinous, has less sapwood, and 

 approaches the timber of the Longleaf Pine. 



In general, the well-marked, lighter-colored sapwood is quite broad, and usually about -t inches, 

 frequently 6 inches and more. It is wider in young, tlirifty trees, narrower in old and stunted or 

 slow-grown timber; forms about 60 to 70 per cent of the total volume of stems over one hundred 

 years of age, and SO to 90 per cent of trees sixty to one hundred years old. The formation of 

 heartwood does not begin before the age of twenty-five, the process being retarded as the tree, or 

 better the jiarticular part of the stem, grows older, so that while the innermost sapwood in a log 

 or disk with twenty-six rings is twenty-flve years old, the innermost sap ring is thirty-five years 

 old when the log attains the age of forty-tive; it is forty five years old when the log is sixty-five, 

 and about seventy or even more years old when the log reaches the age of one hundred and fifty 

 or two hundred. It follows that the sapwood is formed of fewer rings in young trees and in the 

 upper part of older stems, but owing to the greater rapidity of growth in these parts the width of 

 the sapwood does not always follow this same law. Since neither width of the ring, nor that of 

 the denser summerwood, the thickness of the cell walls, nor any other important structural feature 

 is changed when the wood of any ring changes from sap to heart wood, the prevalent notions 

 of sapwood being necessarily either coarse or fine grained, light, and weak, are erroneous. The 

 sapwood of a young, well-grown tree is coarse-grained, heavy, and strong; that of an old tree is 

 fine-grained, light, and weak. Since durability on exposure is not to be expected of the sapwood 

 of any pine, the prejudices against the sapwood, and therefore all young timber of this particular 

 kind, are unwarranted. With proper treatment, it will serve all purposes for which any pine wood 

 of its grain and weight can be employed. 



Owing to the great amount of water soaked sapwood the weight of green Loblolly timber is 

 very great, varying chiefly between 50 and 55 pounds to the cubic foot, with the sapwood com- 

 monly approaching (50 pounds to the cubic foot. Kiln-dried, the wood of the entire trunk of trees 

 one hundred to one hundred and fifty years old weighs about .'?.'$ pounds per cubic foot. In such 

 trees the wood of the log 50 feet from the ground is about 20 per cent lighter (and weaker) than 

 that of the butt log, and the wood next to the bark in the butt log is 15 to 20 per cent lighter than 

 the wood of the inner fifty to sixty rings. 



In strength the wood of the Loblolly varies chiefly with weight (the same degree of seasoning 

 always presumed), and keeping this in mind, compares favorably with that of any other conifer. 



