10 LOBLOLLY OK XORTH CAEOLI^TA PINE. 



lina, ■wliicli have prevailing dry saudy soils. There are also less ex- 

 tensive areas of swamp in which it does not occur. But it is capable 

 of growing as a commercial tree on 22,000 square miles of this area 

 (See map, Fig. 2.) In Virginia it is the prevailing species south and 

 east of Petersburg and Lunenburg, covering the southeastern portion 

 of the state, while to the north of Petersburg it is common along and 

 near Chesapeake Bay, on both the eastern and western shores. In 

 South Carolina it is common south and east of Chester wherever the 

 soil and moisture conditions are suitable for its growth. 



ORIGINAL FOREST. 



In the coastal plain the loblolly pine was originally largely confined 

 to the following situations: (1) River swamps, where it occurred on the 

 best drained portions, as single trees in mixture with liackberry, sweet 

 gum, red maple, white and red oaks, deep swamp ash, and water gum; 

 (2) shallow interior swamps with loamy soils where it grew in groups of 

 a few trees, or more generally single trees, among maple, water oaks, and 

 gums; (3) shallow swamps with stiff soils, where single trees occurred 

 irregularly distributed among white oaks and red oaks, ash, elm, holly, 

 white bay, beech, and gums ; (4) deep swamps, in Avhich it was not com- 

 mon and where it occurred with cypress, water gum, and water ash ; 

 (5) hummocks and the edges of swamps, savannas, and pocosons, where 

 on a wide range of moist soils of sand, silt, clay or peat, it grew sparingly 

 with longleaf and pocoson pines; (6) best grade of loams, silts, clays 

 (Portsmouth soil series) and peaty soils seldom subject to flooding, with 

 the water table usually from five to eight feet below the surface where 

 it formed compact groups or stands covering many acre's; (7) on peaty 

 soils where it occurred with yellow poplar, Avhite cedar (juniper), white 

 bay, sweet bay, and sweet gum. 



Specimens of best development (Plate I, Frontispiece) are met with 

 in shallow swamps on clayey or loamy soil gro\Aang with mixed hard- 

 woods. The pure groves on well-drained peaty soil are mostly formed 

 of comparatively young and small trees from 100 to 150 years old and 

 in even-aged stands. There are traditions supported by other evidence, 

 that these pure groves on the peaty lands have followed old fires. Under 

 natural conditions it is probable that this species did not form extensive 

 pure forests in N^orth Carolina except in the extreme northeastern sec- 

 tion. Loblolly pine was absent from the best drained soils which were 

 occupied by the longleaf pine in the coastal plain and by mixed hard- 

 woods and shortleaf pine in the Piedmont plateau region. 



In the Piedmont plateau the original growth of loblolly pine was 

 chiefly confined to the forests of the narrow stream swamps of the east- 

 ern portion of the plateau. It formed only a very small proportion of 

 the timber in these forests which are distinctively of hardwoods. While 

 most abundant in the Piedmont along its eastern edge, isolated trees 



