LOBLOLLY OR iS'ORTII CAROLINA PINE. 



27 



often slightly curved or crooked, tliougli never to the same extent as 

 those of the pocoson pine. The stems are rarely forked except when the 

 leading shoot is injured by a weevil or by sleet breaking it. The great- 

 est amount of taper in the stem is in the top, consequently the mill cut 

 of top logs of a given diameter inside the bark at the small end is 

 greater than that of logs of the same diameter from the lower i)art of 

 the stem measured in the same manner. (Table 23.) 



As the trees in the stand become older they are less tapering. Old 

 trees of the same diameter breasthigh and of the same height as young 

 trees have, therefore, a larger volume in cubic feet and produce more 

 lumber. This is shown in Table 7. 



Table 7. — ^Yield in Board Feet Per Linear Foot of Merchantable Length of Bole from 

 Trees of the Same Diameter and Height at Different Ages. 



1-7" Saw Kerf. 



The larger trees in the 45 year stand are dominant and intermediate. 

 Those of the same diameters in the 65 year old stand, which is on a 

 somewhat poorer quality site, are largely intermediate and suppressed. 

 The difference thus amounts to from 5 to 10 per cent of the contents 

 in board feet. 



Taper measurements of butts at intervals of 1 foot are given in Table 

 8, They are useful in converting stump measurements on cut-over land 

 into breasthigh diameter measurements. This table is based on age 

 class over 75 years, Quality II. The taper would be slightly more for 

 younger trees of the same quality, and for Quality III of the same age 

 class ; but somewhat less for old trees of Quality I. On account of natu- 

 ral individual variation such a table should only be used in considering 

 a number of specimens. 



