40 THE WHITE PINE. 



occurrence, its use for forestal purposes would seem to be circumscribed by conditions of humid 

 and cool atmospheres, such as are found iu northern latitudes and high altitudes. Its distribution 

 is manifestly more dependent on humidity than on temperature, or rather, on a low transpiration 

 factor, that is, such a relation of heat and moisture, both at the foot and at the top, that the tliin 

 foliage can readily perform its functions; hence, its failure in cultivation in the trans-Missouri 

 States, the contraction of its southern field to the high altitudes, and its best development in 

 quantity if not in quality within the influence of the Great Lakes and to the northward and 

 eastward. 



While adapting itself readily to almost any variety of soil, the White Pine manifestly prefers 

 one with a fair admixture of sand, insuring a moderately rapid drainage. The pine tribe in 

 general occupies the sandy soils, to which it is better adapted than most of the deciduous tree 

 species; but the White Pine is capable of disputing possession with its competitors even of the 

 fresh medium-heavy loam and clay soils, making here the best individual growth. 



Its shallow root system, iu which it resembles, as in many other respects, the spruces, permits 

 it to accompany the latter to the thinner soils of the rocky slopes in the Adirondacks and New 

 England States, although here its development is naturally less thrifty. Its growth on the rocky 

 hills of Massachusetts within the hardwoods of that region is, however, at least for the first sixty 

 to eighty years not much less thrifty than iu the better soils in the valleys. It does not shun even 

 the wetter and occasionally overflowed and swampy ground, and is here found,,together with the 

 Fir, Arborvita", and even Tamarack; yet, on the dry, light sandy, coarse, and gravelly soil the 

 Red Pine and Jack Pine seem to be able to outdo it. 



ASSOCIATED SPECIES. 



The White Pine is less gregarious than any other pines of the Eastern United States. Although 

 it occurs in pure growths as true pinery on the red clays and moister gravels, it more frequently 

 is an admixture in the hardwoods, sharing with them the compacter, heavier soils from which the 

 other pines are excluded. 



Spruce, Hemlock, and Arborvifce (Cedar) are most frequent concomitants of the White Pine 

 in Canada; various species of Birch and Maple with Beech and Spruce form the composition of 

 the forest in the Adirondacks, overtowered by the pines, and there is hardly any species of the 

 Northern Atlantic forest which in one or the other region of its distribution may not be found in 

 association with the White Pine. 



Owing to the fact that the hardwoods as a rule occupy the better soils, the best individual 

 development of the White Pine is also found in these mixtures. In the pinery of the northwest 

 Red Pine and Jack Pine are the associates, while the Pitch Pine (P. rigida), and, in the southern 

 field, the Shortleaf Pine (P. echinata) are not uufrequently found in its company. 



The samples of "acre yields" following will serve to illustrate more iu detail the manner of 

 distribution, the associations, and the capacity of White Pine in the native forests in different 

 parts of its range. More extensive tabulation will be found iu the Appendix. 



