20 FIKST BOOK OF FORESTRY 



Alleghenies, we would learn that such forests are common 

 and cover a large portion of our best settled districts. 



A trip through southern New Jersey and through the 

 sandy coast districts of the entire South would teach us 

 that everywhere the sand lands are stocked with open 

 forests of pine. These forests are mostly pure, stands ; 

 they are not a mixture of hardwoods and pine, though 

 occasionally a few scrubby hardwood trees exist. 



On the better sands of North Carolina and other states 

 these pure stands of pine are often quite dense ; the trees 

 are tall, and all open spots are readily reclothed with 

 young pine ; but on the poor, white sands of portions of 

 Florida we should find forests so open and parklike, the 

 trees so far separated from each other, so little of young 

 growth, of shrubbery or undergrowth, that the woods 

 almost lose their forest character. 



Over long stretches of these woods the soil between the 

 scattering trees is either entirely bare or covered with 

 creeping saw palmetto. Strange enough, the pine, which 

 here is commonly the longleaf pine, with needles ten or 

 twelve inches long, cleans as perfectly as if it were in 

 the densest woods. Evidently it is very intolerant here, 

 and possibly the poor soil helps the process of cleaning. 



Is the climate the cause of these open, parklike pine 

 woods? Let us go to one of the many "hummocks," or 

 low flats with a more fertile soil. Within a distance of 

 twenty yards we step from a pure and open stand of pine 



