64 FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS I T . S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



BIOLOGICAL STUDIES. 



As we shall see further on in tliis report the most important part of our forest resource is in 

 the coniferous supplies, and among these especially in the pines, the white pine of the North and 

 the yellow pine of the South. These latter covering vast areas, not less than 100,000,000 acres, 

 furuish now, and will still more in the near future, the most important staples of onr lumber 

 industry, as the white pine supplies are giving out. There is still a possibility of treating the 

 uncut balance of these pineries in such a manner as to secure their continued productiveness. 

 The Division of Forestry, therefore, devoted much time and attention to the study of the economic, 

 botanical, silvicultural, and technological features of these pines. The results have been embodied 

 in a magnificent monograph (IJtilletin 13), prepared by Dr. Charles A. Mohr, of Mobile, Ala. 



To give an idea of the character of this work and at the same time a conception of the nature 

 and development of these pines the following extracts and condensed statements are presented : 



SOUTHERN LlTMUEl! TINES. 



The Southern States abound in those sandy soils which are the home of the pine tribes, and 

 were once covered with seemingly boundless forests of the same. There are still large areas 

 untouched, yet the greater portion of the primeval forest has not only been culled of its best 

 timber, but the repeated conflagrations which follow the lumbering and, still more disastrously, 

 the turpentine gatherers' operations have destroyed not only the remainder of the original growth, 

 but the vegetable mold and the young aftergrowth, leaving thousands of square miles as blackened 

 wastes, devoid of usefulness, and reducing by so much the potential wealth of the South. 



There are, in general, four belts of pine forest of different types recognizable, their boundaries 

 running in general direction somewhat parallel to the coast line: (1) The coast plain, orpine-barren 

 flats, within the tidewater region, 10 to 30 miles wide, once occupied mainly by the most valuable 

 of Southern timbers, the longleaf pine, now being replaced by Cuban and loblolly pines; (2) the 

 rolling pine hills, or pine barrens proper, with a width of 50 to 120 miles, the true home of the. 

 longleaf pine, which occupies it almost by itself; (3) the belt of mixed growth of 20 to GO miles in 

 width, in which the longleaf pine loses its predominance, the shortleaf, the loblolly, and the hard 

 woods associating and disputing territory with it; and (4) the shortleaf pine belt, where this 

 species predominates on the sandy soils, the longleaf being entirely absent and the loblolly only a 

 feeble competitor, hard woods being interspersed or occupying the better sites. Within the terri- 

 tory the species that occur occupy different situations. Thus the Cuban, which accompanies the 

 longleaf, usually occupies the less well-drained situations, together with the loblolly, which, 

 although it can accommodate itself to all soils, reaches its best development in the rich lowlands 

 and is specially well developed in the flat woods which border the coast marshes of eastern Texas; 

 where it associates with the shortleaf pine it also seeks the moister situation. 



The longleaf and shortleaf pines are, in quantity and quality combined, the most important, 

 while the loblolly or oldtteld pine, as yet not fully appreciated, comes next, occupying large areas. 

 The Cuban pine, usually known as slash pine always cut and sold without distinction with the 

 longleaf pine a tree of as fine quality and of more rapid growth than the longleaf pine, is associ- 

 ated with the latter in the coast pine belt, scattered in single individuals or groups, but appears to 

 increase in greater proportion in the young growth, being by its manner of development in early 

 life better fitted to escape the dangers to which the aftergrowth is exposed. 



Besides these four most important pines there are a number of others of less significance. 

 The white pine (Finns strobus) of the North extends its reign along the higher mountain regions 

 of North Carolina into Georgia, forming a valuable timber tree, but of small extent. The spruce 

 pine (P. glabra) develops into timber size, but is found only in small quantities and mostly scat- 

 tered, and has therefore as yet not received attention in lumber markets; but its qualities, and 

 especially its forestal value, being a pine which endures shade, will probably be appreciated in the 

 future. The other four species of pine found in the South, namely, the black pine (P. rii/idu), the 

 Jersey or scrub pine (P. virginiana), the spruce pine (/'. clann), the pond pine (P. serotinu], do 

 not or only rarely develop into timber trees of value, excepting that the scrub pine, occupying 

 large areas of abandoned fields in Virginia, furnishes a considerable amount of firewood. 



The greatest confusion exists in the names that are applied to these four lumber pines 

 promiscuously. 



