INVESTIGATIONS IN WHITE PINE PLANTATIONS. 13 



(2) To protect his buildings f rom ths strong, cold winds from the 

 north, northwest, and northeast. 



(3) To hold the sand. 



(4) To afford fuel and fence posts for use on the estate. 



(5) To improve the estate and to form a forest park. 



(6) To offer for the public beneh't an illustration of what tree plant- 

 ing would accomplish in an exposed position where the soil is of little 

 value for other crops. 



Mr. Russell has not, therefore, treated his plantation wholly as an 

 economic investment. That good boles might be formed, the larger 

 trees have been pruned and the plantation has been thinned until on 

 the greater portion the trees now stand 12 by 12 feet, instead of the 

 original 6 by 6 feet. 



EFFECT OF SEA WINDS. 



It is interesting to note the effect on the border trees to seaward 

 of the plantation of the sea winds from Narragansett Bay, which it 

 was feared would injure the white pine. Although the branches per- 

 sist almost to the ground, they are gnarled and crooked. The trees 

 bend landward strikingly, showing their antipathy to the cold salt 

 winds. This effect, however, does not extend to the interior, except 

 where some more vigorous tree, forcing its shoot above the rest, has 

 been bent almost at right angles to the stem by the hard, cold, damp 

 winds. The wind influence was much modified in places by a natural 

 growth of oak, cedar, pitch pine, locust, and birch which grows along 

 the side of the ledge, separating the plantation from the beach. 



MEASUREMENTS. 



In this white pine plantation more than 10,200 measurements were 

 made for the purpose of determining the rate of growth. The results 

 are shown in the tables given below. 



The tables present data from trees twelve to twenty- three years 

 planted, and fairly represent what may be expected of a white pine 

 forest on sandy land and in an exposed position. The height is below 

 the normal, mainly because of damage from weevils; but this damage 

 is now being overcome, as for the last ten years little injury has been 

 done. 



The trees have been classified according to height growth, those 

 measuring between 9.5 and 10.5 feet high appearing in the tables 

 under the 10-foot class, those between 10.5 and 11.5 feet under the 

 11-foot class, etc. The tables are arranged in three divisions, which 

 comprise all the trees on a given area. Division I includes the trees 

 which are especially backward, either because of suppression or 

 because dwarfed in consequence of some injury; Division III those 

 which, owing to their peculiar vigor or exemption from external inter- 



