PERIOD OF RAPID GROWTH. 

 TABLE I. Measurements of young trees of Longleaf Pine. 



57 



Stage of slotc growth. Rapid as is the increase iu length of the primary axis or trunk, amount- 

 ing during the first half century, in the average, to 14 or 15 inches annually, the rate is subse- 

 quently greatly diminished, averaging from the fiftieth to about the one hundred and fifteenth 

 year but from 4 to 5 inches, and from this time to the age of two hundred and fifty years only 1 

 that is, at a relative rate of 10, 3, and 1 in the three successive periods. The decrease in 

 the accretion of wood corresponds with the reduction in the growth of the branches and conse- 

 quent reduction of foliage. From what has been said, it is seen that the Longleaf Pine attains 

 f growth, with the best qualities of its timber, at an age of from one hundred and eighty 

 to two hundred years. After having passed the second century the trees are found frequently to 

 be wind shaken and otherwise defective. The deterioration of the weather-beaten crown lessens 

 itiility of the tree, and the soil, under prevailing conditions, becomes less and less favorable. 

 In consequence, the trees become liable to disease and mostly fall prey to the attacks of parasitic 

 fungi (red heart). Instances of trees which have reached the maximum age of two hundred and 

 seventy-five or three hundred years are exceptional. 



In order to ascertain the age required to furnish merchantable timber of first quality, nieas 

 urcmeuts were made of a number of logs in a log camp in the rolling pine uplands of the lower 

 division of the coastal pine belt near Lumberton, Washington County, Ala. From the results 

 obtained it appears that in this section of the eastern Gulf region, at the lowest figure, one hundred 

 and fifty to one hundred and seventy-five years are requisite to produce logs of the dimensions at 

 present cut at the- sawmills. 



