PERIOD OP SLOW GROWTH. 



59 



TABLE III. Measurements of Longleaf Pine period of slowest growth from two hundred to two hundred and sixty-six years. 



The following table and diagram (fig. 8) present the average results of a detailed study of over 

 sixty trees collected iu different localities. Since only the part of the stem from stump upward is 

 represented, the seedling period of slow growth finds no expression. It will be observed that the 

 growth in height is a maximum between the age of ten and thirty years, amounting to 14 feet for 

 each decade; that it is but half of this at sixty and little over one- third at the age of one hundred 

 years. As plainly indicated in the fine, uniform grain of the wood, the growth in diameter is 

 remarkably uniform until the tree reaches the age of about one hundred years. From this on it 

 decreases rapidly and is scarcely more than one-fourth as great at one hundred and eighty as it 

 is at one hundred. The rate of growth in volume increases steadily up to the one hundredth year, 

 reaching a maximum of over 1.2 cubic feet per year, but decreases, though very slowly, from that 

 time forward, being only about one-half cubic foot per year when the tree reaches the age of one 

 hundred and eighty years. 



Rate of growth of Longleaf Pine. 



