ADDITIONAL NOTES ON CUBAN PINE. 



By FILIBERT ROTH. 

 (September 1, 1897.) 



This tree, like the Longleaf, seems very generally known among woodmen wherever it occurs 

 in abundance, and it is usually designated as " Slash Pine." Like Pond Pine, the Cuban 1'iue 

 occurs mixed with other pines, but never seems to form large forests by itself in the districts 

 visited. Along streams and swamps, and also along the ocean shore, it usually forms a fringe 

 varying from a few to several hundred yards in width. In southern South Carolina and Georgia 

 this tret- disputes territory with the Loblolly, but in Florida it is found either with Pond Pine 

 or alone covering the wet flats. More than any other pine the Cuban Pine enters the real wet 

 swamps, being found in cypress ponds and even in the wettest portions of the constantly water- 

 covered Oketinokee Swamp. Like the Pond Pine, it is not found in rich bottoms and hammocks. 

 Along the coast of Georgia and the eastern half of Florida the Cuban Pine forms about 15 per 

 cent of all pine; it is also quite abundant in the low flat woods between the Siiwane and the 

 Ap'alachicola, where it forms about the same proportion; but in all other parts of the Gulf pinery 

 where it occurs the tree is too scattering to be of any great consequence. 



The size of the Cuban Pine depends on locality or station, and while practically as well 

 developed in South Carolina as in Alabama it is very much inferior in the barren flats of a large 

 part of Florida. Here this tree, like the Longleaf of this section, is short-bodied, 50 to 70 feet 

 high, and furnishes a log 25 to 40 feet in length. But, like Longleaf, Cuban Pine in these localities 

 is of a very superior quality, fine ringed, with little sap, of uniform weight and strength, and much 

 of this timber could not be distinguished by the best of experts from high-grade Longleaf timber. 

 This fact is well recognized, and Cuban Pine is logged with Longleaf without distinction. In 

 manner and rate of growth the Cuban Pine of southern Georgia and of Florida resembles Longleaf 

 in several respects. Its growth while young is extremely rapid both in height and thickness, 

 leaders of 24 to 30 inches being not uncommon. Like the Longleaf, though to a less extent, this 

 tree cleans itself even without crowding, and makes fine, clean-shafted, short-crowned poles in 

 very open stands. This is much more the case on very poor soils or localities where the tree 



never reaches large dimensions. 



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