LONGLEAF PINE. 9 



failure of supply will come to the four species at about the same time. 

 Much more of longleaf and loblolly remain than of shortleaf and 

 Cuban. 



Longleaf pine in many sections of the South reproduces itself 

 with vigor, but because of its slow growth while young it fails to 

 establish itself as well as the white pine of New England and the 

 yellow pine of the far West. Fire is the one great enemy over all 

 of its range, and destroys seedlings in vast numbers, though larger 

 trees resist well where they have not been boxed for turpentine. 

 The prospect that new growth will take the place of the forests now 

 going down before the lumbermen is not encouraging, more because 

 of slow growth than of difficulties in reproduction. The annual 

 drain upon southern pine forests to supply the demand for lumber, 

 and the fact that fires interfere so greatly with reproduction, must 

 lessen the remaining supply very rapidly. 



EARLY USES. 



The early explorers and colonists encountered the longleaf pine 

 practically all the way from the Chesapeake Bay to Texas, with the 

 exception of southern Florida. As the country began to be settled 

 immediate demand upon the forests was made for building material 

 needed in an agricultural region. A hundred years ago it was 

 claimed that 75 per cent of the lumber in residences in the longleaf- 

 pine region was of this wood. In many cases the entire house, so 

 far as it was made of wood, was of this material. The most frequent 

 exception was the roof, where cypress was commonly employed, with 

 occasional roofs of red cedar and southern white cedar. In some 

 cases shingles of pine supplied roof material also. Barns, sheds, 

 stables, and all farm buildings drew enormous supplies from the 

 neighboring longleaf-pine forests, and the inclosing of fields and 

 plantations added to the demand. Pickets for garden and yard 

 fences were sawed from the wood, and post and plank fences were 

 sometimes constructed wholly of it. When pine posts were used it 

 was customary to select the dead timber that had become " fat," a 

 term applied to wood surcharged with resin. It was claimed that 

 sometimes timber left standing after it was dead would double in 

 weight, merely from the accumulation of resin in it ; but figures show- 

 ing an increase in weight so large as that should be accepted with 

 caution. It is certain, however, that the fat pine posts gave long 

 service, which led to extensive use of that class of timber. Eail fences 

 were common in early plantation days in the South, and the longleaf 

 pine was split for rails and lasted well. 



One of the earliest demands upon the longleaf pine was for bridge 

 material. Public highways and private roads depended largely, some- 



