44 



THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN FORESTS. 



Yield of full-stocked areas of white pine under good conditions of growth. 



Age. 



30 years . 

 80 years. 

 150 years 



Merchantable 

 HelEfht of timber in trees 

 12-ineh trees.! over 12 inches 

 j in diameter. 



Feet. 



62 



119 



Feet, B. M. 

 6,800 

 29, 000 

 71,000 



Shortleaf and white pines often occur together along the Blue Ridge, and in 

 the basin of French Broad River. It is interesting to compare the rate of 

 growth of these trees when growing side by side on the same soil and under 

 similar conditions. 



At the end of eighty 3'ears the white pine has a diameter on the stump 

 more than one-third greater than that of the shortleaf pine at the same age. 



inches 



24 



20 



60 



80 



/BO years 



Fig. 1. Diagram showing the rates of diameter growth of 

 the shortleaf and white pines. 



The difference in the height of growth of the two trees is not so great as that 

 of the diameter accretion, but it is yet very marked. White pines 80 jears old 

 average 85 feet in height, and are yet growing at the rate of more than 6 

 inches in height a year, while shortleaf pines 80 years old are less than 70 feet 

 in height. One group of shortleaf pines, 150 years old, averaged only 94 feet 

 in height. White pine has from one and one-half to two times as much 

 merchantable timber per tree as shortleaf pines of the same age. 



The rate of growth of the shortleaf pine is more rapid, however, on the 

 foothills of the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge, below 1,500 feet elevation, than 



