THE WHITE PINE 



425 



A THRIFTY STAND OF I'LANTEU WHFrF I'lXF 



Trees are 48 years old. Circles of branch scars are clearly shown. The distance 

 between two scars is one year's growth. This stand is in the City Forest of Frank- 

 fort, Germany. 



are shaded out by neighboring trees. In this respect it is 

 different from many of the other eastern pines. In a field 

 near Mont Alto, FrankHn county, Pennsylvania, stand 

 two pine trees which contrast strongly with each other. 

 The one is a white pine and the other 

 is a short-leaf pine. From all the avail- 

 able evidence these two trees grew up 

 in the same environment, and yet they 

 have few features in common. The 

 white pine has a pyramid-like crown 

 with the lateral branches persisting al- 

 most to the ground, and a strong- 

 tapering stem, while the short-leaf 

 I)ine has a shallow round-topped 

 crown and a long, clean, and slightly 

 tapering stem. These two trees, 

 standing on'.y about 50 feet apart, offer 

 the best object lesson in tree heredity 

 that ever came to the attention of the 

 vvritei. To have developed forms so 

 different from each other in the same 

 environment and at the same age can 

 hardly be attributed to anything other 

 than the fact that each has inherited 

 its own distinctive form. This belief 

 is supported by many recent scientifi: 

 experiments which have proven tha' 

 tree characteristics can be handed 

 down through the seeds from one tree 

 generation to anothei'. 



For many years white pine was the 

 nucleus of the American lumber in- 



dustry. Even as late as 1890 almost 

 one-third of the annual lumber cut of 

 the entire country was white pine. But 

 at the rate it was being cut there was 

 no hope that it could retain a fro- 

 line place, for the supply was too small. 

 Today only a few remnant patches of 

 original white pine remain ; that is,' the 

 kind that the white man found when 

 he began to exploit the forests of the 

 New World. Even in Pennsylvania, 

 where once stood some of the best 

 white pine in the world, only a fev 

 scattered patches remain. These vet- 

 eran trees are becoming so rare that 

 pilgrimages are now taken annually to 

 the remote places where a few of these 

 forest monarchs still stand. 



But there is a ray of hope for the 

 white pine. It is unquestionably the 

 most important forest tree in eastern 

 North America, and probably in the 

 world. It adapts itself to a great vari- 

 ety of soils, grows rapidly, produces 

 valuable wood, and is attractive in 

 appearance throughout the entire year. 

 Because of these merits special ef- 

 forts are being put forth to bring 

 its former position of importance. 

 Throughout the range of white jjine there occurs many 

 natural young stands of it. Special efforts are being put 

 forth by many states and private owners to protect these 



back 



again to 



THE OLDEST PLANTATION OF WHITE PINE ON THE STATE 

 FORESTS OF PENNSYLVANIA 



It contains more than 2.000 trees, and co mplete growth records are kept of every 

 tree on a selected sample plot containing more than 200 trees. Each tree is num- 

 bered and the white horizontal line below the number of each tree indicates the 

 breast-high mark, where diameter measurements are always taken. 



