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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Probably the most distinctive parts of the tree are its 

 needles and cones. The needles are slender, flexible and 

 from four to six inches long, and occur in clusters of 

 two, being surrounded at the base by a thin membranous 

 coating or paper-like wrapper. If one views the tree 

 from a distance the needles occur in tufts or clusters at 

 the end of the brandies. This characteristic is very help- 

 ful in distinguishing the tree from a distance. 



The cones are about two inches long. They occur at 

 the end of the season's growth and their scales are not 

 armed with any spines or prickles. It is the only pine 

 tree native to eastern North America whose cone-scales 

 are unarmed. In addition to the leaf and cone 

 characteristics which should enable one to identify 

 the tree at any season of the year, its general 

 form and 

 a ppe a ranee, 

 as well as 

 i t s distinctive 

 bark, will 

 help to identify 

 it. It is one 

 of the most at- 

 tractive conif- 

 erous trees of 

 the northeast, 

 and its bark is 

 reddish in col- 

 or and marked 

 with shallow 

 fissures. 



Special e f - 

 forts should be 

 put forth in 

 protecting for- 

 est land upon 

 which red pine 

 occurs, and 

 where it is ab- 

 sent it may be 

 planted. Dur- 

 ing the past 

 ten years more 

 than 1,000,000 

 red pine seed- 

 lings were planted on the State Forests of Pennsylvania 

 about 700.000 seedlings and transplants have been sup- 

 plied by the Pennsylvania Department of Forestry to pri- 

 vate planters throughout the State. This does not include 

 all the red pine trees planted within the State, for addi- 

 tional trees procured from commercial nurseries were 

 planted on privately-owned forest land. It seems fair 

 to estimate that at least 2,000,000 red pine trees have 

 been planted in Pennsylvania, and most of them are 

 making a satisfactory growth. 



Red pine is one of the most important timber trees 

 of the northeast, and as time goes on its real merits will 

 become better known. This valuable and promising for- 

 est tree should be carefully protected and managed, and 



A PROMISING PLANTATION OF SCOTCH PINE 



Scotch Pine will grow satisfactorily upon almost any soil, except hard clay, swampy 

 or peaty soils, and it has been planted extensively through the Eastern United States. 



its range extended by planting seedlings or transplants 

 on our devastated mountain slopes. They will grow rap- 

 idly and produce considerable quantities of high-grade 

 wood which we need and can use for essential purjxjses. 

 Pitch pine is probably the most typical hard pine of 

 the northeast. It is truly a hard pine, and occurs gen- 

 eially throughout the northeastern part of the United 

 States. It may be said that the Canadian boundary line 

 is its northern limit, for it occurs only in a few places in 

 Canada. It reaches its best development in Pennsylvania, 

 and extends southward along the Allegheny Mountains 

 to North Carolina and Georgia. 



Pitch pine possesses more common names than any 

 other pine in the northeast. It has at least a dozen. Here 

 are some of the common names by which it is known : 



Pitch pine, 

 jack pine, black 

 pine, nigger 

 pine, torch 

 pine, yellow 

 pine, hard 

 j)ine, scrub 

 pine, bull pine, 

 long- leaved 

 pine, rich pine, 

 and fat pine. 

 Most of the 

 common names 

 refer to some 

 distinctive fea- 

 ture of the tree 

 or to its wood. 

 The names 

 "black p i n e" 

 and "nigger 

 pine" refer to 

 the dark bark 

 which is found 

 upon young 

 and middle- 

 aged trees and 

 upon fire-scar- 

 red trunks. 

 This tree is 

 the most fire- 

 resistant pine in the East. Forest fires will naturally kill 

 small seedlings, but as soon as the trees reach sapling- 

 size they develop a heavy bark which makes them ex- 

 tremely resistant to fire. Forest fires have burned over 

 extensive forest areas, apparently killing every living 

 thing found thereon, but upon examining the area a year 

 or so after the fire, one is amazed to find that many of 

 the medium-sized and larger pitch pine trees have en- 

 tirely withstood the heat of the fire and are still thrifty. 

 The name "torch pine" was given to this tree because it 

 supplied the earlier settlers with pine knots which were 

 used extensively as torches about homesteads and for trav- 

 eling at night. The name "yellow pine" refers to old and 

 mature specimens which have lost their typical blackish 



