494 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



and forest conditions have changed. White pine is now 

 very scarce, and unusually high in price. The best tim- 

 ber has been removed from our forests, and consequently 

 we are beginning to be satisfied with ordinary wood. 

 Pitch pine is an ordinary wood, but it has already won 

 a place on our market, and as time goes on it will move 

 forward into even a better position. It is also fair to 

 assume that its wood will improve in quality when the 

 trees from which it is derived are raised under good for- 

 est management. 



In addition to being fire-resistant and producing a fair 

 grade of wood, pitch pine has other merits. It grows 

 naturally in close association with rock oak and chestnut, 

 and consequently it is one of the trees that will help fill 

 up the vacancies made by the chestnut, which is disappear- 

 ing rapidly from our for- 

 ests because of the destruc- 

 tive work of the chestnut 

 blight. 



It is important that we 

 should not condemn the 

 pitch pine or any other 

 ordinary tree without 

 studying their silvical hab- 

 its fully. Until a few years 

 ago pitch pine was re- 

 garded as a slow grower, 

 and because of this belief 

 is called "jack pine." The 

 writer made a special study 

 of the growth of pitch pine 

 and found that it grows 

 faster than is first appar- 

 ent, for instead of placinj^ 

 its growth of a season at 

 one time, it lays it on in ;i 

 number of installments. 

 This installment method of 

 growth caused many ob 

 servers to conclude that 

 the tree grew slowly, for 

 they thought that each in- 

 stallment represented a 

 year's growth, while, in 

 fact, each year's growth 



embraced from two to three installments, and the real 

 total growth of a season was considerably greater than 

 the apparent total growth. 



Scotch pine is known to the foresters of the world as 

 a fast-grower in youth. No attempt will be made to 

 disprove this statement, but it is only fair to the pitch 

 pine to state that in a mixed plantation of Scotch pine 

 and pitch pine, located in Central Pennsylvania and aver- 

 aging 15 feet in height, the pitch pine are keeping their 

 tips abreast with those of the Scotch pine. 



Among the pine trees that possess unfortunate common 

 names is the "scrub pine." The word "scrub" implies 

 that the tree is undesirable as a forest tree and produces 



YOUNG FITCH PINE 



Showing clearly the erect, very attractive candle-like 

 growth by the installment method. 



inferior wood. The wood which it produces is inferior 

 to that of the white pine and other important pines, but 

 this does not imply that the wood is not of a satisfactory 

 quality for use in our wood-using industries. In fact, 

 the wood of this tree is being used more extensively each 

 year for pulp, shipping crates, and general construction 

 work. A few years ago more than 20.000 board feet 

 of scrub pine were cut in a woodlot in north-central 

 Pennsylvania and used in the construction of one of the 

 most up-to-date barns in the Keystone State. 



This tree is also called "Jersey Pine," because it was 

 reported as abundant in parts of New Jersey, where pine 

 forests occur over extensive areas known as the "pine 

 barrens." Recent investigations, however, have shown 

 that most of the trees in the pine barrens are pitch pine 



and not Jersey or scrub 

 pine. Another name ap- 

 plied to it locally is "slate 

 pine." This name was 

 given to it because it oc- 

 curs locally on slatey shale 

 soil. 



In several respects the 

 scrub pine resembles the 

 jack pine, but the two trees 

 can readily be distingirished 

 froin each other. In order 

 to prevent confusion be- 

 tween them the one is some- 

 times called northern jack 

 pine and the other southern 

 jack pine. Fortunately, the 

 two trees do not ineet in 

 their natural distribution. 

 Jack pine is a tree of the 

 north woods, and scrub 

 pine is a tree of the sunny 

 southlands. 



The occurrence of the 

 scrub pine may also help to 

 identify it. It is neither a 

 tree of the coastal plains 

 nor of the higli mountain 

 lands, but prefers the roll- 

 ing uplands between these 

 two extreme positions, and 

 thrive upon rather dry and 



is coinir.on and seems to 

 sandy soil. 



Scrub pine has many striking distinguishing charac- 

 teristics, by means of which it may be recognized. Its 

 needles occur in pairs. They are twisted, spread widely 

 from each other and are from two to three inches long. 

 No other pine tree has needles which are so twisted and 

 spread so widely. If one takes a position under a tree- 

 and looks up into its crown, the light seems to be uni- 

 formly screened by the evenly distributed leaves. This 

 type of leaf distribution is entirely different from some 

 other pines, particularly the red and pitch, which have 

 their needles clustered or tufted at the end of branches. 



