THE PINES OF THE SOUTH 



BY J. S. ILLICK 



'T'HE South is the home of the Yellow Pines. They 

 ' produce enormous quantities of the most useful wood 

 that grows in America. More than one-third of all the 

 lumber cut annually in the United States is produced by 

 the Yellow or 

 Hard Pines of 

 the South. 

 Southern yel- 

 low pine is 

 often called the 

 wood of a 

 thousand uses. 

 It may not 

 have- exactly a 

 thousand uses, 

 but it is so in- 

 timately asso- 

 ciated with our 

 daily life that 

 it would be dif- 

 ficult for us to 

 get along with- 

 out it. We use 

 not only the 

 lumber of the 

 Southern 

 pines, but also 

 large quantities 

 of other prod- 

 u c t s derived 

 from them, 

 such as tar, 

 resin, turpen- 

 tine, and oil. 

 The Southern 

 pines comprise 

 seven different 

 kinds of trees. 

 Some of them 

 are w e 1 1 - 

 known, occur 

 over a wide 

 range, and pro- 

 duce large 

 quantities o f 

 valuable lum- 

 ber, while oth- 

 ers are little known, occur over only a restricted terri- 

 tory and produce only small quantities of very ordinary 

 to inferior wood. The wood of the seven southern pines 

 grades into each other so freely that only three com- 

 mercial kinds of southern yellow pine lumber are gen- 

 erally recognized, viz: 1, Longleaf Pine; 2, Shortleaf 



A SPLENDID STAND OF LONGLEAF YELLOW PINE IN LOUISIANA 



The straightness and stateliness of the stems of Longleaf Pine are among its distinctive 

 features. Stands such as this cover extensive areas and are made up of as fine tree speci- 

 mens as one can find anywhere in the country. 



Pine; 3, Loblolly Pine. These three kinds of southern 

 yellow pine are the standard kinds now recognized in 

 the general lumber trade. They are, however, not the 

 only names used, for such other names as Georgia Pine, 



Yellow Pine, 

 Southern Pine 

 and North Car- 

 olina are also 

 common in the 

 lumber trade. 

 The charac- 

 t e r i s tics by 

 which the 

 three stand- 

 ard kinds of 

 southern y e 1 - 

 low pine wood 

 may be recog- 

 nized are not 

 difficult to ap- 

 ply. They are 

 given in the 

 following out- 

 line : Longleaf 

 Pine 1 . 

 Growth rings 

 mostly n a r - 

 row ; uniform 

 in width and 

 outline ; from 8 

 to 12 or more 

 rings per inch. 

 2. Wood ex- 

 tremely heavy, 

 hard, and very 

 resinous ; uni- 

 f o r m reddish 

 yellow to red- 

 dish brown. 3. 

 Sapwood thin. 

 Shortleaf Pine 

 1. Growth 

 rings mostly of 

 medium width ; 

 usually from 6 

 to 8 per inch. 

 2. Wood me- 

 dium in hardness and weight, and moderately resinous ; 

 whitish brown to reddish brown. 3. Sapwood variable, 

 but usually rather thick. Loblolly Pine 1. Growth rings 

 very variable but usually extremely broad; from 4 to 6 

 rings per inch. 2. Wood variable from hard, compact 

 and strong to light, coarse and brashy ; yellowish to red- 



