THE PINES OE THE SOUTH 



557 



Shortleaf Pine has been an important timber tree for 

 many years and everything points as if it would continue 

 to hold a prominent place in the forest structure of the 

 South. It attains a sufficient size for general forestry 

 purposes, produces excellent wood, yields satisfactory 

 resin and is well adapted to the climatic and soil condi- 

 tions of the forest regions of the South Atlantic States. 

 It can be regenerated naturally with a satisfactory degree 

 of success, and nursery practice has been so developed 

 that seedlings can be raised satisfactorily and transplanted 

 into the forest. It follows that natural regeneration will 

 take place rapidly wherever favorable conditions are at 

 laand, and if we help nature propagate and perpetuate 

 this tree by planting up such abandoned fields as may 



THE GROSS CHARACTER OF THE SHORTLEAF 

 PINE IN CROSS-SECTION 



This important commercial wood is medium in , hardness and 

 weight, and moderately resfnous. It is whitish brown to red- 

 dish brown in color. A cross-section of a log shows a broad 

 band of nearly white sap wood surrounding the pale reddish - 

 brown or orange-colored heartwood. The well-defined rings 

 of annual growth are bands of light-colored soft wood sur- 

 rounded by darker bands of denser, harder and more resinous 

 wood. 



develop from time to time, we can be reasonably sure 

 that the future of Shortleaf Pine is promising. 



The Loblolly Pine has twenty-two common names. 

 Some of them are quite appropriate, while others are mis- 

 leading and meaningless. "Old Field Pine" is an appro- 

 priate name, for this tree is quite common in old, aban- 

 doned fields. Few, if any, trees show such persistency 

 in encroaching upon and occupying abandoned fields and 



BARK OF THE SHORTLEAF PINE 



The light reddish-brown bark is rather thick and is broken 

 into oblong plates which are covered with thin, cinnamon-red 

 scales that peel oflf easily. 



open places. This tree did an heroic piece of work after 

 the Civil War in restoring a forest growth upon thou- 

 sands of acres of abandoned farmland in the South. 



Commercially it is classed with the other southern 

 pines and sold as Yellow Pine, Southern Pine, North 

 Carolina Pine, or Georgia Pine. Its scientific name is 

 Pinus taeda. The second part of its scientific name is 

 inappropriate, for the word taeda means "torch," and 

 authentic records tell us that the resinous heartwoods and 

 knots of this tree were not used for torches, as was done 

 with some of the other eastern pines. 



The natural range of Loblolly Pine lies in a belt about 

 two hundred miles wide along the Atlantic Coast from 

 Delaware to Florida, and from there along, the Gulf of 



