AMERICAN FOREST TREES 51 



mated that the combined remaining stand of loblolly and shortleaf pine 

 in the South was 152,000,000,000 feet. It is doubtful if half of it was 

 shortleaf. In that case, there was less shortleaf pine in the entire South 

 in 191 1 than there was west of the Mississippi river thirty years before. 



Rapid decrease in total stand of a species does not necessarily 

 imply exhaustion. The cut will fall off as scarcity pinches. In the case 

 of shortleaf pine, an influence is active which will bring good results in 

 the future. This pine reproduces with vigor. Its small triangular seeds 

 are equipped with wings which carry them into vacant areas where they 

 quickly germinate if they fall on mineral soil. The seedling trees suffer 

 much from fire, but their power of resistance is fairly good, and dense 

 new growth is coming on in many localities. A good many years are 

 required to bring a seedling to maturity, but it will reach sawlog size 

 sometime, and there is no question but that the market will welcome it. 



The shortleaf pine is peculiar among eastern softwoods in one 

 respect. Stumps will sprout. That occurs of tener west of the Mississippi 

 than east. However, the tree's ability to send up sprouts from the 

 stump is of little practical value, since the sproute seldom or never 

 develop into merchantable trees. In that respect it differs from the 

 other well-known sprouting softwood of this country, the California red- 

 wood, whose numerous sprouts grow into large trunks. 



SPRUCE PINE (Pirnts glabrd). This is one of the softest and the 

 whitest of the hard pines of this country. Nothing but its scarcity 

 stands in the way of its becoming an important timber tree. The best of 

 it is a satisfactory substitute for white pine hi the manufacture of doors. 

 It grows rapidly, and the wide rings contain a high percentage of light 

 colored springwood, though there is enough summerwood of darker 

 color to give the dressed lumber a character. It weighs about the same 

 as northern white pine, but is weaker. In South Carolina and Florida it 

 is called white pine, but the name spruce is more general. It is known 

 also as kingstree, poor pine, Walter's pine, and lowland spruce pine. Its 

 range is restricted to southern South Carolina, northern Florida and 

 southern Alabama and Mississippi, and northeastern Louisiana. Its 

 leaves are from one and a half to three inches in length, grow two in a 

 bundle, and fall the second and third years. Large and well-formed 

 trunks attain a height of from eighty to 100 feet and a diameter from 

 two to nearly three. It reaches its best development hi northwestern 

 Florida, and its light, symmetrical trunks have long been in use there as 

 masts for small vessels. It is too scarce to attract much attention from 

 lumbermen, but they are well acquainted with its good qualities, and 

 some of them take pains to keep the lumber separate from associated 

 pines, and sell it to manufacturers of doors and interior finish. The bark 



