GO 



TIMBER PINES OF THE SOUTHFKN UNITED STATES. 



HEIGHT 

 IN FEET. 



103^ 



98[ 



931 



87 1 



60 

 YEARS, 



70 

 YEARS 



2416 

 CUB. FT, 



90 

 YEARS. 



100 

 YEARS 



33,18 

 CUB FT 



43,57 ■ 55.85 

 CUB, FT, I CUB FT 



120 

 YEARS. 



76,87 

 CUB, FT 



140 

 YEARS. 



96,44 



CUB. FT, 



112,3 

 CUB, FT. 



-Growth of Lou^loiif I'ii 



,ibic contents of i 



CONDITIONS OF DKVELOPMENT. 



-20.5--^-- 21.3--' 

 DIAMETERS. 

 IN INCHES. 



itc, years of age. 



Demands upon soil and climate. — In its demands upon the soil this pine is to be counted among 

 the most frugal as far as mineral constituents, which are considered as plant food, are concerned, 

 if only the mechanical conditions which influence favorable soil moisture are not wanting. It 

 thrives best ou a liglit siliceous soil, loamy sand or pebbles or light sandy loam, with a slightly 

 clayey subsoil sufficiently porous to insure at least a partial underdrainage and to permit unim- 

 peded development of the long taproot. Whenever the tree meets an obstacle to the development 

 of this root it remains more or less stunted. 



The luxuriance of the growth and increase in size of the timber, however, is greatly influ- 

 enced by the quantity of clay present, particularly in the deep subsoil, which improves mechanical 

 and moisture conditions. This is strikingly exhibited in the timber of the level pine flats west of 

 the Mississippi Kiver, although the surface drainage is almost wanting and the underdrainage 

 through the loamy strata slow, so that the surface of the soil remains damp or water-soaked for 

 thegreater part of the year; the stand of timber of ttrst class dimensions exceeds considerably 

 that of the rolling pine uplands on the Atlantic slope and the lower part of the pine belt in the 

 Eastern Gulf region, which are poorer in clay. Evidently, although the underdrainage is less 

 perfect, the moisture conditions during the dry season of the year, the time of most active growth, 

 must be most favorable. The same fact is apparent in the upper part of the coast pine belt in 

 Alabama and Mississippi, where upon the same area, with a smaller number of trees, the crop of 

 timber may be considered almost twice as heavy as that found on the pine barrens proper farther 

 south. On the soil of One, closely compacted sand, entirely deficient in drainage as found in the 

 so called pine meadows along the coast of western Eloiida, Alabama, and Mississippi, as well as 

 on the siliceous rocky ridges of central and northern Alubania, the tree is so stunted as to be of 

 little or no value for its timber. 



" It is neither temperature alone, nor rainfall and moisture conditions of the atmosphere alone, 

 that influence tree growth, but the relation of these two climatic factors, which determines the 



