64 TIMBER PINES OF THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES. 



NATURAL REPRODUCTION. 



Certain peculiarities inherent to this species form a series of obstacles in the way of its 

 spontaneous reproduction. These are, iirst, the rare occurrence of seasons of abundant crops of 

 seed, and, second, its slow growth during the earliest part of its development, rendering the 

 young oft'spring of this pine liable to be suppressed by competing species of quicker growth. To 

 these causes is to be further added its dependence upon the influence of direct suidight, which is 

 required for its germination as well as during the subseijuent stages of its growth to maturity, 

 and the sensitiveness of the seeds and seedlings to moisture; phiced in a wet, undrained soil, the 

 germinating power of the first is destroyed and the latter will perish on exposure to the same 

 conditions. A study of the'^'oung growth of the Longleaf Pine over the difl'erent regions of its 

 habitat leads unavoidably fo the conclusion that the chances ior the reproduction of its forests, 

 left to the ordinary course of nature, are quite limited, even if the adverse conditions arising 

 from human agencies are left out of consideration. On the lowlands of the Atlantic Coast toward 

 its northern limit this pine is almost invariably replaced by the Loblolly Pine, while farther south 

 and in the coastal plain of the Gulf States east of the INIississippi Eiver, after its removal, it is 

 replaced partly by the Loblolly Pine and largely by the Cuban Pine. On the wide expanse of 

 uplands rising above the coastal plain with their broad ridges of a soil of sandy loam, the young 

 trees of the Longleaf Pine are met with in every stage of growth. Attaining, however, during the 

 first five or six years scarcely a greater height than the surrounding herbage, the seedlings >are 

 irredeemably ruined by the various destructive agencies to which they are exposed. On land liable 

 to repeated conflagrations, a scrubby growth, chiefly of barren oak and other upland oaks already 

 mentioned, takes possession and excludes by its shade the pine. If upon the rolling pine lands or 

 dry pine barrens the removal of most of the original tree covering is followed by a succession of 

 barren years, the ground will surely be invaded by the hard wood trees mentioned, which will retain 

 possession. Under the shade of these trees the Longleaf Pine can never again find a home. In the 

 stronger soil of the upper division of tlie maritime i>ine belt, the region of mixed growth, where the 

 seedlings of the Longleaf Pine spring up simultaneously with the hard-wood trees and the seedlings 

 of the Shortleaf Pine, these latter will eventually gain the supremacy and suppress those of the 

 Longleaf Pine; consequently the latter is seldom observed in mixed forests of second growth. In 

 the flat woods, particularly in the pine flats of southwestern Louisiana and Texas, with a soil 

 water-soaked during the winter and spring, the ottspring of tlie Longleaf Pine is still more rarely 

 met with for the reasons stated. From these fiicts it is evident that, owing to natural causes, 

 combined with the unrestricted sway of the influences leading to its destruction by human agency, 

 the oflsi>riug of the Longleaf Pine is rarely seen to occupy the place of the parent tree, even in the 

 region most favorable to its natural renewal, and that final extinction of the forests of the Longleaf 

 Pine is inevitable unless proper forest management is applied. 



FOREST MANAGEMENT. 



The time for the acquisition of timber lands or of the right of working them for their products 

 at prices far below what could be considered as an adequate return for their intrinsic value has 

 well-nigh passed away. Tlie opportunities which existed during the last twenty-five years for 

 acquiring Longleaf Pine lands, which were open to purchase by the hundreds of thousands of acres, 

 have now in a great measure ceased to exist. The greater part of this kind of property has passed 

 into the possession of capitalists, and the rest will soon be similarly controlled. Under this new 

 order of things the price of these timber lands is gradually approaching figures more in proiiortion 

 to their true value. The depredations committed unblushingly on the public lands, and on the 

 lands of railroad corporations and private owners, are rendered less easy every year under a mutual 

 protection of interest. Keckless waste and devastation, heedless of the interests of tlie future, 

 are giving way to a more economical management of the timber resources in the logging camp and 

 in the mill. No measures have been attempted to maintain these resources by sparing the younger 

 timber in its best stage of growth from the ax, or to provide in any other way for the protection 

 and preservation of the younger growth. 



