2i 4 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



bole picturesquely topped with a sparse crown 

 of tufted foliage. 



Pure woods of pine are usually found only on 

 the poorer classes of dry soil, where pine is often 

 the last resource of the forester; and in such 

 unfavourable situations its growth is naturally 

 not so vigorous or profitable as under more con- 

 genial circumstances. Here it may have to be 

 harvested at about seventy or eighty years of age 

 with a poor yield of about 3000 cubic feet per 

 acre, while the better classes of pine soil will 

 show considerably more than twice that stock, 

 and at the same time make it profitable to delay 

 the fall for other twenty to forty years. 



On land above the average in quality pine 

 thrives well in admixture with other kinds of 

 trees, needle-bearing or broad-leaved, so long as 

 these are of somewhat slower growth, permitting 

 it to have its crown free from overshadowing. 

 Here it grows more vigorously, forms a better 

 bole, and has a larger proportion of good red 

 heartwood than if grown in pure crops, while it is 

 less liable to be broken by snow or to suffer from 

 attacks of noxious insects and fungous diseases. 

 But on inferior classes of land it is often simply 



