6 SHORTLEAF PINE IN VIRGINIA 



suffer most from fires. Older stands are most endangered by in- 

 serts. Protection against fire may be secured by means of fire 

 lanes, posted warnings, restriction of night hunting, and patrol 

 during dry seasons when neighboring lands are afire. The danger 

 of loss from insects may be reduced by making frequent thinnings 

 and by removing or by cutting infested trees. 



(2) The average stand of pine is far too thinly stocked. This 

 is due to insufficient natural seeding and to the thinning of young 

 stands by fire and of older stands by insects. The yield of such 

 thinly-stocked stands is considerably less, and the grade and value 

 of the timber is lower, than from thickly stocked stands. 



(3) Crowded areas occur in nearly all stands, and some stands 

 are crowded throughout. Such crowded plots can be greatly im- 

 proved by thinnings. The effect of thinnings is to accelerate 

 growth, hasten maturity, and produce a superior quality of timber. 

 The beneficial results of thinnings decrease with the age of the 

 stand, but stands as old as forty-five years respond to them well. 



(4) Where natural seeding has not formed dense stands with- 

 in ten years, the stocking can be completed by the planting of 

 seed; and, where natural seeding does not take place, whole areas 

 may be seeded. Stands restocked in these ways can be expected to 

 yield fully as well as the best natural stands and to return a fair 

 rate of interest on their cost. 



If management is applied, that is, if young stands are pro- 

 tected, full stocking secured, and the stands subsequently thinned, 

 the yield of saw timber from a 40-year-old stand can be more than 

 doubled and its value greatly increased. Shortleaf pine is already 

 one of the chief sources of building material on the farms. Fur- 

 thermore, the farms have more timber than is required for their 

 own support, so that as the general demand for coarse lumber in- 

 creases and its price rises, shortleaf pine in farm woodlots can be 

 made an important source of commercial timber and a means of 

 permanent income. 



DISTRIBUTION AND IMPORTANCE 



Second-growth or old-field shortleaf pine is the most important 

 tree of middle Virginia and the Piedmont, south of the Rappa- 

 hannock, in which region it probably occupies more than one-half 

 of the total forest area and more than three-fourths of the farm 

 forest area. It forms the dominant growth on more than 3,000,000 

 acres, on which it occurs either in pure stands or, more commonly, 



