SITUATION AND OCCURRENCE 17 



vegetable earth of hollows and ravines, and 

 again on moist clay flats and river bottoms. A 

 strip of second-growth Pine frequently occurs 

 on the brow of a hill from which old timber has 

 been removed. Similar bodies are often found 

 near the tops of slopes, sometimes on very poor 

 soil. Upon better soils, where hardwoods were 

 formerly mixed with the Pine, they take its 

 place, at least for a time. The indications are 

 very strong that the Pine, if left to itself, will 

 at length resume possession of practically all 

 the situations it occupied in the virgin forest. 



Old clearings and abandoned pastures, if 

 they can be reached by the winged, wind-blown 

 seed of some old tree, grow up at once with an 

 incipient forest of young Pines. 



It results from this ability of the Pine to 

 conquer new situations and resume possession 

 of the old that the danger of its extinction as 

 a timber tree in Pennsylvania is serious only 

 on account of fire. The exhaustion of the sup- 

 ply of old trees must not be taken to mean the 

 destruction of the species. We have already 

 seen that second growth in good situations does 

 not differ at all in individual development from 

 the trees of the original forest at the same age 

 in similar places. The future of White Pine in 

 Pennsylvania, even with mediocre protection, 



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