FOREST CONDITIONS. 353 



logs and small-sized trees have become salable, the 

 cut, at least of White Pine, has been considerably 

 diminished, and hence suppHes will last still for 

 years to come. In addition, on the areas which in 

 earlier years had been culled less severely, the trees 

 that were left have put on growth sufficient to 

 become marketable (second growth !); and occasion- 

 ally also natural volunteer reproduction has come, 

 furnishing new supplies. 



Nevertheless, even if the estimates were doubled 

 and quadrupled, the time of practical exhaustion 

 of this resource will be upon us before recuperative 

 measures have been fairly started. 



The Southern forest, although showing greater 

 variety and number of species, does not add many 

 hardwood species of economic value, which are not 

 represented in the Northern forest. But in conif- 

 erous species it furnishes invaluable supplies by 

 a group of hardwooded yellow pines, the Bald Cy- 

 press, and to a lesser extent the Pencil Cedar or 

 Juniper. 



The sandy soils in which the Southern states 

 along the Atlantic and Gulf coast abound are occu- 

 pied by vast pineries, in which for hundreds and 

 thousands of square miles the hardwood species are 

 almost absent except in the loamy hummocks and 

 river-bottoms. The most important and valuable of 

 these pines is the Longleaf or Georgia Pine, which 

 predominates over the largest area in a belt paral- 

 leling the coast from North Carolina to eastern 



