364 THE PLANT LIFE OF MARYLAND 



productive under the existing methods of farming. Such fields, 

 particularly those of a light sandy soil, were rapidly seeded to pine 

 from the scattering pine stands. On the other hand in the western 

 part of the State where white pine and pitch pine originally formed 

 extensive forests, there has been a marked decrease in the repre- 

 sentation of pine. Forty years ago when lumbering operations on 

 a large scale began in this region the valuable white pine stands 

 were the first to be cut. So complete was the cutting, and so disas- 

 trous the forest fires which followed, that white pine has been prac- 

 tically eliminated as a commercial timber tree. The pitch pine is 

 a much less valuable tree, and consequently has fared somewhat bet- 

 ter. However, practically all pure stands of this species have been 

 cut, and now the tree is confined to scattered stands mixed with 

 hardwoods, the latter because of greater persistence after fires, are 

 gaining the supremacy until in time the pitch pine along with the 

 white pine will probably exist only as isolated specimens in the for- 

 est. On the fertile soils of Central Maryland pine never has been 

 an important tree and since lands once cleared are seldom allowed 

 to revert to forest there is little chance of the extension of pine 

 areas in this section. 



In the third place there has been a significant change in the rep- 

 resentation of species in the mixed hardwood stands. This is 

 largely the result of the persistent culling of the forests that has 

 been so universally practiced. Years ago, when lumbering began, 

 only the best trees of the most valuable species had a market value 

 and they were, therefore, the only ones to be cut. All defective trees 

 and those of inferior species were left in undisturbed possession. 

 Later on, as smaller material became valuable, the forest was again 

 culled for the best and this has been repeated many times until in 

 most cases there is left only defective trees and those of unmer- 

 chantable species. As a result the walnut, cherry, yellow poplar 

 and white oak, so largely represented in the original forest, have 

 largely given away to the less desirable species such as black oaks, 

 beech, black gum, red gum, red maples and underbrush such as iron 

 wood, dogwood, and the like. Forest fires have also contributed 

 toward changes in the representation of species by killing out those 

 thai are less fire resistant and creating openings which are then oc- 



