58 ECONOMIC BOTANY OF ALABAMA 



Pinus Virginiana, I\Iill.(/^. iiiops, Ait.) Spruce Pine. Also 

 called bastard, cliff, or nigger pine.) 



(Map S. Fig. 12) 



A small to medium-sized scrubby-looking tree, not usually 

 more than a foot in diameter and -tO feet tall, with very short 

 leaves, thin scaly bark, and light soft wood that decays easily. 



It is offered for sale by some nurserymen, but is probably not 

 much ni demand for ornamental purposes. It is said to have once 

 been used largely for water-pipes and pump-logs in Kentucky 

 (where other pines are scarce). Logs of it are sometimes used for 

 temporary trestle work around mines and furnaces, where there is 

 nothing else more handy for the purpose. It grows in the neigh- 

 borhood of nearly every coal mine in Alabama, and its twigs, like 

 those of several other pines, are often used to stop crevices in hop- 

 per-bottomed cars of coal. It of course makes fuel, like most other 

 trees, but as the fuel value of wood is approximately proportiona 

 to its weight, this species does not rank high in that respect. 



In the last 25 years or so it has come to be used a good dea 

 for paper pulp (like the northern spruces, which it somewhat re- 

 sembles), especially in Maryland and Virginia. In June, 1921, the 

 Birmingham Age-Herald printed an edition on paper made from 

 some of this tree cut in Tuscaloosa County and worked up in some 

 northern paper mill. There is certainly plenty of it in Alabama 

 but most of it is in rather rough and inaccessible places, an( 

 whether it can be cut and delivered to a mill in large enough quan 

 titles and cheaply enough to compete with the supply in more leve 

 country in \'irginia and Maryland and the spruces farther north, 

 remains to be seen. 



References: — Harper 13, Sterrett 1, Wells & Rue. 



In Alabama it is chiefly confined to steep rocky slopes, cliffs 

 and bluffs, north of the fall line; all of these places being pretty 

 well protected from fire, to which all pines with very short leaves 

 and thin bark seem to be sensitive. It nearly always grows in dense 

 pure stands, like the northern spruces. It occasionally invades old 

 fields, but not as much with us as in the middle states. Its distri- 

 bution is shown by dots on the map, and may be summed up by 

 regions as follows : 



