2 BULLETIN 1061, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



through as many as 10 fires. Each fire, however, takes its toll of 

 living trees and injures and retards the growth of all the others. 

 Of the trees which survive, large numbers are being bled for turpen- 

 tine or cut for timber at much too young an age to get the best money 

 returns. Protection and forest management mean increased timber 

 growth and increased profit. 



Destructive lumbering and destructive fires are every year creating 

 in the southern pine region millions of acres of waste and barren 

 lands. In these idle timber lands is an enormous potential wealth, 

 and their productive power is not fully realized. Economically, this 

 condition is an unsettling factor just as serious as the idleness of 

 thousands of farms or of factories. Forest growth should be en- 

 couraged on waste or idle lands and on lands not now in demand for 

 agricultural use and not likely to be during the next half century, 

 whether on farms or large cut-over tracts. 



This bulletin deals not only with the forest conditions on the 

 upper or higher portions of the Coastal Plain, where farming is 

 relatively important, but it is also applicable to the flatwoods, where 

 only 10 to 15 per cent of the land is in farms and the remainder 

 mostly in the ownership of large lumber companies. Little atten- 

 tion will be given to old-growth timber, which is rapidly passing. 

 The aim is to present the more useful information pertaining to the 

 growth and value of longleaf pine, the production of timber and 

 turpentine, the methods of cutting, reforestation, and protection of 

 second-growth longleaf pine, and the ways of making tracts of land 

 profitable which will remain idle for many years unless they are 

 devoted to growing crops of turpentine and timber. 



RANGE AND IMPORTANCE. 



Longleaf pine is generally well known in the localities where it 

 grows and is commonly distinguished from other species with which 

 it is associated. In earlier life, the erect, stout, central stem, densely 

 covered with leaves (" straw ") , is one of its well-known characteris- 

 tics. Later and through life it has a straight, clean shaft or trunk. 

 The leaves are from 8 to 18 inches in length, pendulous, and occur in 

 crowded clusters of three leaves each, forming the familiar-looking 

 tufts toward the ends of the branches (PI. III). The terminal buds 

 are very large and almost white. The cones (" burrs ") vary in 

 length from 6 to 10 inches — the longest of any of the southern pines — 

 and, like all the pines, require two full seasons to reach maturity. 

 The bark is orange-brown, and in mature trees separates on the sur- 

 face into large, flat, irregular-shaped plates (PL IV) made up of 

 thin scales. Fully grown trees reach heights of 70 to 120 feet, and 

 diameters of 2 to 2-§ feet or occasionally 3 feet. The trunk is notably 

 straight, slightly tapering, and usually clear of limbs for one-half 

 to two-thirds of its length. 



