LIFE HISTOKY OF SHORTLEAF PINE. 



37 



the tree just below the surface of the ground, causing butt rot; and 

 one enters through branch stubs, knot holes, or other openings 

 through the living sapwood in the upper portion of the tree, pro- 

 ducing the true redheart. This disease is probably the most usual 

 and is caused by Trametes pini. It travels downward and sometimes 

 reaches to the base of the tree, leaving the wood firm rather than pow- 

 dery, of a rich or dark reddish color, and permeated by oval or lens- 

 shaped pockets of a light-gray color. The well-known dark-colored 

 "punks," or fruiting bodies, are almost invariably from this species, 

 since the other two common fungi have annual fruiting bodies. 



The Polyporus schweinitzii leaves the wood in characteristic brown- 

 colored cubical blocks. The fruiting bodies are hairy on top, brown 

 inside, and weather brown. They are short-lived and are seldom 

 seen. The sporophore or "punk" of Polyporus sulphur eus is yellow 

 on the outside changing to white, and its contents is white. Its 

 work may be known by characteristic white bands of mycelium, 

 which radiate outward from the center of the tree, filling the cracks 

 in the rotted wood with felt-like masses of fungous tissue. 



In cutting stands up to 70 years old heart rot is found infrequently. 

 The liability to infection increases with the declining vitality of the 

 tree. In one representative even-aged forest stand, 60 to 65, years in 

 central Arkansas, only 2.2 per cent of the logs showed injury by fungi. 

 In four large even-aged groups of shortleaf pine, 170 years old, the 

 diseased logs ranged from 20 to 27 per cent of the total number of logs 

 utilized, or 17.4 per cent of all logs, including sound logs left in the 

 tops, which are merchantable or will be soon. A record of the in- 

 fected logs in virgin timber at a large sawmill in Pike County, Ark., 

 for March, April, and May, 1912, showed 25,689 sound logs and 4,430, 

 or 14.7 per cent of the total logs, unsound. The log scale was slightly 

 more than 3 \ million board feet. The average run of infected timber 

 for central Arkansas is further indicated in Table 14. 



Table 14. — Amount of " redheart" infection in average forest run shortleaf jnne, mostly 



60 to 180 years old. 1 



Date. 



Total cut 



Redheart 



Percentage 



Percentage 

 infected 



for month. 



defect. 



sound. 



with 

 redheart. 



Boardfeet. 



Boardfeet. 







1,907,461 



232, 685 



88 



12 



1,741,235 



203, 769 



88 



12 



1, 597, 014 



259, 639 



84 



16 



1, 862, 025 



155, 513 



92 



08 



1, 185, 132 



143, 307 



88 



12 



1,087,018 



119,339 



89 



11 



1,008,959 



87, 027 



91 



09 



1, 147, 115 



128, 436 



89 



11 



754, 610 



85, 723 



89 



11 



1,018,638 



118, 692 



89 



11 



994, 102 



100, 662 



90 



10 



1, 178, 236 



110, 998 



91 



09 



15, 511, 545 



1, 745, 789 



89 



11 



1912. 



June.. 



July 



August 



September. 



October 



November. 

 December.. 



January.. 

 February. 



March 



April 



May 



Total. 



i Includes both butt rot and true redheart. Tally for a large representative mill in Clark County, Ark. 



