272 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 490 



in a park where the general effect is the first thing aimed at 

 and where economy in maintenance is a necessity. 



The sum of the matter is that one good way to reduce 

 the cost of maintaining rural parks is to make them less 

 pretentious and artificial in design and to construct them 

 in the outset in the most thorough manner. This will not 

 only save money, but it will lessen the danger of sins 

 against good taste. At least, it will tend to encourage 

 that simplicity which is the foundation quality of all sin- 

 cere art. 



Second-growth White Pine in Pennsylvania. 



THE valley along Hickory Creek and its tributaries — 

 Beaver, Otter and Queen Creeks— the slopes and the 

 tops of the hills which surround it, extending to the banks 

 of Tionesta Creek, are in places abundantly covered with 

 thrifty young White Pines. The second-growth White Pine 

 here is of particular value ; it affords an opportunity to study 

 the process of natural regeneration of White Pine and its 

 progressive development under conditions almost like those 

 which would generally take place in the pineries, should 

 the cuttings be regulated so as to assure the complete 

 reproduction of the Pine. While the White Pine in Penn- 

 sylvania reproduces itself readily everywhere — in the open- 

 ings of the forest, on the cut-over lands and on the 

 abandoned fields — still the areas of second-growth White 

 Pine are usually small, and the park-like aspect of the 

 young growth does not allow us to draw conclusions as to 

 what an area completely restocked would look like, and as 

 to what the progressive development of a second-growth 

 White Pine would be under forest conditions. The unsat- 

 isfactory state of reproduction of White Pine is due mainly 

 to the lack of a sufficient quantity of good seeds The only 

 seeding trees to be found on the cut-over lands are the 

 few defective Pines left, which provide undesirable seeds 

 with a very low percentage of germination. Then also the 

 inferior hardwoods, always spared by the axe, cover the 

 ground with a thick young growth which hinders consid- 

 erably the germination and development of the few Pine 

 seeds accidentally brought by wind. The successful and 

 complete regeneration of the Pine at Hickory Valley finds 

 its explanation in the fact that the areas now grown up 

 with young Pine, when stripped over forty years ago of 

 their original growth, were surrounded by forest, and thus 

 abundantly provided with seeds from the adjoining walls 

 of standing White Pine. 



An acre representing typical conditions of regeneration 

 in the valley was staked off on a steep slope facing the 

 south-west. The young Pine on the acre was mixed with 

 hardwoods and scattering Hemlock. The dense under- 

 growth consisted of 160 Beech-trees, 108 Maples, 12 Oaks, 

 '9 Ashes,' 76 Black Birches, 189 Yellow Birches, 100 Iron- 

 woods, 2 Black Cherry trees, 2 Hickories and 248 Hem- 

 locks, all of which were very small, less than three inches 

 in diameter and from five to ten feet high. The soil, being 

 here uniform, was a clayey loam intermixed with shale, 

 yellowish brown in color, deep, fresh, drained on the south 

 by Beaver and on the west by Hickory Creek, with three 

 or four inches of mold on top and a surface cover of abun- 

 dant leaves and a few Ferns. The subsoil was a laminated 

 shale of an indefinite depth. The age of the Pines ranged 

 from forty-two to forty-eight years. The canopy formed by 

 the Pine in places represented a full cover, but the average 

 density of crown cover on the acre was 0.8. Of the 753 

 trees on the acre there were 383 White Pines, 50 Beeches, 

 46 Maples, 20 Oaks, 16 Ashes, 73 Black Birches, 59 Yellow 

 Birches, 13 Ironwoods, 15 Black Cherries and a few Aspens 

 and Butternuts not counted. 



The following are the dimensions of the White Pine : 

 One tree was fifteen inches in diameter, breast-high ; one, 

 fourteen inches ; one, thirteen inches ; four were twelve 

 inches; twelve, eleven inches; twenty-one, ten inches; 

 twenty-eight, nine inches; twenty-four, eight inches ; twenty- 

 three, seven inches ; thirty-four, six inches ; forty-nine, five 



inches ; forty-one, four inches ; fifty-six, three inches, and 

 eighty-eight were under three inches in diameter. The 

 number of Pines over three inches in diameter is thus 

 295, while only 149 were more than six inches in diame- 

 ter. 



The dimensions of the species intermixed are as follows : 

 Seven Hemlocks, at breast-high, ranged from six inches to 

 twenty-four inches in diameter, and seventy-one from three 

 to six inches. Two Beeches ranged from six to fourteen 

 inches, and forty-eight from three to six inches. Two 

 Maples ranged from six to ten inches, and forty-four from 

 three to six inches. Seven Oaks ranged from six to ten 

 inches, and thirteen from three to six inches. Four Ashes 

 ranged from six to ten inches, and twelve from three to 

 six inches. Seventy-three Black Birches ranged from three 

 to six inches ; two Yellow Birches from six to ten inches, 

 and fifty-seven from three to six inches. One Ironwood 

 ranged from ten to fourteen inches, and twelve from three 

 to six inches. Five Black Cherries ranged from six to ten 

 inches, and ten from three to six inches. 



From these measurements it is seen that while the num- 

 ber of White Pines over three inches in diameter constitutes 

 only forty-four per cent, of the total number of trees 

 on the acre, the number of White Pines over six inches in 

 diameter, when compared with that of all the other species 

 on the acre above that dimension, swells to the domi- 

 nating per cent, of eighty-three. It is not astonishing, then, 

 that the reproduced areas at Hickory Valley carry with 

 them an impression of being stocked exclusively with 

 White Pines. The close examination of the above tables 

 throws a good deal of light upon the nature and process of 

 regeneration of White Pine. The total number of trees on 

 the acre, including the undergrowth, is 1,723 ; the number 

 of White Pines is only 383. The Pines then have started 

 and grown among the hardwoods, which, being large in 

 number, did not, however, interfere either with the repro- 

 ductive power or the thriftiness of the Pines. The hard- 

 woods were gradually crowded out, and in the long and 

 natural struggle for light and room succeeded only so far as 

 to retain twenty-three individuals of considerable size, 

 leaving all the others, together with the Hemlock, far below 

 the canopy formed by vigorous Pines. This clearly shows 

 that, with the provision of a sufficient quantity of Pine- 

 seeds, the hardwoods need not interfere with the successful 

 reproduction of White Pine, unless it be old and dense 

 timber which shades the ground and young growth unduly. 

 On the contrary, the hardwoods, instead of being undesira- 

 ble weeds, may render to the success of regeneration of 

 White Pine manifold ami valuable services. First of all, 

 the hardwoods on the ground prevent it from growing up 

 into weeds, which are far more dangerous to the starting 

 Pines than the hardwoods. In the seedling stage the Pines 

 are protected by the hardwoods from frost, which, when 

 occurring at the beginning either of spring or fall, is liable 

 to kill the terminal branches of the Pines. When the Pines 

 reach a similar height with the hardwoods, the latter 

 become stimulants for the height-growth of the Pines. 

 When the Pines have lifted their boles above those of the 

 hardwoods, the latter assume the role of undergrowth, 

 protecting on one hand the ground from the direct rays of 

 the sun, and on the other providing ample shade for the 

 shafts of the Pines, and thus clearing them of limbs. The 

 accumulating leaves of the hardwoods shed annually 

 form a rich litter, a natural forest-manure, which improves 

 the physical conditions of the soil, thus indirectly benefit- 

 ing the growth of the Pines. Then the larger number of 

 trees to the acre usually found in mixed forests affords 

 ample protection from wind. Adding to all this, that the 

 spread of diseases caused either by fungi or insects is nat- 

 urally prevented in mixed forests, the value of the hard- 

 woods with regard to the regeneration of White Pine and 

 its development may be better understood. 



The thrifty appearance of the White Pines at the valley, 

 the straightness and clearness of their shafts and the pro- 

 portionally developed crowns prove that the Pines here 



