of New York 



29 



PITCH PINE 

 One-half natural size. 



PITCH PINE 



Pinus rigida, Miller 



PITCH PlNE has more common names than any other east- 

 ern pine. Some of them are Jack Pine, Hard Pine, 

 Yellow Pine, Nigger Pine, and Black Pine. In pioneer days 

 it was called Torch Pine and Candlewood Pine because the 

 early settlers used pine knots from this tree for torches in 

 their cabins, and 

 for traveling out- 

 of-doors at night. 



The leaves are 3 

 to 5 inches long, 

 rather rigid, and 

 occur in bundles of 

 three. Sometimes 

 two needles occur 

 in a bundle. It is 

 the only eastern 

 pine that produces 

 dense mats of nec- 

 d 1 e s along the 

 main stem. This 

 unusual growth is 

 often seen on open-grown specimens. 



The cones are egg-shaped, 2 to l>Yi inches long, some- 

 times occur in clusters and persist for many years. Trees 

 loaded with thousands of cones are common. 



The bark is reddish-brown to black and breaks up into 

 irregular plates which peel off in thin scales. It becomes 

 thick early, which makes this tree the most fire-resistant ever- 

 green in eastern North America. The twigs are golden 

 brown, angled in cross-section, stout and brittle. The crown 

 is usually irregular in outline and ragged in appearance. 



The wood is rather brittle, coarse grained, pale brownish- 

 red with wide sapwood. It is used for railroad ties, mine 

 timbers and general construction work. 



Pitch Pine is found from New Brunswick to Lake On- 

 tario and south to Virginia and along the mountains to 

 Georgia. This tree is generally distributed throughout New 

 York on dry sandy soil below 1,500 feet. It is very 

 common on Long Island, Staten Island, the hills of the Hud- 

 son Valley, the plains between Albany and Schenectady, and 

 around Oneida Lake. It extends northward to Plattsburg. 

 It is an ordinary tree, rarely exceeds 70 feet in height and 

 lYi feet in diameter and well adapted to mountain soils. 

 On exposed and windswept places it is usually small and 

 stunted. It deserves good care and protection, for it pro- 

 duces a fair grade of wood. 



