FOREST PLANTATIONS AT BILTMORE, N. C. 



17 



Sometimes it has been advance growth of shortleaf or Virginia pine 

 which has interfered with the growth of the white pine. Virginia 

 pine has been especially harmful in the Lone Chimney plantation, 

 where shortleaf and white pines were planted at the rate of 3,500 to 

 the acre under a stand per acre of some 150 Virginia pines. Fifteen 

 years afterwards a great many Virginia pines were still present, big- 

 boled, low-branched, sprawly, and crowding and overtopping the 

 planted species. (PI. 7.) 



SHORTLEAF AND PITCH PINES 



The common native pines, shortleaf and pitch, jointly referred to 

 as "yellow pines/' have done very well when planted at Biltmore. 

 Since these two species seed in freely on abandoned farm land in this 

 region, their success in the plantations was to be expected. In one 

 case 35 per cent of the shortleaf pines were reported to have died the 

 first season after planting; but aside from time this there have been 

 few, if any, failures. They were rarely planted pure. Sometimes 

 the}' were planted in mixture with white pine or with hardwoods; 

 sometimes they were used for replantings where hardwood planta- 

 tions were not making satisfactory growth. Schenck thought that 

 by adding the pines he would be able to help the hardwoods, but for 

 the most part they have outdistanced and overtopped the hardwoods 

 and sometimes actively suppressed them. The resulting stands are 

 pure yellow pine in the upper story with a low, unimportant under- 

 story of the hardwoods. 



In the Black Walnut plantation the yellow pines at 22 years of age 

 averaged 25 feet in height, whereas the walnuts, planted on the same 

 site two years before, averaged only 5 feet. (PL 6.) In the Ap- 

 proach Road plantation shortleaf pine was planted about 10 }^ears 

 after black cherry and yellow poplar. Eighteen years later the pines 

 averaged 5 feet taller than the hardwoods, though all three species 

 had the same average diameter. Yellow pines were planted two or 

 three years after hardwoods in the Old Orchard plantation, and now 

 greatly overtop the hardwoods. Average figures of height and diam- 

 eter at breastheight for this stand in 1922 are given in Table 5. 



Table 5. — Average height and diameter of hardwoods and yellow pines in the Old 



Orchard plantation, 1922 



Species 



Age 



Height 



Feet 

 11 

 13 

 13 

 30 



Diameter 



White ash . ... . 





Years 

 23 



23 

 23 



20 (?) 



Inches 

 0. G 



Buckeye . .. . _. 



1.1 



White oak... ... 





0.\> 



Yellow pine 



4 4 









Although some of the hardwoods were as much as 20 or 25 feet 

 tall none were dominant. Some of the pitch pine dominants were 

 nearly 40 feet tall, and their average height was 3(i feet. 



In the Brown town plantation 8-year-old shortleaf pine was twice 

 as high as sugar maple planted with it. This is one of the planta- 

 tions where shortleaf pine has done a little better than white pine. 

 In a couple of stands where these two species were in alternate rows 

 the shortleaf pine averaged from 1 to 3 feet taller than the white. 



