Southern Pines Pay 



Seeding — By Man and Nature 



"DINE TREES spring up only from seeds. Sowing pine seeds by hand 

 •*- on land to be reforested is not commonly practiced because of the 

 heavy losses of seeds and seedlings occasioned by insects and birds 

 and the irregularity of the resulting stand of trees. 



The usual way of reforesting land is to plant nursery -grown seedlings. 

 In many places, however, sowing slash pine seed directly on low, wet 

 land has been successful. On the previous page are pictures of such a 

 planting on flat, cut-over, "crayfish" lands on the Coastal Plain of South 

 Carolina. At 18 years of age some of the trees were 40 feet in height and 

 10 inches in diameter. They might have been even larger if one or more 

 thinnings had been made. 



On cut -over lands where ample trees have been left to scatter seed, 

 pines often come back naturally. The pictures on this page show a tract 

 of sandy land in western South Carolina reforested by wind-scattered 

 seed of longleaf pine under favorable weather and fire protection. The 

 stand appears almost as if planted by hand. 



As seedlings, longleaf pines 

 develop a deep, heavy tap- 

 root and almost no stem for 

 the first 3 to 5 years, during 

 which they appear as green 

 tufts on the ground (June 

 1926). 



Six years later the seedlings 

 shown in the upper picture 

 have grown into saplings 

 ranging in height from 7 

 to 10 feet (April 1932). 

 The growth rate has been 

 moderate because the soil is 

 poor and sandy. 



