52 



FORESTS, FOREST LANDS AND FOREST PRODUCTS. 



Many kinds of trees after haviug been lumbered or burnt out 

 are succeeded by smaller and less valued species, but the original 

 growth in time again takes jDOSsession of the land. This is the 

 case with the spruce forests of Western North Carolina and the 

 white cedar (juniper) in the eastern section of the State. How- 

 ever it may have been primarily in the long-leaf pine forests this 

 is not the result under the present management of these pineries. 

 After the removal of the pine the land quickly becomes waste land, 

 and passes from a growth of sand black-jack to utter barrenness. 

 Nowhere is there any general sign of either the long-leaf or any 

 other pine again forming a prominent part of the growth on these 

 sand-hills. 



Unless there is some radical change in their management these 

 lands may even cease to produce the few sand black-jack oaks 

 which now flourish on them. There is even a possibility, and in 

 fact it can be said a great likelihood, that this valuable tree, the 

 long-leaf pine, will become extinct in North Carolina unless some 

 steps are taken to secure its more general propagation. It has 

 already become extinct over large tracts lying to the north of the 

 Neuse river which were formerly occupied either exclusively by 

 this pine or by mixed forests of it and hardwoods and the loblolly 

 pine. 



W'HY LONG-LEAF PINE FORESTS ARE NOT SELF-PROPAGATING. 



The causes which have operated to prevent the long-leaf pine 

 h'om propagating itself are several, and all of them are important 

 and act uniformly throughout this sandy area. A brief statement 

 of some of the peculiarities of this tree may enable us to see more 

 clearly why it needs more special protection than must necessarily 

 be accorded other trees to enable the forests to reproduce them- 

 selves. The chief causes which have influenced and tended to 

 retard the general regrowth of this tree at the present time arise 

 from a highly specialized form of seed and plant structure and a 

 decidedly unique manner of growth when compared with the other 

 pines of this same region. These characteristic peculiarities lie 

 chiefly in the young pine seedling, in the seed, and in the struc- 

 ture of the leaf buds. 



