TIMBER OF THE UJs^ITED STATES AND CANADA 78 
take possession of the marshy prairies after they have been 
sufficiently drained to allow of tree growth ; it is adapted 
to a wider range of soils than most of the other southern 
pines, and, owing to its rapid growth and comparative 
freedom from damage by hogs and fires, has a mucli better 
chance of holding its own than the more valuable longleaf 
pine, which is of very slow growth, so that we must look 
forward to a not far distant time when it will form the bulk 
of the pine supply from this region (Fig. 15). 
Forty years ago longleaf pine was the most important 
tree of South Carolina ; now the loblolly occupies that 
position, and what happened there is more or less common 
throu<^hout the south. The usual height of the tree is 90 
to 110 ft. and from 2 to ^ ft. diameter. A tree of 100 
years is already old and subject to an early stage of decay ; 
it possesses a fairly cylindrical stem and is often free of 
branches for 65 ft. or more. The markets are so prejudiced 
against the timber that it is rarely handled under its own 
name, and resort is had to the objectionable system of selling 
it, either by itself or mixed with true shortleaf, as short- 
leaf pine ; the latter is a better and a harder timber, 
though it is often almost impossible to distinguish one 
from the other. Loblolly is largely used for railway 
sleepers and also for piling on the teredo-infested Gulf of 
Mexico, but for both these purposes it has to be artificially 
treated, and the great amount of sap it contains admirably 
adapts it for absorbing a large quantity of creosote. So 
large is the amount of sap that by clogging the saws the 
cost of conversion is increased 20 per cent, as compared 
with longleaf pine, although the price in log is consider- 
ably less. F^or interior work the timber has to be kiln 
dried immediately after being sawn to avoid the fungus 
which attacks the green timber and turns it blue ; after 
drying it neither swells nor shrinks as the harder pines do, 
