8 
supply of soil moisture. Because many of the longleaf pine soils 
are subject to periods of extreme dryness, the slow growth in many 
natural unthinned stands and the comparatively wide spacing found 
in older longleaf stands are often attributed to the competition of 
the roots for soil moisture rather than of the branches for light. An 
important determining factor in the rate of growth of the indi- 
vidual trees is their density, or the number of trees per acre in the 
stand, at any specified age. Growth in diameter is particularly 
influenced by this condition. 
During the first few years the growth of young seedlings con- 
sists chiefly in the development of a large root system. A very 
stout long taproot, accompanied by several large laterals and many 
smaller ones, underlies and supports a very short stem, crowned 
with a dense tuft of long, drooping, grasslike foliage. This period 
of apparently little activity is very deceptive and has been one cause 
of the general impression that longleaf is a very slow grower. Gen- 
erally from three to six years are required for longleaf to reach the 
height of 3 inches to a foot and develop the requisite root system 
for making the rapid " shoot " upward which follows. Under pro- 
tection from fires, it is known that on loamy sand in the upper 
Coastal Plain longleaf saplings at 5 years of age reach heights of 
2 to 3 feet and at 7 years of 5 to 8 feet. The occurrence of fires 
at frequent intervals, usually of about two years, in different sections 
over practically the entire longleaf pine belt, and the accompanying 
marked effect in checking growth, should not be overlooked in any 
consideration of the rate of growth. 
Since the purpose here is chiefly to consider growth after the 
youngest or seedling stage, the germination of the seed and the 
early seedling development wall be discussed under " Reforestation " 
in connection with getting young stands started. 
The period of vigorous growth, during which the longleaf sap- 
lings " shoot " up rapidly, begins at an age of about 5 years and 
continues to about 20 to 25 years. At about 7 years, the height of 
saplings sometimes increases 2 to 3 feet during a single year. A 
growth of 2 feet a year in well-stocked stands is common over large 
areas (fig. 2 and PL III), and open-grown trees on average good 
situations not uncommonly grow 3, and sometimes 4 feet yearly. At 
the same time, the young trees grow to a diameter (at the ground) 
of about 2 inches during the two to four years following the early 
preparatory stage. Protected from fire, longleaf saplings require 
six to eight years on an average to reach breastheight or 4% feet 
above the ground. After the maximum rate of height growth, at 
an age prior to 20 years, the rate gradually diminishes. It should, 
however, be clearly understood that young longleaf pine trees, sub- 
jected to hot fires, do not grow at the rates indicated. On protected 
old fields in the flat woods of eastern North Carolina, measurements 
of longleaf pines show that in 35 to 50 years the average trees pro- 
duce saw logs 14 to 20 inches at the butt and 20 feet in length. 1 The 
usefulness of these pine trees, however, would begin a little earlier 
if they were turpentined, and the thinning out of the foliage would 
also encourage the incoming of the tender grasses which are valuable 
1 Bv W. W. Ashe, formerly in charge of investigations, North Carolina Geological Sur- 
vey. * Under present methods probably from 10 to 15 feet more of the tree would be 
utilized. 
