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BULLETIN OF THE 
U.SIPMTOFAfai]ffi 
No. 244 
Contribution from the Forest Service, Henry S. Graves, Forester 
July 21, 1915. 
(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 
LIFE HISTORY OF SHORTLEAF PINE, 
By Wilbur R. Mattoon, Forest Examiner. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Name and identification 1 
Geographical and economic range 2 
Character of stands 4 
Size, age, and habit 7 
Demands upon soil and climate. 13 
Page. 
Light requirements. 14 
Reproduction 18 
Growth 28 
Causes of injury 34 
Yield 39 
NAME AND IDENTIFICATION. 
It is important to distinguish clearly the true shortleaf pine 1 {Pinus 
echinata Mill.) — variously known throughout portions of its range as 
"yellow," "old field," "rosemary," "two-leaf," "heart," and "spruce" 
pine — from other so-called shortleaf pines of the Southern States. 
Confusion occurs because of the custom, more or less generally pre- 
vailing throughout the South, of distinguishing only two kinds of 
pine, shortleaf and longleaf. Under this custom, the pine most com- 
monly included with shortleaf is loblolly pine, 2 slash pine being classed 
in similar manner as longleaf pine. Shortleaf is most readily dis- 
tinguished from loblolly pine by means of differences in leaf and 
cone, described on page 7. Other pines associated with short- 
leaf are the smaller, crooked-stemmed scrub pine and the northern 
pitch pine which seldom forms old-field stands and grows both in 
wetter and colder situations. 
i Shortleaf pine was first described botanically by Miller in 1768. In 1803, the elder Michaux defined 
more fully the specific characteristics of the species under the name of Pinus mitis, widely circulated in 
his work on American forest trees and largely used in botanical literature. The name Pinus echinata, first 
given to the tree by Miller, was not taken up by any author of note until the publication of Sargent's Silva, 
Vol. XI, in 1897, and by the accepted rule of priority, this is the correct name of the species. 
2 Pinus taeda, know locally by various names, as "old field," "shortleaf," "swamp," "bull pine," etc. 
Note.— This bulletin gives in detail the life history of shortleaf pine, known under various names through- 
out the South, where only it is found in commercial quantities. 
92233°— Bull. 244—15 1 
