4 BULLETIN 11, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
on lower slopes loblolly sometimes does. Westward froni the eastern 
edge of the Piedmont, loblolly is gradually displaced by shortleaf 
and scrub pine, until the western limits of its botanical distribution 
are reached. (See map, fig. 1.) 
(2) (a) In mixed pine and hardwood stands on lower slopes and 
on well-drained bottoms. In the original forests loblolly pine is 
rarely found, even as stray individual trees. The forests of this type 
are composed of white oak, yellow poplar, red oak, ash, birch, hickory, 
walnut, and red maple, (b) In mixed pine and hardwood stands on 
the uplands. The original forest is a mixture of oak, hickory, black 
gum and pine — usually shortleaf, some scrub, and infrequently lob- 
lolly, the last as a rule occurring only where the soil is fairly moist. 
"Where loblolly pine occurs in middle Virginia it is usually a tree of 
secondary importance, although occasionally on old fields it is found 
to limited extent in pure or nearly pure stands. 
CHARACTERISTICS OF LOBLOLLY PINE. 
SOIL, MOISTURE, AND LIGHT REQUIREMENTS. 
Loblolly pine is not fastidious in its soil requirements, and grows 
on a great variety of sites. It is in fact adapted to a wider range 
of soil conditions than any of the pines with which it is associated, 
though it grows best on deep, moist, well-drained, porous soils. 
The tree depends much more upon soil moisture than upon atmos- 
pheric moisture, and in fact throughout its range in the United States 
it is most abundant in regions of lesser precipitation. It grows on 
soils with all the different degrees of moisture content from wet 
swamps to dry sand}' uplands. It prefers, however, the intermediate 
flat, moist lands, edges of swamps, and well-drained bottoms, where it 
is best able to hold its own in competition with other species, and to 
which virgin stands are almost exclusively confined. Because of its 
superior reproductive power loblolly has extended itself as second- 
growth over large areas of comparatively dry upland soils, both 
heavy and light, where it was rarely found in the original forest. 
Loblolly pine is intolerant of shade, being intermediate in its light 
requirements between the less tolerant longleaf and the more tolerant 
scrub pine. The effects, on different sites, of its light requirements 
upon reproduction and the development of individual trees and of 
stands are discussed later. 
FORM AND DEVELOPMENT. 
Under favorable forest conditions, with plenty of overhead light 
but shaded on the sides, loblolly pine develops, by the time it is 50 to 
100 years old, a long, straight, cylindrical bole, clear of limbs for 
from 50 to 75 feet, with a diameter of from 15 to 24 inches breast- 
high and a height of from 80 to 120 feet. During the period of rapid 
