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PARK AND CEMETERY. 
and is found commonly associated with Pinus Taeda 
the Loblolly Pine; Pinus serotina the Marsh Pine, 
Pinus heterophylla the Cuban Pine; Pinus glabra the 
Spruce Pine or Pinus echinata the short leaved pine. 
The natural habitat of the yellow pine extends 
from the extreme southeast of Virginia to the 27 
parallel of latitude in Florida, and westward from 
central Georgia and northeastern Alabama to south- 
ern Mississippi and New Orleans. Over a large 
part of its distribution it follows the orange sand of 
the south along the sea coast, where it is often in- 
tersected by the salt water inlets and extensive cy- 
press marshes. Along the coast in its southeastern 
range it is found with Pinus Taeda and further south 
with Pinus Cubensis. With its peculiar life history 
and the crude methods of forestry adopted in the 
south it is continually being reduced in area. 
In most localities the loblolly frequtmtly rivals 
and even predominates, and in the more fertile up- 
lands live, laurel-leaved, water, Spanish, willow, 
upland willow, white, black, Turkey and post oaks; 
evergreen Magnolia, Cypress, Tupelo, sweet and 
black gum and southern bay, are intermixed with it. 
It grows to a height of one hundred and ten feet 
with a straight columnar trunk seldom more than 
three feet in diameter. After its fifth year it grows 
rapidly. The lower branches for three-fourtlis its 
height soon fall and with the spreading branches 
give it a narrow, open, gnarled head, hemispherical 
to broadly cone shaped in outline. 
The reddish-brown, furrowed bark falls off in 
flakes. 
As an element of scenery it is rugged, contrast- 
ing and in picturesqueness or when exclusive or 
upon the sterile sand plateaus that are too sterile 
to support little else but pines, it is of a simple 
character. Partly by virtue of its habit, but largely 
the treatment of the forests, it often has virtually no 
good undergrowth. Contrasting with the Cuban 
pine that inhabits an imperfectly drained and com- 
pact sand which often supports the Sabal Adamsonii 
as an undergrowth — the yellow pine is well 
suited to a light, drier and well drained sand. Such 
undergrowth as broom sedge Myrica cerifera (the 
true species — not Carolinensis which is commonly 
known as cerifera) and post oak are usually low 
and stunted and intermixed with the young seed- 
lings of yellow, or if seed trees are near by and es- 
pecially if the forest is somewhat dense — seedling 
loblollies occur. 
Yellow pine is perhaps the most beautiful spec- 
ies of the south but with its great and many virtues 
from a commercial standpoint is assuredly becoming 
more restricted in area. Aside from its timber qual- 
ities for which it is harvested at the rate of over a 
billion board feet annually, it offers cheap, and ex- 
cellent material for railroad ties and lightwood and 
yields enormous quantities of pitch, turpentine, etc. 
For each mile of railroad 3,200 ties are required. 
Upon an average ten ties are obtained from an 
acre. With an average duration of from five to 
six years it is readily comprehended what a demand 
is created for the 3,000 miles of southern railroads 
alone. By tapping — a process known as “boxing” 
— the trees in orchard give a decreasing supply of 
turpentine for five, six and even seven years, and in 
districts where the trees possess sufficient recupera- 
tive power — after a rest of several years the har- 
vesting is continued, but in the southernmost dis- 
tricts the vitality is sapped by this process and 
after four or five years the orchards are abandoned. 
This boxing process saturates the wood with resin 
thereby rendering it highly inflammable. The col- 
ored natives chop the trees into small sticks locally 
known as “light wood.” Occasionally fire starts 
in these orchards and once aflame they are almost 
certainly doomed to destruction. While w'orked 
as a turpentine orchard the ground is frequently 
pastured and to offer good herbage the leaves are 
annually set fire — thereby not only destroying the 
young plants but burning the more fertile top 
mould. When hogs are pastured the chance of 
yellow pine following itself is still further lessened 
in that the hogs devour the sweet seeds as rapidly 
as they fall and even uproot the young plants for 
the soft roots. 
All the artificial barriers are assisted by the en- 
croachment of invading species. Yellow pine re- 
quires from four to five years to establish an im- 
mense and long root system and during this time it 
seldom if ever grows over six inches in height, ap- 
pearing at this stage with its tuft of leaves — usually 
eight to fifteen inches long, like a huge caricatured 
chrysanthemum flower. After this age it grows as- 
tonishingly rapid in height, frequently two to three 
feet in one season. Obviously the young plants of 
the florists are five or six years of age. 
Contrariwise the loblolly pine, an inferior spec- 
ies in almost every particular starts its upward 
growth from germination onward and at five years 
of age is frequently several feet in height. Further- 
more the loblolly will germinate and grow in a far 
denser shade than the yellow pine. 
In form, color, texture and general aspect the 
southern pines are often enhanced by a dense drap- 
ery of Florida moss (Tillandsia usuroides. ) 
Emil Mis c he. 
Great opportunities will be offered at the Paris 
Exhibition next year for visiting American land- 
scape architects and horticulturists to see what their 
European brethren are doing. 
