VOL.
II., NO. 10. PINEHURST, N. C, JAN. 5, 1900. PRICE THREE CENTS.
THE LONG-LEAF PINE.
Especially Adapted to Sandy Soil Many
Enemies Destroy the Young Trees.
The long-leaf pine, which is the princi
pal forest growth in the region about
Pinehurst, is an object of especial interest
to our Nothern guests who seek relief
and cure for weak or impaired respiratory
organs. The odor of the pines of every
variety is a well-known specific for the
cure of diseases of the throat and lungs,
but eminent authority declares the long
leaf pine to be the greatest healing agent
among them. The following description
of the growth of this tree is taken from
the report of W. r. Ashe, of the State
Geological Survey :
The long-leaf pine seems to be especi
ally adapted by the form of its root sys
tem for growing on sandy soil. By the
end of its first year's growth its root sys
tem which has grown rapidly, consists of
a large tap-root which extends six to ten
inches deep in the sand, and from the
bottom of it branches out the smaller
roots which draw nourishment from the
soil. It is this deep-seated root system
sent thus early far down into the soil
which enables this pine to grow on the
sand barrens, and it is doubtless because
the roots of the loblolly are small and
divide for the first year or two into a
great many small divisions, lying near
the surface, that it does not get sufficient
moisture and nourishment from the dry
surface sand to enable it to thrive on the
sand barrens before this land has been
cultivated. This long tap-root of the
long-leaf pine frequently goes through
the sand into the loam soil and secures
for the tree a firm anchorage against
storms and enables it to draw its nour
ishment from a more fertile soil.
The stem parts of the long-leaf pine
are as peculiarly adapted for growing on
a sand soil as the root system is. Instead
of the stem's branching or growing the
first year it only puts out a great num
ber of very long thick leaves, exceedingly
close to the ground. These leaves spread
out and help to shade the ground close to
the plant and keep it moist. At the end
of the first season's growth the single
(terminal) bud is not over an inch and a
half above the earth and the bud itself is
nearly an inch long, so that it can be
said that the stem of the seedling does
not grow any in height during the first
year, all the energy of the plant being
diverted to increasing the root and pro
ducing the great tuft of long deep green
leaves which spread out immediately
below the bud and make the plant resem
ble more a tuft of some marvelous kind
of grass than a young tree. Some of the
lowest leaves usually die during the first
year ; most of them remain on, however,
for two seasons.
During the second and third year the
growth of the stem in height is slight,
though it increases in thickness, but
after that, at least in a forest, its growth
is wonderful. Frequently in a thick
wood where a young tree has been
allowed to grow, in eight or nine years
after height-growth has begun, it will
have reached a height of eighteen or
twenty feet and a diameter of no more
than three or four inches, and will have
grown each year from only one bud, the
terminal bud, at the end of the woody
axis, there being no branches, and no
sign of any having been formed. For
leaves there will be only a single, broom
like bunch terminating the slender stem.
The rapidity with which this stem is
raised and the fewness of its branches
until the natural height of the tree is
reached makes one of the fine qualities of
the timber. It gives long stocks which
have no knots in them, even small ones,
to produce any ununiformity of quality,
or to make weak places on the interior of
an apparently perfect piece of timber.
This feature which is the cause of so
fine a quality of wood is a great draw
back to tlie development of the young
trees. This single terminal bud is a very
large and complicated structure, and
when once destroyed in any way no
other bud is usually formed by which
the growth of the young seedling can be
continued. It is true of most conifers,
(i. e., pines, firs, cypress and cedars)
that they do not readily form buds and
that they rarely sprout from the stump
and are very difficult to reproduce from
cuttings, etc., but with the long-leaf pine
such buds are formed and sprouts devel
oped even more rarely than with most
other conifers.
The long-leaf pine has a severer si rug
gle for existence than any other of our
forest trees for the reason that in all
stages of its reproduction and growth
it is more severely and continuously
attacked by a greater variety of enemies
than any other. Besides the natural
drawbacks to its development from the
peculiar manner of forming several of
its parts, and the fact that these parts
when destroyed are not replaced, its
large and sweet seed are eaten in
large quantities by fowl of various kinds,
rats, squirrels and by swine, which prefer
them to all other kinds of mast and,
when there is enough' long-leaf pine
mast, become very fat on it.
As far as has been observed, young
long-leaf pines are attacked by no
injurious beetles or bark-borers or by
any fungi sufficiently to injure them.
The mature pines, however, have in
past years several times been attacked by
bark beetles in such numbers as to de
stroy the pine over large areas. A few
trees which have been killed from their
attacks can be seen at any time around
the edges of districts which have been
recently lumbered.
If the destruction by swine ceased with
eating mast there would still be sufficient
seed left to reproduce some parts of the
forests, as the mature trees are gradually
thinned out, for one-year-old seedlings
are common after a heavy mast. No
sooner, however has the young pine got
ten a foot high and its root an inch in
diameter than the hog attacks it, this
time eating the roots, which, until two
inches in diameter, are very tender,
juicy, pleasantly flavored and free of
resinous matter. In the loose, sandy
soil the piney woods hog, or "rooter,"
finds little difficulty in following and
devouring these tender roots to their
smallest ends. Many small trees are
destroyed in this way. And cattle, fur
thermore, are said to bite off frequently
the tops of the small plants, and with
them the terminal buds, in the early
spring. This is doubtless done while
grazing, more accidentally than other
wise. Fires often destroy all the young pines
that escape the hogs. They kill the
small pines by burning the highly inflam
mable bracts around the bud and so stop
its growth, or in high grass frequently
burn all the leaves. Larger trees, even
until they are three or four inches
through, are easily killed in spring, when
the sap is rising and the outer layer of
wood is growing rapidly, by a hot fire
which will burn the thin exfoliated layers
of bark all over the trunk. The loblolly
pine is less injured by fire because its
bark is thicker and so offers more protec
tion to the growing wood ; the bark, too,
lying closer to the wood in firmly ap
pressed layers, does not so easily take
fire.
Straightened Things Out.
A little while ago lawyer Ilackett of
Somerville purchased some land over
which there had been a lawsuit for years,
until the parties had spent half a dozen
times what the land was worth. Ilackett
knew all about it. Some of the people
wondered why he wanted to get hold of
property with such an incubus of uncer
tainty upon it. Others thought that
perhaps he wanted some legal knitting
work and would pitch in red-hot to fight
that line-fence question on his own hook.
That's what the owner of the adjoining
hind thought. So he braced himself for
trouble when he saw Ilackett coining
across the fields one day.
Said Ilackett, "What's your claim here,
anyway, as to the fence?"
"I insist," replied his neighbor, "that
your fence is over on my land two feet
at oneend and one foot at least at the
other end."
'Well," replied Ilackett, "you go m
ahead just as quick as you can and set
your fence over. At the end where you
say that I encroach on you two feet set
the fence onto my land four feet. At the
other end push it onto my land two feet."
"But," persisted the neighbor, "that's
twice what I claim."
"I don't care about that,"1 said Ilackett.
"There's been fight enough over this land.
I want you to take enough so you are
perfectly satisfied you have got your
rights, and then we can get along all
pleasantly. Go ahead and help your
self." The man paused abashed. He had
been ready to commence the old struggle
tooth and nail. But the move of the new
neighbor stunned him. Yet he wasn't
to be outdone in generosity. He looked
at Ilackett.
"Squire," said he, "that fence ain't
going to be moved an inch. I don't want
the blamed old land. There warn't
nothing in the fight but the principle of
the thing. " Lrwiston Journal.
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THE MAGNOLIA HOUSE, PINEHUKST.