Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/349

Rh states which according to the last census cut more hemlock lumber than white pine—making due allowance for the inclusion of more than one species under the same name—have richer soils, on the whole, than those in which the reverse is true.)

This tree is confined to situations rarely or never visited by fire, being protected either by the scarcity of undergrowth, or by the topography, or both. It is probably very sensitive to fire, especially when young.

Formerly the hemlock was valued chiefly as a source of tanbark, and it was once, and still is in many places, as far apart as Michigan and Georgia, a common practise to cut the trees for their bark alone, and leave the logs to rot in the woods. At present it is used largely also for lumber and pulp-wood. The leading states in the production of hemlock lumber in 1909, in proportion to area, were Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Michigan, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia, in the order named. (The first four of these, as well as Vermont, New York and Maryland, cut more hemlock than white pine.)

The Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida) ranges from New Brunswick and Ohio to the mountains of Georgia, but seems to form extensive pure

 (Pinus rigida) Typical New Jersey pine-barrens. Trees in background killed by fire. August, 1909.

stands only in southeastern Massachusetts, eastern Long Island, and southern New Jersey. Such forests usually have a dense undergrowth of two shrubby oaks (Quercus ilicifolia and Q. prinoides), with poor