Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/350

346 sandy soils, and the ground-water level fairly constant throughout the year.

In its relations to fire the pitch pine seems to be intermediate between the spruces already mentioned and some of the southern pines. The pine-barrens of Long Island and New Jersey everywhere bear the marks of fire, which seems usually not to kill the older trees. Further studies of this point are needed.

This tree is usually too small, crooked or knotty to be of much value for lumber, but where it is abundant it has been used for many purposes, especially in the early days before transportation facilities enabled better woods to compete with it so-strongly. The soil in which it grows is of little value for ordinary agriculture, but in wet places among the pines, especially in Massachusetts and New Jersey, large crops of cranberries are gathered. The pine region of New Jersey formerly produced considerable quantities of bog iron ore and glass sand. See 42: 442, 830. 1893.

The Red Cedar (Juniperus Virginiana) grows nearly throughout

 (Juniperus Virginiana) March, 1913.

eastern North America between—but hardly overlapping—the boreal forests of high latitudes and altitudes and the tropical forests of southern Florida. It is most abundant on the northwestern flanks of the