I remember that one of the recurring sections of the standardized tests in public school in the southeastern US concerned a reading comprehension section, and subsequent questions. The one that stands out that was used year after year was a few short paragraphs about the “marching jackpines.” I’m sure I had better comprehension of it at the time, but now, all these many yars later, I don’t have a clue. Anyone else have to deal with the marching jackpines essay, and remember what it was about?
Just to try to help I did a Yahoo! search on “marching jackpines” and located
Even if this doesn’t help, at least there’s confirmation out there that those two words appear together at least one place.
Good luck!
Farmers often plant rows of jack pines to provide windbreaks for their fields. The trees in the extract are apparently quite old; ergo, the farm was begun and abandoned long ago because the sandy soil proved too poor to grow crops.
Apparently, the trees being lined up in rows (columns) inspired the author to use a military metaphor, i.e., “marching.”
At least, that’s what I get out of it.