114 A STUDY OF FOREST CONDITIONS 



wise the less valuable species will be favored by a pre- 

 ponderance of seed trees and by a suppression of the most 

 valuable young growth by the old trees. 



The future of the stave industry cannot be foretold. 

 The supply of timber of the size and quality now required 

 cannot last very long. White oak grows comparatively 

 slowly, and cannot attain large sizes rapidly enough to 

 make its use for staves alone profitable. There is no doubt, 

 however, that unless substitutes are found, smaller trees 

 will have to be used in the future. Higher prices will 

 then be paid for stumpage, and white oak will be a most 

 profitable tree to grow. 



MANAGEMENT. 



The present methods of handling the forest lands of this 

 region are wasteful and destructive, and little or no pro- 

 vision is made for their future care and usefulness. This is 

 especially true of the longleaf pine areas. Township after 

 township has been cut over and burnt until there is practi- 

 cally no pine left standing on the ground and a useless 

 growth of scrub oak takes the place of valuable pine forest. 

 The only hope for such land is the expensive process of 

 reseeding or planting. The forests that are not already 

 cutover shoiild be so limibered that the mature timber will 

 be harvested with the least possible waste. The land will 

 then continue to yield the largest amount of timber of the 

 highest value. 



Conservative limibering consists of two fairly distinct 

 operations, namely, the proper selection and complete utiliza- 

 tion of the trees cut, and the proper protection and care of 

 those left standing. Conservative lumbering is an invest- 

 ment. A certain amount of timber is left on the ground in 

 order to increase the future value of the property. By leav- 

 ing from 500 to 1,000 board feet of thrifty, immature trees, 

 and cutting off the mature timber, a stand which is growing 

 rapidly and adding volume at an increasing rate per year 

 is substituted for one which decays as fast as it adds volume, 

 because mature. 



