MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 199 



the lower part of the trunks as well as that of the roots, so far as they 

 are able to dig thou up. 



Other Destructive Influences. — The following are also destructive 

 to the forests of this region : injudicious cutting ; clearing land better 

 suited for forest growth ; and erosion. 



Injudicious cutting of the timber has been going on in this county 

 since its settlement. Nearly all of the areas have been cut over many 

 times for the purpose of securing certain timber species for special pur- 

 poses. This constant stripping the forest of its most valuable timber 

 has left not only too few and poor, immature trees as the only repre- 

 sentatives of the more valuable species, but it has also permitted the 

 less valuable species to become too abundant. As a direct consequence 

 large tracts of forests now present a very irregular and uneven-aged 

 appearance, with very few good timber trees remaining. The woodland 

 owners of St. Mary's County do not fully realize the decline of their 

 forest resources. When wood is needed but little discretion is exercised 

 in the choice of trees to be cut, and no provision is made for the renewal 

 or improvement of the stand. 



Large areas throughout the sandy and rather unproductive regions of 

 the county were stripped of their timber, and cultivated for farm crops 

 for several years. When they ceased to yield a crop sufficient to pay 

 for the tilling of the soil, they were abandoned and allowed to revert 

 to nature. A scrubby growth of oaks, black giims, persimmon, and 

 scrub pine now occupies these old farms. Frequently, such areas have 

 come up to a pure stand of scrub pine which forms about 10 per cent 

 of the forests of the northern half of the county. Formerly, the entire 

 county was covered with a dense stand of hardwood timber with oaks, 

 chestnut, and hickory predominating. The lands now occupied by the 

 better forests are those which have never been cleared. These are narrow 

 strips along the streams and Bay shores. 



In the central part of the county the surface is rather unduhiting, 

 especially along the streams. The earlier settlers cleared the land at 

 the foot of the hills; the later settlers enlarged the fields by taking the 

 timber from the hillsides. The loose, sandy soil on these cleared slopes 



