154 LOBLOLLY OR NORTH CAROLINA PINE. 



(3) Longleaf Pine Flat Lands. 



The first step in connection with the management of these lands should 

 be to increase the density of the stands by protection against fire. 

 (Plate VI, A.) At present on account of the irregularity of the stands 

 only selection culling or cutting clean in small groups is possible. The 

 diameter for cutting should be controlled as indicated in the discussion 

 of the method of cutting in open pure uneven-aged stands. The method 

 of cutting in large even-aged groups should be governed by the quality 

 site. On best sites cutting to a diameter limit may be followed. On 

 the dry sites the stands should be thinned in the manner described under 

 thinnings, provided thinnings can be conducted without loss, the ob- 

 ject of thinning being to develop the best formed dominant and the 

 codominant trees, and the stands should be cut clean in one cutting or 

 in two cuttings at intervals of 10 to 15 years. Some of the best de- 

 veloped dominant trees should be left for seeding, unless mature and 

 heavy groups are near enough to assure thorough stocking. The ulti- 

 mate form of forest which should be sought should be large even-aged 

 groups or blocks, varying in age by 15 to 20 years, conforming to the 

 interval between cuttings. In many places there is already an excellent 

 basis for this form and the present distribution of age classes enables it 

 to be readily obtained. Seeding would take place from near-by mature 

 groups or seed trees could be left. Under good management the?e lands 

 are capable of yielding between 450 and 500 board feet a year. At 

 present the yield is much less, probably not over 300 feet a year. 



On some of the medium dry sites with compact loamj^ clayey, or silty 

 soils having a low humifying or oxidizing capacity, the pine straw and 

 leaf litter accumulates under heavy stands of timber to a depth of six 

 to eight inches. This litter dries out so thoroughly during the autumn 

 that seedlings, which "were established on it during the damp spring, die. 

 Consequently, it is necessary when the mineral soil has not been brought 

 to the surface during lumbering or by hogs, to destroy the leaf litter 

 immediately after or during lumbering, in order to expose the mineral 

 soil sufficiently to secure restocking. 



(Jk) Mixed With Hardwoods in Flat Swamps. 



The present manner of cutting this type removes all of the pine and 

 the best trees of the more valuable hardwoods and leaves a large number 

 of old defective and small trees, chiefly water gum, sweet gum, and red 

 maples. Many of these are suppressed trees which fail to recuperate and 

 make additional height growth. They serve, however, largely as seed 

 trees. The resultant forest is a young, even-aged stand formed chiefly of 

 red maple, water gum, and sweet gum, but containing some pine over- 

 topped by the trees which were left at the first cutting. It is an unde- 

 sirable mixture on the whole, but a convenient form which permits con- 



