FOREST CONDITIONS IN DELAWARE. 39 



Care of Stands. The care of stands once established, and until 

 ripe for final cutting 1 , constitutes an important part of woodlot man- 

 agement. It includes mainly improvement thinnings and protection 

 from fire. The former can be made to pay for themselves, and in fact 

 are a source of good net returns, while the latter will never be hard to 

 accomplish for small forest tracts. 



The object of thinning is the utilization of wood and the improve- 

 ment of the stand, before it is ripe for final cutting, by the removal of 

 useless material which interferes more or less with the proper develop- 

 ment of the better trees. In making a thinning, the points to be re- 

 membered are, to provide a suitable degree of growing space for the 

 most desirable trees by freeing their crowns from those of less desirable 

 trees ; at the same time a suitable degree of density must be preserved. 

 The stand should be kept dense enough to shade the ground fairly well, 

 and to stimulate height growth and facilitate the natural pruning of 

 lateral branches, which takes place when the stand is sufficiently dense. 



Special Consideration of Loblolly Pine 



Importance of Loblolly Pine in Delaware. Loblolly pine is easily 

 the most important species for commercial timber-growing in Dela- 

 ware, and for this reason it is considered at length in this report. 

 While hardwoods are usually more desirable for farmer 's woodlots, yet 

 for money returns the growing of loblolly pine is by far the most profit- 

 able. Well-stocked stands of the tree will yield $100 to $200 an acre, 

 net returns, when thirty to forty years old, which would amount to 

 from 4 to 6 per cent compound interest on an original investment of 

 $20 an acre for the land covered with one-year-old pine ; on a lower 

 valuation for the land, stocked with pine seedlings, the interest would, 

 of course, be higher. 



Loblolly pine is confined to Sussex County and the southern half 

 of Kent, and it is in this portion of the State that there are large areas 

 of land sufficiently low in value to be profitably used for growing tim- 

 ber. 



Silvical Characteristics of Loblolly Pine 



Soil and Moisture Requirements. The most important require- 

 ment of loblolly pine for its best development and reproduction is a 

 moist soil. While it will not grow in cypress sloughs where there is 

 continuous standing water, or very wet swamp conditions, yet it grows 

 extremely well on small hummocks or isolated land occurring in such 

 swamps, in spots where the soil is moist but not constantly saturated. 



