6 Prolonging the Cut of Southern Pine 



weakened and those tend to become centers of infection. If con- 

 ditions are favorable, the insects may increase very rapidly and 

 destroy the pine timber over wide areas. Under ordinary condi- 

 tions their natural enemies, such as woodpeckers, keep the insects 

 from doing excessive damage. Areas badly infested with beetles 

 should be logged as soon as possible in order to lessen the danger 

 of the beetles spreading to adjacent areas. 



AGE CLASSES 



The age of the pine timber in this vicinity rarely exceeds 150 

 years, although occasional very old trees may reach 200 years. 

 Much of it is approximately even-aged, but seldom continuous 

 over very large areas. It is more likely to be broken up into 

 different age classes, clumps of large, overmature trees being 

 interspersed among groups of young timber, small poles or 

 seedlings. 



On much of the pine land old timber occupies the soil to the 

 exclusion of young growth. The spread of the roots of very 

 large trees is much greater than that of their crowns, due in part 

 to the great demand of old trees for moisture. Owing to this 

 wide spread of the roots, old stands, even when fairly open, do not 

 contain much young timber until the old trees begin to disappear 

 from weakness due to rot, or destruction by insects, wind or 

 lightning. The final form of such a stand is a few scattered old 

 trees of large size in a forest of young timber of various sizes 

 and ages. 



REPRODUCTION OF PINE 



Pine seedlings spring up readily everywhere, provided the seed 

 reaches mineral soil. Surface fires are a great help in preparing 

 a suitable seedbed. Seeds seldom, if ever, germinate on pine litter 

 or hardwood leaves and not readily in grass. Abandoned fields 

 that have been cultivated afford an excellent seedbed, but old 

 pastures reforest very slowly. The conditions after logging, 

 where the ground has been torn up by skidding, are excellent for 

 pine reproduction. The only reason there are not more seedlings 

 in the forest before logging is that they cannot live under the old 

 timber. They often require more light than is available, but the 

 most important factor is the soil moisture. The seedlings are 

 killed in dry seasons by the old trees, which deprive them of mois- 

 ture. Reproduction on cut-over lands is either destroyed by fire 

 or prevented from starting through lack of seed trees. 



