Possibilities of a Second Cut 5 



The droughts seriously interfere with the development of hard- 

 woods on these soils and the only hardwood growth is a few very 

 stunted and deformed oaks from which some timber is cut. Better 

 hardwoods, including white and black oaks and some sweet gum 

 and hickory, appear near streams where the soil is fairly well 

 drained, moist and deep. The true hardwood stands occupy the 

 bottoms, which are subject to overflow and where there is com- 

 paratively little pine reproduction. These lands were under water 

 in the spring of 1912 during the unusual floods of that year and 

 were not examined. 



DAMAGE 



The mature pine is fairly sound. Old stands show a large 

 amount of red rot and a lesser amount of butt rot, although the 

 cull seldom exceeds 10 per cent of the volume on any "forty" and 

 averages less than 3 per cent. 



Fire has done very little injury to the timber. A small percent- 

 age of the trees show scarred butts, often due to the burning out 

 of faces chipped off to test the grain for shingle bolts. Most of 

 the timber is sound at the base and escapes injury from ordinary 

 surface fires. 



The greatest loss to the timber results from wind. This is 

 due to the soil, which in many sections is underlaid with hardpan 

 from two to five feet below the surface, into which the tap root 

 of the pine cannot penetrate. In consequence the tree is entirely 

 dependent on the spreading lateral roots for its support. In 

 very wet seasons, like the spring of 1912, the soil becomes quite 

 soft. Often a heavy wind will uproot many trees. Some sections 

 are more subject to wind damage than others and, through 

 repeated losses, the forest there has assumed a clump-like, many- 

 aged form. This condition is doubtless due to the presence of 

 hardpan nearer to the surface than on the tracts showing less 

 windfall. Tornadoes are very rare, although there have been one 

 or two instances of very heavy loss over a limited area, necessitat- 

 ing immediate logging. More often scattered single trees, includ- 

 ing young, small poles as well as older and larger timber, will go 

 down here and there. Weak roots and resulting poor anchorage, 

 rather than undue exposure to wind, seem to determine which trees 

 blow over. 



Insect damage is present on almost all sections examined. The 

 bark-boring pine beetles (Dendroctonus sp.) are continually 

 killing trees, both among the old timber and crowded young stands. 

 Occasionally 5 per cent of the trees may be killed within three or 

 four years. The insects first attack trees which are sickly or 



