LOBLOLLY OR NORTH CAROLINA PINE. 149 



supplemented with wheel logging. Wheels alone are used by farmers in 

 logging woodlots. They are also often used exclusively in logging such 

 tracts as are near floating water, in which case the timber is logged by 

 wheels to the water and then rafted to the mill. 



Logging with railroad and overhead cable on wet land necessitates 

 either clear cutting or cutting in strips since the breakage of small trees 

 is very large. The cost of construction is comparatively heavy. Man- 

 agement consequently can not be intensive since relatively long intervals 

 must elapse between cutting periods. Logging with railroad on upland 

 with ground cable skidding is not so expensive as swamp logging and 

 the breakage of small timber is not so great; consequently it can be re- 

 peated at more frequent intervals. (Plate XXI.) Logging with wheels 

 permits cutting at short intervals in very intensive operations. (Plates 

 XIV and XX.) In deciding on the method of cutting it is necessary 

 to take into consideration the method of logging. The object is to afford 

 the most frequent cutting periods, which are consistent with high earn- 

 ing power. 



The following methods of cutting on different types of forests are 

 recommended. 



(!) Upland Old Fields. 



On dry soils loblolly pine forms pure stands only on old fields or on 

 longleaf pine or shortleaf pine land, which have been cut clean and 

 burned, and where the naked soil conditions resemble those of old fields. 

 The small intermediate and suppressed trees in such stands recuperate 

 slowly after logging. Since the suppressed trees are invariably short- 

 bodied, a second cutting must be deferred for a long time. This results 

 in the croAvns of these trees becoming large and interfering with the 

 growth of the young stand which appears in the openings after the first 

 cut. For this reason clean cutting is preferable on all such sites. (Plate 

 III.) The mature stand should be removed in one or two cuttings. In 

 case two cuttings are made, the smaller and less promising trees, as well 

 as the knottiest trees, should be removed at the first cutting. The scat- 

 tered seed tree system of reproduction should be used ; from 3 to 6 trees 

 should be left per acre, unless there are near-by dominant trees in mature 

 stands which can be relied upon. The best formed trees should be re- 

 served for seed trees. If the trees are wind-firm, isolated seed trees of 

 the dominant class may be left. If, as is frequently the case, on dry, 

 heavy clays of the Piedmont, or when sand in the Coastal Plain is under- 

 lain by hardpan, the trees are not wind-firm (Fig. 3, a and 6), seed trees 

 should be left only in groups. If these seed trees have slender, clean 

 stems, they can be carried over until the succeeding stand is cut, when 

 their large diameters and clear timber will render them extremely valu- 

 able. 



