170 FORESTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



(4.) In which the pond pine forms the greater portion of the 

 growth or is the largest tree pond pine pocosins. 



OAK FLATS. 



The oak flats border most of the gum and cypress swamps, 

 lying between the gum and cypress swamps and the level pine 

 lands. They constitute about one-fourth of the swamp area, or 

 1,000 square miles. The soils are damp or moist usually deep 

 loams, or more often sandy loams, generally inundated during 

 spring, with a good humus and a fair intermixture of vegetable 

 matter in the top-soil. 



Their growth is entirely of broad- leaf trees, in places with 

 occasional loblolly pines disseminated among them, but the white 

 and water oaks are characteristic. Water and willow oaks skirt 

 the flats. Swamp chestnut oak and overcup oak, Spanish oak, 

 and occasional white oaks form a great part of the growth of the 

 interior; with them, elms, red maple, cotton wood, and more or 

 less sweet gum and water gum. These form an upper story SO to 

 100 feet in height, and of considerable density ; beneath them are 

 many small trees, post oak, hornbeam, and haws. 



Where not suppressed by browsing cattle, or the shade is not 

 too dense, young seedlings of most of the trees are represented. 

 All of the trees endure a light shade in youth ; the willow and 

 water oaks least, the white and overcup oaks the deepest and for 

 the longest period. In most localities pasturage is regularly 

 practiced, this woodland being esteemed the best grazing ground 

 for cattle during the spring and summer, and the young growth 

 of tender broad-leaf species is systematically suppressed. Pine 

 and the more vigorously sprouting and rapidly growing species- 

 and those seeding most abundantly cottonwood, water oak and 

 willow oak largely replace windfalls and culled specimens. 

 The seed of the swamp chestnut oak, overcup and white oaks are 

 largely destroyed by hogs ; the seed of the other oaks to a less 

 extent. 



There is so little undergrowth, and these woods are so damp, 

 that fires rarely pass through the flats or do any serious damage. 

 Much of the best white oak, the several species, and Spanish oak, 



