168 FORESTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. ■ 



system of natural regeneration with large-sized groups, or the 

 strip system, with groups or strips not over three hundred to four 

 hundred yards wide. This is the method of regeneration now 

 roughly relied on over a large portion of the eastern counties, 

 though the seed from under-sized and defective trees, left on the 

 lumbered area, materially assist. To make certain of regenera- 

 tion the strips cleared at one time should not have a greater 

 width than four hundred yards. 



For planting very little preparation of the soil is required. 

 Thin woods of broad-leaf trees can have loblolly pine planted 

 with them if their cover is sufficiently open to admit of the growth 

 of the pine, wherever the humus is not too deep, without any 

 more preparation of the soil than turning over the humus. Waste 

 places that are not naturally seeded could advantageously be 

 plowed and artiticially planted. Seeding can be done in early 

 spring, the seed lieing covered by harrowing with l)rush, but 

 should not be covered deeper than J inch. The greater part, if 

 not all, of the seed will germinate the same year in wdiich planted, 

 usually in about four weeks. About four pounds of seed are 

 required to sow an acre. There are about 25,000 seed to the 

 pound. The young plants must be carefully protected from fires. 



TRANSITIONAL FORESTS. 



The transitional forests, lying along the western border of the 

 coastal plain region, are formed by the overlapping of the conifer- 

 ous fore.-t of the pine belt and the broad-leaf forests of the Pied- 

 mont plateau region, so that oaks and hickories with the long-leaf 

 pine form the gi-eater q^art of the growth. These forests are best 

 develo])ed in tlie middle and southern parts of Nash county, the 

 eastern part of Wake, and the western part of Montgomer3^ To 

 the north of Nash county, in Northampton and Halifax counties, 

 it is only occasion ;illy along crests covered with sandy drift that 

 the forests are tyj)ically developed; elsewhere, on the more loamy 

 soils, the broad-leaf element exists witliont the long-leaf pine, and 

 is associated with the short-leaf and loblolly pines. In southeast- 

 ern Chatham and southeastern Randolph counties the long-leaf 

 ])iiio also occasionally occurs along sandy or gravelly crests, but 



