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 artificially planted. Seeding can be done in early 

 spring, the seed being covered by harrowing with brush, but 

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

 not all, of the seed will germinate the same year in which 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 forest 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 greater part of the growth. These forests are best 

 developed in the middle and southern parts of Nash county, the 

 eastern part of Wake, and the western part of Montgomery. To 

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

 it is only occasionally along crests covered with sandy drift that 

 the forests are typically developed ; elsewhere, on the more loamy 

 soils, the broad-loaf element exists without 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 

 pine also occasionally occurs along sandy or gravelly crests, but 



