no GEOLOGICAI. SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 



forest was open, with comparatively little undergrowth. It 

 probably had a density of 0.6 to 0.8, if we consider that of a fully 

 stocked stand to be i.o. The seventeen sample plots in the 

 summary, on page 99, show the condition of the original forest. 



SECOND GROWTH. 



When this timber was cut off, a second growth of Oak and 

 Pine took its place on the better soils, while on poor soil Pitch 

 Pine was the principal species. The second growth was chiefly 

 of seedling origin. 



From the time of the first heavy ciitting, fires began to play 

 an increasingly important part in the development of the forest. 

 When the young trees were killed back by cutting or burning, 

 the stumps, both of the hardwoods and the Pitch Pine, sent up 

 sprouts. Where the land was protected from fire, seedlings 

 returned and a thrifty second growth resulted, but when fires 

 continued to run the few seedlings which crept in were in turn 

 killed back, and afterward sprouted again ; many trees were 

 entirely killed ; the forest became thinner and thinner ; the 

 ground clothed itself with a dense growth of huckleberries, scrub 

 Oaks and dry-land moss, or the soil was completely laid bare ; 

 and land which once produced heavy timber was made almost 

 worthless. It requires but a glance at the surveys taken on 

 badly burned land, i. e., those of Table 3, to see, in the number 

 of trees, the yield per acre, and the density, the deplorable con- 

 dition of the forest. 



CONCLUSIONS DERIVED FROM THE VALUATION SURVEYS. 



For the acres in Table 3 the density averages 0.3, the number 

 of trees per acre 133, and the yield 2.9 cords. From the study 

 of second-growth timber which has not been burned, it is clear 

 that the density would be 0.7 to 0.8 if the tract had been pro- 

 tected from fire. If we assume that the trees on the protected 

 tract were sprouts there would be about three times as much 

 wood per acre. If the trees were from the seed there would be, 

 at forty years of age, on land fully stocked, about 1,200 trees and 

 not less than 20 cords per acre, or about six times as much as is 



