DOMINANT 

 SPECIES 



AREA OF DOMINANT SPECIES IN SITE QUALITY CLASS- 



"Cypress'!_ 



10 20 30 10 20 30 40 50 60 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 



PERCENT 



Figure 1 1 . — Percent of area dominated by hardwoods and cypress, classified according to site quality, south Georgia. 



The volume figures are gross; no deductions for 

 woods cull, which would be negligible in a man- 

 aged forest, have been made, and as an equalizing 

 factor, no volumes in turpentined butts have been 

 included. The per-acre volumes used as repre- 

 senting the well-stocked forest are the average of 

 the heaviest stocked 10 percent of the present 

 uncut forest stands for weighted-average sites in 

 the turpentine pine types. These indicate what is 

 attainable under better forest practice. 



The comparison discloses that the present stand 

 is sadly deficient in that it has only about one- 

 third the volume, age class for age class, of the 

 well-stocked stands. The areas in the younger age 

 classes (10 to 60 years) are fairly well proportioned. 



Site Quality 



The variable factors of soil, drainage, exposure, 

 topography, and climate affect the growth and 

 quality of timber stands. The combined effect is 

 indicated in the term "site quality." In the sur- 

 vey, sites occupied by the pine species were graded 

 into site-quality classes, based upon the total 

 height attained by dominant and codominant trees 

 at 50 years of age (fig. 10). Longleaf pine, which 

 is adaptable to the poorer sites where the stand is 

 usually open, in south Georgia averaged only 66 

 feet in height at 50 years of age. Slash pine, which 

 occurred on slightly better sites, averaged 69 feet; 

 while loblolly pine which generally grows on much 



Figure 12. — Fire is the most serious 

 menace to the future cf forestry in south 

 Georgia. This fire is burning through 

 a stand of 19-year-old longleaf pine 

 that had been protected for 6 years. 



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