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Figure 43. — Old-field stand of shortleaf pins in Orange County thinned for fuel wood. 



opportunity for improvement exists in the mountain and 

 the Coastal Plain divisions, but more cull material can be 

 cut for fuel wood in farm woodlands throughout the State. 



Cull material can often be removed in connection with 

 improvement cuttings to eliminate unprofitable trees and 

 improve the composition and quality of the stand. A large 

 proportion ol the forests in North Carolina should receive 

 this treatment, but markets are often a limiting factor. 

 This is particularly true in the mountain hardwoods, 

 where improvement cuttings are badly needed. In the 

 piedmont and Coastal Plain, stands can be improved more 

 easily because of the better commercial market for low- 

 grade hardwood for pulpwood or lumber and for farm 

 use. This makes possible the removal of overmature, 

 unsound, and poorly formed pine trees as well as the 

 undesirable hardwoods. 



The growing stock can be further improved by judicious 

 thinning and pruning. Some of the old-field pine stands, 

 in particular, are so densely stocked that growth of indi- 

 vidual trees is retarded and most of them will respond 

 quickly when thinned. The owner of the old-field pine 

 stand shown in figure 43 has thinned his stand and thereby 

 has obtained part of his fuel wood. Other timberland 

 owners are making pulpwood thinnings. A great many 

 more landowners in the piedmont and Coastal Plain can 

 and should thin their timber stands to obtain the dual bene- 

 fits of increased growth and an early crop of useful wood. 



In some stands pruning can be a desirable improve- 

 ment measure. Owners of large industrial forests will 

 doubtless hesitate to make the necessary cash expenditure, 

 but farmers who own old-field stands of pine can prune 

 them in their spare time between crop seasons. Raising 

 the quality of saw timber by pruning will mean more cash 

 to the farm woodland owner, if he will insist on selling his 

 sawlogs by grade. 



Improve Harvesting Methods 



Productivity of the forest is determined to a great extent 

 by the methods used in harvesting the timber crop. On 

 many commercial logging operations in the State a high 

 proportion of all the merchantable timber is cut and the 

 growing stock is left in a nonproductive condition for many 

 years. Commercial operators should not be criticized for 

 failing to utilize unmerchantable species, but the prevailing 

 practice of cutting almost all of the pine and very little of 

 the hardwood is transforming large areas of pine forest into 

 pine-hardwoods and in some places even to pure hardwoods. 

 Furthermore, too little of the cutting follows any estab- 

 lished silvicultural method and the composition of the new 

 stand is left to chance. Some progress has been made in 

 determining better methods of harvesting the various 

 forest types, but the need is urgent for a much more in- 

 tensive study of timber harvesting methods in North 



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