10 WORKING PLAN, FOREST LANDS IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 
This table shows forcibly the value of the timber crop maturing on 
the land. The danger period has been safely passed. Severe fires 
scorch the smaller trees, but a destructive fire is rare. The yield from 
these groups can be made to return a high rate of interest on the 
investment represented by the lands, unless turpentine tapping is 
allowed entirely to destroy the trees for the sake of a small immediate 
gain. | 
In the sapling and pole stages the growth is very rapid, and in the 
struggle for supremacy a vast number of trees are crowded out between 
this time and the maturity of the forest. From the sapling period 
judicious thinning would largely increase the final yield, and would 
improve its quality by cutting out defective, crooked, and otherwise. 
unpromising trees. It is probable that a market for cord wood for the 
railroads could be worked up which would make it possible to thin, if) 
not at a profit, at least without a financial loss. But so long as there 
is no sale for the material which the thinnings would yield, the forests 
should be left to themselves. 
On the low pine lands, where the Longleaf Pine disappears and thal 
natural forest belongs to the transition type of Loblolly, Cuban, and| 
Pond Pine, second growth is largely limited to lands formerly allen 
Sapling and pole forests, dating from the general suspension of plant- 
ing which followed the civil war, are numerous. Loblolly Pine is 
the commonest tree in these groups. It has succeeded in restocking 
small areas to the exclusion of the other species, forming miniature | 
pure forests. Pond Pine occurs with the Loblolly in small groups 
and by single trees. The proportion of Pond Pine increases greatly 
upon lands which are frequently overflowed. Cuban Pine will grow | 
on any land not too dry for the Loblolly, but most of the second 
growth of this species occurs in dense thickets bordering the Cypress 
ponds and small swamps. | 



SWAMP. 

About one-third of the total area of the tract is swamp land. 
Unlike the open pine forests, the forests of the swamps are naturally | 
dense, and have been left practically intact. The principal swamps | 
are the River Swamp, which borders the Savannah River, and the 
Great Swamp, which traverses the eastern portion of the tract from 
north to south. The swamp forests consist chiefly of the deciduous 
hardwoods Sweet, Black, and Tupelo Gum, Water Ash, Water and | 
Willow Oak, and Red Maple; the evergreen hardwoods Magnolia, 
Bay, and Live Oak; and the softwoods Cypress, Loblolly, and Cuban 
Pine. The pines are properly not swamp trees, but occur on knolls | 
or hummocks within the swamps. | 
The bulk of the forest consists of Cypress and Gums, the largest of | 
which are found in the wettest portions of the main swamps, where, on 

