94 WORKING PLAN, FOREST LANDS IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 
prolongs indefinitely the period of danger from this source. (PI. 16.4 
fig. 2.) 
One purchase, known as the English tract, was a large body of 
virgin and second-growth Longleaf and Cuban Pine which had not 
been boxed when the club acquired the land. A considerable amount 
of the best timber was blown down by a storm in 1898. The club 
desired to undertake lumbering mainly in order to save this down 
timber. Asa preliminary to lumbering it determined to carry on tur- 
pentining fora period of three years. Sixteen crops were accordingly 
boxed in the best timber, on an area of 4,769 acres, shown by Block 1 
on the map (PI. XIII). The boxing proved a grave mistake. The 
forest was largely composed of young trees, which, under conservative 
management, would have produced valuable crops of timber for an 
indefinite period. The difficulties of management are greatly increased 
by the necessity of cutting out the unmarketable boxed trees, the loss 
of which makes serious inroads on the basis for future crops. 
FIRE. 
EFFECTS. 
The injurious effects of the fires which have run over the tract for 
many years are everywhere at hand. The pine lands are burned over 
almost annually. The harm done varies with the kind of fire, the 
character and condition of the forest, the size of the trees, and the 
time of year when the fire occurs. ° 
Most of the fires are grass fires. They burn off the growth of grass 
and sedge which comes up thickly in the fields and open pine forests, 
and with it destroy the seedling pines. In swamps and on swampy 
flats, where the forest is too dense to allow of a growth of grass, brush 
fires are fed by the undergrowth and litter. On pine lands humus is 
either very thin or is lacking entirely; destructive humus fires, com- 
mon in some forest regions, are here unknown. Crown fires, or fires 
which burn in the tops of the trees, have not yet occurred in this 
forest. 
Cypress gum swamp burns only in exceptionally dry seasons; but 
the luxuriant undergrowth accumulates a large quantity of inflam- 
mable material, so that when a fire does penetrate a swamp it is 
severe. The injury is chiefly to the Cypress and the young hard- 
woods. The thin bark of the Cypress offers a poor protection against 
fire; this to some extent accounts for its frequent unsoundness. In 
the dense forests on the moister pine lands, where the hardwoods, 
especially Oak, enter into the mixture, conditions ate much the same 
as in the swamps. Fires are rare, but they are apt to be destructive 
on account of the thick undergrowth. 



