
FiGuRE 62.— Mechanical destruction of scrub oak is one way to prepare the site for regeneration in the Sandhills. 
thinned if they are to produce saw timber in a reason- 
able length of time. Young hardwood stands generally 
need improvement as much as do the pine. 
During recent years there has been considerable 
improvement in cutting practices on the part of many 
forest landowners, particularly pulp companies and other 
large industrial owners. In 1944 an estimated 42 percent 
of the forest lands in the State were under fair or 
better forest management. Since then the extent of such 
management has steadily increased. The number of 
technical foresters employed by private forestry firms 
has increased threefold. Improvements in cutting prac- 
tices have included lighter or selection cuttings and thin- 
nings in crowded stands. Also the use of such material 
as pine tops, formerly left in the woods as waste, is 
on the increase. Nevertheless, much additional improve- 
ment, particularly on small private holdings, will be 
necessary to achieve the growth goals for the State. 
PLANT IDLE AND POORLY STOCKED FOREST LAND 
Building up the pine growing stock will require 
more than special measures to increase natural regenera- 
tion. Such efforts will accomplish little more than to 
maintain the present proportion of pine in the State. 
The shortage can be made up by planting or possibly 
by direct seeding after suitable site preparation. 
In the Coastal Plain there are large areas of non- 
forested idle land and poorly stocked forest land that 
can be planted. In 1947, 939,300 acres of idle land 
were not used for growing farm crops and had not 
yet begun to restock with trees. While much of this 
area is only temporarily out of cultivation and is best 
suited for farm crops, a substantial acreage is better 
suited to growing trees and should be planted as quickly 
as possible. This area, roughly 271,000 acres, is the 
land in capability classes V, VI, and VII as defined by 
the Soil Conservation Service (8) and includes 128,000 
acres on the dry, infertile sands of the Sandhills counties 
and 143,000 acres in the remainder of the Coastal Plain. — 
In the Sandhills counties, 548,000 acres of forest 
land, under 40 precent stocked and without an adequate 
seed source, should also be planted. In the remainder 
of the Coastal Plain, 912,000 acres is under 10 percent — 
stocked; about 45 percent of this area, or 410,000 acres, 
56 Forest Resource Report No. 3, U. S. Department of Agriculture 

