12 © WORKING PLAN, LANDS IN BERKELEY COUNTY, S. ©. 
The amount of underbrush varies greatly. In places it is dense, 
consisting of rattan, smilax, and wax myrtle; in other instances it is 
almost totally lacking. Grass occurs here but sparingly, and the lands 
are of small value for grazing. 
In the bottomland type of forest a large number of species occur. 
Here maple, ash, beech, red, white, black, Spanish, and water oaks, 
hickory, elm, pond pine, and red gum reach their best development. 
Loblolly pine also grows well. 
Few of the above-mentioned species are at present cut, and many 
do not occur in sufficient quantities to be worth removing. The lob- 
lolly and pond pine will be cut. Maple, ash, hickory, white and red 
oak, and red gum could probably be removed with profit at the same 
time, thus making room for reproduction of loblolly pine and the great 
increase in the future value of the forest. 
The trees are of all ages and diameters. Saplings and poles of all 
the species are much more plentiful than seedlings, which are gener- 
ally very scarce. 
Fire occurs on this forest type only during extremely dry seasons, 
and as such seasons do not usually occur more often than once every 
ten years, little damage has resulted from this source. 
True swamps.—The true swamps occupy the low-lying lands, where, 
except in occasional very dry seasons, there is standing water the 
year round. The soil is deep and rich, but very wet. It varies from: 
sandy loam to heavy muck; the latter, however, occurs only over 
small areas. Properly drained, these lands would be valuable for 
agricultural purposes. Humus is deep but not well decayed, for the 
standing water retards its decomposition. Over this layer of humus 
is a thick mat of leaves and needles, decaying slowly under water. 
Underbrush is nearly always present in the true swamps. It occurs 
on tussocks raised above the water, and consists of hurrah brush, red 
and white bay, smilax, rattan, and holly. These tussocks also bear 
one or more trees each. 
The forest is made up of a large number of species. The commonest 
are cypress, loblolly and pond pine, black and red gum, maple, water 
oak, yellow poplar, and ash. With the exception of cypress, none of 
these trees prefers the class of land found in this type; all of them grow 
to better advantage on drier situations. The trees of chief commer- 
cial importance are cypress, loblolly pine, and yellow poplar. 
Cypress occurs in groups or as scattered individuals throughout the 
type, and reaches larger size than any other species found on the tract. 
Loblolly pine also is of irregular occurrence. It seeks the higher places, 
and is found either on small islands or on tussocks, while cypress often 
grows in the water. Notwithstanding their scattered occurrence, these 
two species make up the bulk of the merchantable stand throughout 
the true swamps. Yellow poplar occurs only in a few small groups, 
and if it were not for its large size would be of no importance. 
