CONTROLLING LOW- VALUE HARDWOODS WITH CHEMICALS U 



When the virgin pine was harvested, a variety of small hardwood 

 trees and sprouts was left on many areas and immediately started growing 

 and spreading. Today hardwood trees and brush dominate about one- 

 third of the cutover pine land and have encroached heavily on another one- 

 third. In many places they are too thick for pine seedlings to become 

 established. Where pines do get started, they are often smothered or 

 badly suppressed for many years. These upland hardwoods - -chiefly 

 blackjack oak, post oak, red oaks, sweetgum, and hickory- -have little or 

 no value for timber (fig. 14). 



Foresters have found that it pays well to remove or deaden such 

 trees to release pine seedlings for rapid growth. Some range cattle 

 owners are also eradicating the scrub hardwoods, because they reduce 

 the amount of forage and form thickets that interfere with livestock 

 management. In a study on the Longleaf Tract, grass forage increased 

 from about 700 to 1, 900 pounds per acre in the first three seasons after 

 a heavy hardwood stand was controlled. 



The old-fashioned double-hack girdle is most practical for many 

 hardwood control situations. However, some trees live a year or longer 

 after being girdled. Trees under 12 inches in diameter are apt to sprout 

 vigorously, often sending up several stems to replace the old trunk. For 

 these and other reasons, forest landowners need improved control 

 techniques that will give quick and positive kills, reduce or eliminate 

 sprouting from stumps and roots, and require a minimum of manual 

 labor, especially hazardous ax work. It is also very important that 

 control methods be economical, for they will be applied on hundreds of 

 thousands of acres. 



1/ In January 1954, funds and manpower for these plant-control studies 

 were transferred to the Agricultural Research Service of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture. The ARS is continuing the work in close 

 cooperation with the Alexandria Research Center. 



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