SHORTLEAF PINE: IMPORTANCE AND MANAGEMENT, 47 
the width of the opening. With trees averaging 60 feet in height the 
relation would be 240 feet of opening to each 60 feet of timber. This 
- would remove four-fifths of the stand and reduce the second cut, or 
removal of the seed strips, to an operation of small size. If logging 
' costs or market conditions should make such a small cut impracticable 
the strips should be made of equal width. In case a large tract is 
being managed to secure a periodic yield, which is sustained, but com- 
paratively small, the strips are cut successively starting from some 
- point or points on the leeward side of the stand. A strip is cut at 
_ right angles to the prevailing winds, and another is made to the wind- 
ward as soon as regeneration is fully secured in the first, and so on. 
When a strip is being cut, the next one may be thinned by the re- 
moval of all the smaller and some of the medium sized trees. This 
stimulates seed producing within the stand as an aid in restocking the 
cleared strip. The last remaining strip in the series should be heavily 
thinned at the time of the preceding cutting and only 15 to 20 of the 
larger trees left on each acre. These will serve as seed trees, and on 
account of the rapid crown development following thinning they 
should fully restock both strips in the course of three to seven years. 
After this has been accomplished they are removed, as the final cut- 
ting of the original stand. 
MIXED STANDS. 
In mixed stands where shortleaf pine is in competition with 
various hardwoods it has been found most profitable to encourage 
the pine, thus bringing about a gradual change in the forest type. 
Detailed studies carried on by the State in western North Carolina 
show that this is true in forest management of mixed second-growth 
oak and pine forests’ over the Piedmont region from Virginia to 
Georgia. This is recommended because of the rapid rate of growth 
and greater general usefulness of the pine timber. Its compact crown 
and ability to grow with only overhead light enable young shortleaf 
pine to keep pace with or emerge from the general level of its asso- 
ciates following the coppicing of hardwoods. In brief, the essential 
steps in accomplishing this desired end are (1) adequate provision 
for pine seed trees, (2) protection of the young pine in cutting and 
logging, (3) opening up the forest by the removal of a larger percent- 
age of the hardwoods, and (4) reducing the firemenace. Inthe mixed 
stands in the National Forests of western Arkansas and adjacent 
regions the ranging of hogs in large numbers for many years past 
has very greatly reduced the natural seeding of the associated nut- 
bearing oaks and hickories, and by preparing a good seed bed has 
considerably increased that of shortleaf pine. An advantage is 
1 Bulletin 23, Forest Conditions in Western North Carolina, and Press Bulletins 64 to 
84, North Carolina Geologic and Hconomic Survey. 
