PLANTING A SMALL SOUTHERN WOODLAND

W. R. HINE.

The man who wants to plant a small woodland in the South should first make up his mind on several points. Growing timber is a long-time project. It requires good judgment in weighing the several factors. It requires careful long-range planning and a disposition to abide by decisions made. It is well to reach sound conclusions at the start.

Wise land management dictates that each field should be devoted to the purpose for which it is best suited. Land suited to the production of food crops normally should be used for such crops. Similarly, pasture land should be devoted to growing livestock, and land that is better suited to growing trees, including worn-out and eroded land, might properly be devoted to growing a timber crop.

Common sense suggests that planting be done only on land that will not restock satisfactorily within a reasonable time. Many forest acres, though bare. of seed trees, will reseed naturally from the surrounding woods, and the young trees will grow if protected from fire, trampling, or grazing as may be necessary. A good stand of loblolly pine, for example, will adequately reseed the surrounding area to a distance of 400 feet or more. Many landowners have planted, only to find in 3 to 5 years that seedlings from nearby trees restocked the area, rendering planting unnecessary.

Potential forest land that is not restocking to trees adequately or in a reasonable length of time should be planted. Adequate stocking means at least 500 commercially valuable seedlings, fairly well distributed per acre. Young trees in stands with fewer than 500 an acre at the start often grow up excessively limby and produce only low-grade products. Poorly stocked stands grow less volume for a given area than well-stocked stands. A reasonable length of time to wait for natural reseeding depends on the cost of planting and the value of the annual growth of forest products. If, for example, it costs $8 to plant an acre of loblolly pine, which will grow at the rate of 1 1/2 cords an acre a year, worth, say, $3 a cord, then an owner would be better off financially if he planted in preference to waiting more than 3 years for nature to reseed.

An owner will want to consider what kind of trees to plant and this involves a number of factors. A point of first importance will be the market value of products grown.

While nearly any sound tree of good form is marketable when timber is in urgent demand, some species are difficult to market when demand falls off. Pines are generally in demand. They are closely utilized, bring good prices, and grow more volume per acre than hardwoods. Slash pine and longleaf pine, in addition to their general usefulness for wood products, also produce turpentine and rosin. Hardwoods present more of a marketing problem. They are more limited in their usefulness and hence may not sell so readily. Some species, as the hickories, are often difficult to market. An occasional species, such as blackjack oak, is seldom marketable at all. This difference in utility is the basis for one of the South's most difficult forest-management problems. Everywhere pines are cut heavily, and the less productive, less valuable hardwoods are left in possession of the soil. Most planters prefer pine or other softwoods.

Some owners may plant for a special product, as fence posts. For that purpose they want such durable species as black locust, or redcedar, Osage-orange, or catalpa.

The ability of a species to ward off the hazards of a locality is a point for consideration in selection. Fire has been the scourge of southern forests. Longleaf pine develops a skirt of needles, which protects the bud and growing tissue inside the bark. Longleaf will survive fires that kill other pines and hardwoods. Shortleaf has the rare quality among pines of being able to sprout after its top has been killed back by fire.

SEEDLING DISEASES are also important. Longleaf is highly susceptible to brown spot needle disease (Scirrhia acicola), which in some localities may prevent seedlings from attaining height growth. Slash pine or loblolly pine may be substituted. Each within its range, and on the suitable sites, will grow up without any serious interference from brown spot. Shortleaf pine in the western Gulf States is severely stunted by the Leconte sawfly (Neodiprion LeContei), but loblolly is relatively uninjured by this insect. Shortleaf pine suffers heavy losses over part of its range from a disease called littleleaf. Loblolly, on similar sites, is relatively free of this disease. Longleaf may prove an even better substitute.

A longleaf plantation may be wiped out by native hogs which graze on the roots. While other pines may be killed by hog grazing, the damage is not usually serious. Hardwood seedlings may be injured by grazing and trampling by cattle. Pine seedlings suffer less than hardwoods, but neither will survive heavy grazing.

TREES FOR PLANTING should be native to the locality. Exotic trees or strains of trees from distant sources have no place in the small woodland until proved by public agencies. Species from distant sources almost invariably prove less successful than local trees. For example, slash pine is an excellent species in its native range along the Coastal Plain of the Southeastern States, but it suffers breakage from snow and ice when planted north of its range. Strains of loblolly pine planted 100 or more miles from the parent trees sometimes suffer a higher rate of infection with stem canker(Cronartium fusiform) than the local trees that belong to the same species.

Species should be adapted to soil and moisture conditions of the area to be planted. Longleaf pine will grow on the most difficult dry, deep sandy ridges within the natural range and make excellent timber. Loblolly pine on the same site is often so heavily infected with stem canker that the trees must be salvaged early for pulpwood or be lost through decay and death. Some pine will serve for almost any dry, eroded, or less fertile area. Loblolly pine, within its natural range, is especially effective in reclaiming eroded soils and gradually rebuilding them. Pines grow well in good soil, too.

Hardwoods generally require the more fertile, well-watered soils with good drainage. Black locust, for example, will grow rapidly on good, well-watered soils, but will fail completely on poor soil or dry sites. Commercially valuable hardwoods, such as white oak, walnut, black cherry, and yellow-poplar, likewise require soils equal in fertility to those on good agricultural lands, but occasionally a landowner has an odd corner of such land that will make a better return with a crop of good hardwood trees than with annual crops.

The discussion thus far suggests that the tree planter will encounter many problems on which he may need the counsel of an expert. Each planting area presents its own special set of conditions and problems. Many of them require decisions on a technical basis. Technical help is available for those who wish it. The State forester, the local forester for any public agency, or the county agent will gladly give advice on request. The forester will go over the property with the owner and discuss whatever questions may arise. He will explain why species succeed or fail under varying conditions. He will discuss the relative values of different species and present facts on rate of timber growth, markets, and cash returns. The owner may then weigh the facts he has obtained from his own observations, from the forester, and from others, and reach his own conclusions.

SPACINGS vary from as close as 3 by 3 feet to 10 by 10 feet, and even wider.

Narrower spacings, say 5 by 5 feet and closer, are usually intended for erosion-control purposes or Christmas-tree culture. The primary objective is to get the ground protected from rain and washing as soon as practicable.

Intermediate spacings, 6 by 6 feet to 8 by 8 feet, are primarily for timber production.

Wide spacings, 10 by 10 feet and wider, are sometimes used for the production of naval stores.

Close spacings grow more wood per unit of area than wide spacings because trees use the soil moisture and sunlight more completely.

C. H. Coulter, the State forester of Florida, reported a growth of 34.8 cords to the acre on a 13-year-old slash pine plantation spaced 8 by 8 feet, and 20.2 cords for one planted 12 by 12.

Closely planted trees, however, must be kept thinned so as to retain a third or more of the length of the stem in green crown ; otherwise, the production of wood will slow down. Many planters who desire to grow wood products space the trees so that the first thinning will be made when a substantial proportion of the trees reach the size for the product desired. Thus an owner in the South who plans to make his first thinning for a pulpwood market might plant on a 6- by 6-foot spacing or thereabouts. His first thinning would be made at the end of 15 to 25 years, depending on the soil.

Men of the Forest Service planted 2 acres on an. abandoned field on the Apalachicola National Forest in Florida on a 6- by 6-foot spacing using 3year-old wild slash pine seedlings. Pulpwood was the first in the series of expected products. Exceptionally rapid growth made it necessary to thin the planted stand 11 years after planting. The cut on a selective basis removed 16 cords an acre and left 22 cords an acre.

Numerous plantings at that spacing have been thinned profitably at 15 and 20 years of age.

An owner who plans to make his first thinning for saw timber would choose a wider spacing, say 8 by 8 feet, and expect to thin at 30 to 40 years. The first sawlogs from planted stands in the South have not yet been cut, although Jim Fowler, M. L. Shaw, and others have some trees of sawlog size in stands 20 years of age.

A naval stores operator who plants slash or longleaf pine might prefer a wide spacing so as to produce long, large, green crowns for the maximum production of gum. C. W. Sinclair, of Madison County, Fla., was able to turpentine 90 trees an acre, all 9 inches or larger in diameter, at 13 years on a 12- by 18-foot spacing. Most foresters recommend a moderately close spacing to assure fairly complete utilization of the site and also to assure the natural pruning of branches. The products such as pulpwood, naval stores, poles, and sawlogs would be harvested as they became available.

PLANTING ON LANDS that have been cultivated is usually done without special preparation of the planting site. Plantings on cut-over forest land may likewise be made without prior preparation of the site, other than perhaps burning off the accumulated grass, weeds, and brush. Removal of such trash exposes the bare soil and makes the planting operations more convenient. Competition for the young trees is reduced, and the fire hazard is temporarily eliminated. Loosening the soil in cut-over forest land likewise aids seedling growth. Seedlings almost invariably grow better in loosened soil as evidenced by their growth along road banks. Mr. Coulter found that seedlings on an old field grew substantially better than trees on adjacent unbroken forest soil. Earl Porter, of the International Paper Co., found that woods soils, broken with a heavy harrow 3 months before planting, produced trees that at the end of 4 1/2 years were 70 percent taller than those on soils not harrowed.