Treesearch

In 1954, pulpwood production in the South was 16,269,600 cords, an increase of 0.9 percent over 1953. It was the largest harvest on record. The cut of pine pulpwood was 14,108,000 cords, of hardwood 2,128,800 cords, and of dead chestnut 32,800 cords. While hardwood production was 11.0 percent more than in 1953, pine was 0.3 percent less, and dead chestnut 46.3 percent less. In 1954, southern wood accounted for 60 percent of domestic pulpwood receipts at all mills in the United State.

A study was made in north-central Georgia in a typical cutover pine stand with a hardwood understory to measure the rate of hardwood invasion, the reaction of hardwood species to release, and the effectiveness of cutting burning, and grubbing as control measures in reducing hardwoods. A knowledge of understory hardwood behavior is important in establishing and maintaining pine on about one-half of the upland pine sites in the lower Piedmont, where hardwoods threaten to become dominant.

Nursery lifting of pine seedlings may have considerable influence in survival of field plantings. A cooperative study in south Florida has demonstrated that lifting technique can be an important factor in getting good survival under adverse weather conditions. Unfortunately, damage done in lifting often is difficult to detect and usually is overlooked. Performance of machine lifters should be checked frequently to assure that seedlings are not being damaged in this operation.

Planting the southern pines offers the only sure way of restoring to timber production, within the next 50 years, a huge area of forest land vital to the southern and the national economy.

Occasionally a forest fire burns with an intensity that seems far out of proportion to apparent burning conditions. Sometimes it multiplies its rate of energy output many times in a short space of time. Although infrequent, these unusual fires have over a long period of time been responsible for the major loss of life in forest fires and a large part of the losses in property and forest values, Each blowup fire raises the question: What can we do to recognize conditions causing extreme fire behavior and how can we predict them in advance?

Tree dieases are one of the major sources of loss to timber growers in the Southern bottomlands. The U. S. Forest Service estimates that, year in and year out, the disease toll in these forests is equal to 15 or 20 percent of the growth.

The usual laboratory procedure in determining soil-moisture tension values is to use "undisturbed" soil cores for tensions up to 60 cm. of water and bulk soil samples for higher tensions. Low tensions are usually obtained with a tension table and the higher tensions by use of pressure plate apparatus. In tension analysis at the Vicksburg Infiltration Project some soils had higher moisture contents at 1/3 atmosphere tension than at 60 cm (.06 atmosphere). This was noted particularly in fine-textured soils and was thought to be related to the difference in relative disturbance of the soil...

Nearly every acre of Southern bottomland hardwood forest is carrying an appreciable number of rotton or grossly misshapen trees. These worthless culls prevent the establishment of seedlings and reduce the growth of good trees. Worse yet, the culls are a source of undesirable seed. Many are of inferior species and others are of poor form. Leaving them to reproduce their kind is certain to harm the future composition of the forest.

In 1953, a study was begun at the Delta Branch of the Southern Forest Experiment Station to determine whether fence posts cut from Delta hardwoods can be treated satisfactorily by cold-soaking in pentacholorophenol. Species included in the test were overcup oak, red oak (water oaks) sweetgum, tupelo, privet, boxelder, hackberry, hickory, cedar elm, American elm, and bitter pecan. Most of the posts were from small overtopped trees which ordinarily die and are wasted before they become large enough for sawlogs. However, some vigorous privet and boxelder were cut in order to give more...