388 



A^IERICAN FORESTRY 



IHRli'TV GR(J\\ ili ui' BALSAM PLANTATION, AT KLKVATION OF 3, SOU FliiiT, 



WATAUGA COUNTY. 



depend more and more on the moun- 

 tain forests. The demand for this ma- 

 terial, aided by improved transporta- 

 tion facihties and methods of manufac- 

 ture, should make it evident that the 

 establishment of a maximum timber 

 yield would constitute one of the most 

 important contributions which the 

 m.ountain counties could make toward 

 the economic development of the State 

 as a whole. 



F0RJ3ST DISTRIBUTION BY TYPES 



The forests of Western North Caro- 

 lina are a part of the great Appalachian 

 hardwood region, which extends from 

 southern New England to the moun- 

 tainous portions of northern Georgia 

 and Alabama. These forests differ 

 from those of the central hardwood re- 

 gion, into which they gradually merge 

 beyond the western border of this State, 

 in their possession of several important 

 species which do not grow beyond the 

 mountains, or grow in very small quan- 

 tities. Such species as chestnut, red 

 oak, hemlock, and white pine form a 

 large proportion of the Appalachian 

 forests, and scarcely appear in those of 

 the central hardwood region. 



There are two distinct classes of for- 

 ests in this region ; the spruce forest on 



the tops of the highest mountains, and 

 the hardwood forest, either pure or as- 

 sociated with pine. On some mountain 

 slopes hemlock grows in almost pure 

 stands, and some old fields at the lower 

 elevations have grown up to pure or 

 mixed stands of pine; with these excep- 

 tions the hardwood stand covers the 

 whole area. 



spruce; forest 



The spruce forest grows only on the 

 tops and upper slopes of the high 

 mountains, and rarely below an aver- 

 age elevation of 5,500 feet. This for- 

 est is an extension of the great spruce 

 forest of the North, which seeks in- 

 creasingly higher altitudes as it extends 

 south, and reaches its southern limit on 

 the western shoulders of Clingman's 

 Dome, a peak 6,600 feet high, in Swain 

 County. The largest spruce areas in 

 this region, as will be seen by the map, 

 occur in Swain, Jackson, Haywood, 

 Yancey and Mitchell counties. The 

 distribution of the type is dependent 

 not only upon elevation but also upon 

 moisture conditions and to a large ex- 

 tent on protection from storms by the 

 surrounding mountain peaks. The 

 type extends down only a short dis- 

 tance on the southern slopes of even 



