FOREST CONDITIONS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA 391 



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UNLOADING BARK FROM CARS AND STORING IN SHED. 



the highest mountains, but along north- 

 erly ridges and slopes it sometimes de- 

 scends to 4,500 feet. 



The stand of spruce and balsam av- 

 erages from 15 to 25 thousand feet an 

 acre over the whole area covered by 

 this type, and many stands will cut 

 from 40 to 50 thousand feet to the acre. 

 Where this timber is being cut for pulp 

 wood from 40 to 50 cords per acre is 

 an average yield. Spruce varies in 

 height from 40 to 50 feet on the ridges 

 to 80 or 90 feet on the north slopes and 

 in the heads of coves, where it attains a 

 diameter of three feet. Balsam is 

 smaller and is rarely more than two 

 feet in diameter. 



In the mature forest reproduction is 

 good, owing to the very favorable mois- 

 ture conditions and the freedom from 

 fire. In dense stands there is a larger 

 percentage of balsam, but where the 

 forest is more open spruce reproduction 

 is favored. On areas that have been 

 cut over and not burnt, the young 

 growth which had started before cut- 

 ting continues to thrive, and on many 

 areas seedlings of both species have 

 started since cutting. Unfortunately, 

 no very heavy cuttings could be studied, 

 since logging for pulp wood has been 

 carried on for only two or three years. 

 Both spruce and balsam need moist 

 humus for successful reproduction, and 



where fire recurs after cutting neither 

 of these species will be perpetuated. 

 The abundant rainfall, which is heavier 

 on these mountain tops than anywhere 

 else in the State, assisted by the dense 

 shade of these evergreen trees, afl^ords 

 an efficient fire protection for spruce 

 forests while they remain largely in 

 their natural state. But when the trees 

 are removed, allowing the large amount 

 of vegetable matter on the soil and the 

 tree tops left in logging to become dry, 

 fires burn through the remaining timber 

 with disastrous results. The current 

 belief is that it is impossible to keep 

 fires out of this type after logging, and 

 that then these forests will disappear. 

 If fires can not be kept out, this will 

 certainly be the case, and all this type, 

 amounting to some 100,000 to 150,000 

 acres of splendid forest land, will very 

 rapidly become barren mountain tops. 

 On certain areas that have already been 

 cut and accidentally burned, grass has 

 been sown, the owners claiming that 

 the land will pay better in pasture than 

 in timber. There are, however, only 

 limited areas that are suitable for pas- 

 ture, and most of the land is so steep 

 and so rocky that once the dense forest 

 cover is destroyed the soil will soon 

 wash away and leave only the bare 

 locks. In the opinion of well-informed 

 men, if this happens the land will event- 



