191J^'] Timber of Oraxge County 91 



per cent of the hardwood stand. The greater part of the oak 

 timber is best adapted for the production of cross-ties ; and this 

 is the use to which it is being largely put. The red oaks, chiefly 

 Spanish, black and scarlet oaks, form perhaps 15 per cent of 

 the stand, while most of the remainder is hickory. There is 

 very little poplar in Orange County, and less sweet gum. 

 Though cedar occurs mostly in the old field pine type, some 

 good merchantable cedar is found on some of the hardwood 

 areas. It is said that no pine was originally mixed with the 

 hardwoods in this county south of the sandy areas in north 

 Orange. There is now, however, some merchantable pine in 

 many hardwood areas, and pine seedlings and saplings are 

 found coming in over perhaps the greater part of the hardwood 

 forest. 



The old field pine type occupies land which had at one time 

 Tbeen cleared for agriculture, but which was subsequently aban- 

 doned. As a rule, therefore, it is more level and better adapted 

 to farming than the hardwood land. It is estimated that about 

 15 per cent of this type contains merchantable timber, with an 

 average stand of about 4,000 feet per acre. Practically all of 

 this timber is second-growth pine, though many areas contain 

 a percentage of cedar. Probably 60 per cent, of the pine forests 

 are pole stands, the trees being below merchantable size. 



Three si>ecies of pine occur in commercial quantities in 

 Orange County. Shortleaf forms from 50 to 100 per cent of 

 the pine stand throughout the county and in all but three town- 

 ships — Chapel Hill, Eno, and Hillsboro — more than 95 per 

 cent of it. In these three townships, constituting the south- 

 eastern third of the county, loblolly pine occurs plentifully; 

 in the former township, between 30 and 40 per cent of the pine 

 being of this species, while in the two latter about 15 per cent 

 is loblolly. In the southern part of Bingham To\vnship also 

 about 10 per cent of the pine is of this species. The proportion 

 of loblolly pine in the young growth is usually greater than it 

 is in the merchantable timber, showing that this species is gain- 

 ing ground in Orange. Scrub or " spruce " pine only occurs 

 in any quantity in the northwestern quarter of the county where 

 in two townships it forms about 5 per cent of the pine stand. 



