8/ BULLETIN No. 37 



North Valle\- hill. I cannot do better than quote Prof. H. D. 

 Rogers in his description of this valley in prospective: "Exter- 

 nally the tract with the highly cultivated farms, numerous 

 thriving villages, factories, furnaces and mills presents a scene 

 unsurpassed in the United States. The soft, picturesque 

 beauty of We plain or bed of the valley is much inchanced by 

 the remnants of the natural forests. It lies between these like 

 the deck of a slender boat between its sloping sides. The sur- 

 face is in almost everv part irrigated with running brooks of 

 pure, transparent water. The enclosing hills, or two edges of 

 the general upland between which this valley lies, at an aver- 

 age depiession of nearly three hundred feet, are superbl\' 

 carved into numerous wooded ravines and narrow dells. From 

 any point on the southern table land near the head of one of its 

 ravines, the \'iew is trulv enchanting, broad slop-s of foliage 

 and a shady dell fill the foreground, wheat fields and pastures, 

 orchards and snug, tidy farm houses, manv of them of the dig- 

 nitv of country mansions, occupy for miles the middle distance, 

 and the extended back-ground is a rich succession of fading 

 hills and far stretching mountains." As Prof. Rogers has 

 stated, this ridge as also the opposite hill range, is covered with 

 a gro\\th of decidous timber which though but a narrow strip 

 at some places, is almost unbroken throughout its length of 

 man\' miles. 



Once more confining my statements to the local square, 

 we have about 170 acres of timber from sproutland to trees 

 averaging perhaps sixty years old. Ninty-five feet would prob- 

 ably top the highest chestnuts which predominate, with a varv- 

 ing admixture of oak Quercns tincioria, Q, alba, O, prinus, 

 hickory Carya tomentosa, tulip poplar, Liriodendron tulipifera, 

 beech, red maple, and a sprinkling aboutthe borders principally 

 of red cedar, sycamore, wild red cherry, sassafras, gum, black 

 walnut, birch Beiula It'iita, mulberry, slippery elm, hackberr\' 

 Celtis occidentalis, swamp willow, laurel Kalmia latifloria, 

 flowering dogwood and spicewood. A few of the commoner 

 woodland and swamp plants are the windflower, nicUidrake, 

 bloodroot, shepherds' purse, pepper grass, yellow violet, jewel 

 v\-eed, poison ivy, wild sarsaparilla, bush honewsuckle, part- 



