Yellow Birch and the Adirondack Forest 19 
Areas of several acres may be found covered by stands of pure* 
sugar maple, while shallow soils on exposed ledges are pure 
softwood, largely hemlock. 
The age of these stands makes marked differences in the 
forest composition and in the management. Some compara- 
tively even aged stands that are old or decadent show great gaps 
that are filling again with even aged second growth. Cutting 
of hardwoods on such areas amounts practically to a clean 
cutting. Other areas are dense stands of all aged forest suitable 
to selective cutting without opening the forest to the destructive 
action of wind and sun. 
The hardwood type has reproduced itself by natural selection 
mainly, yet the characteristic of windfall and even aged growth 
is common on small areas. Variation in the type is wide, and 
the composition of the forest changes in the several sections of 
the Adirondack region. The number of yellow birch per acre 
ten inches in diameter and over on 442 acres of Nehasane Park 
is given by Graves (1) as fifteen or 19.06 per cent of the total 
stand. Table III is taken from N. Herkimer Co., west of 
Nehasane, and shows an uncommonly large percentage of beech. 
TABLE III 
AVERAGE NUMBER OF TREES TEN INCHES AND Over D. B. H. PER ACRE ON 
70 AcrES DISTRIBUTED OveR 700 ACRES—NORTHERN HERKIMER COUNTY 
Virgin Hardwood Type 
EIT eno ey Gio Gaye ‘= Su chepevais,-0 Ops SCO GHIS wate cia eon lc crotercpere 26.10 
Pee. ora een Biditeey | Miaplabic sh: acce sone ce 8.94 
IREAESDIUCE 2.6 fb aeleci less ons | 27.30 | Sich sah Raaawb 13.04 
34 Blaekecherry:.../i20-o4 cc. 0.56 
LD -LIBAIIO &plgerere B.D Bio ino Cae | ale 
Upper Spruce Slope: 
Yellow birch is the most widely distributed and best devel- 
oped hardwood tree of this type. It can thrive better than 
maple or beech on the thin soils, and can reproduce best of all 
hardwoods in the deep humus found under the type. Birch is 
‘given by Hosmer and Bruce (2) as 18.07 per cent, and by 
Graves (1), 19.52 per cent of the stand. This percentage of 
*Term pure used to mean SO per cent or more of given species. 
Do 
