220 THE FORESTS OF PRIXCE GEOEGE's COUNTY 



greatest inroads Avere made into the forested area, nntil this section, 

 known in the early settlement days as the 'Torests of Prince George," 

 has now the smallest percentage of forest land of any part of the 

 County. For the last twenty years there has been little change. 

 The land that was cleared prior to that time is being cultivated, 

 and the chances are, that there will be little change in the woodland 

 area for a long time to come. In the western part of the County the 

 conditions are quite different. The soils of this section are more 

 diversified and on the whole, less adaptable to the growing of agri- 

 cultural crops. There are large areas of poorly drained land, also 

 sterile sand and clay soils where pine and the oaks will thrive. Most 

 of this land was brought under cultivation prior to 1860, for the 

 growing of tobacco and corn. Under these exacting crops, however, 

 much of the soil became exhausted and was allowed to grow up in 

 brush. The change in industrial conditions following the Civil War 

 also contributed largely to the increase in the forest areas. In the 

 western section of the County at least, much more land has reverted 

 to forest during the past forty years than has been cleared. The 

 character and composition of the forest has also changed. At first 

 there was very little pine, and there is very little now, where land 

 has not been allowed to grow up as in the eastern part ; but distrib- 

 uted all over the w^estern and southern sections wdiere land has 

 reverted to forest, there is a large representation of pine. As a rule 

 the land that grew oaks, poplar, and hardwoods generally was of 

 better quality than that in which pine was found, and hence it was 

 the hardwood land that was first cleared. As soon as any of this 

 land was allowed to go uncultivated it was seeded in a few years by 

 the light winged seed from the neighboring pine trees, and thus 

 added to the increasing pine areas. In many of these young pine 

 stands the old corn rows can still be distinguished. It is estimated 

 that 5,000 acres of old fields have grown up to pine during the past 

 12 years. In the meantime other changes have followed. Because 

 of the increasing demand for saw material, railroad ties, poles, piling, 

 etc., and improvement in transportation facilities, the hardwoods 

 early invited exploitation. Consequently the hardwood stands have 

 been repeatedly culled, leaving numerous open places in the forest 



