Physical Condition of New Jersey Forests. 



The term " forest," as used in this paper, includes all areas 

 which are devoted to the growing of timber, whatever may be the 

 stage of growth. The forest area is therefore made up of stump 

 land, brush land and timber of all ages, but the amount of stump 

 and brush land is comparatively small, and only a small propor- 

 tion of the timber exceeds fifty years in age; much the larger 

 part ranges from 20 to 50 years. While the forest growth varies 

 in thriftiness with the nature of the soil, practically all of the 

 upland, if left uncultivated or unoccupied, will produce timber,, 

 consequently, exclusive of the areas occupied by towns and cities, 

 all of the upland not under cultivation may be considered to be 

 forest. The tide-marsh areas cannot produce timber because of 

 saltness ; there are small areas of savannah land naturally treeless 

 in the southern New Jersey pine belt, but the kind of alhivial 

 lands which will not produce timber because of the exceeding 

 fineness of the soil, such as the prairie lands of the Mississippi 

 Basin, are almost unknown in this State. 



The most considerable area of upland which seems almost 

 incapable of producing timber is that known as " the plains," in 

 the southeastern part of Burlington county, comprising over 

 14,000 acres of sandy and gravely upland, covered with a stunted 

 arboreal growth, and which is fully described in a later chapter. 

 In northern New Jersey most of the top of Bearfort mountain, 

 and some limited areas of Green Pond and Copperas mountains, 

 together with the main crest and steep eastern escarpment of 

 Kittatinny mountain, are too bare of soil to produce timber of 

 consequence, but all of these barren areas together do not com- 

 prise one per cent, of the upland area of the State. 



DISTRIBUTION OF FOREST. 



The largest continuous area of forest in the State is "the 

 pines," an almost unbroken coniferous forest, covering practi- 



(15) 



