REPORT ON FORESTS. 53 



also a good deal of oak, especially rock oak, on the ridges. He 

 thinks the tendency is for chestnut to increase and oak to grow 

 scarcer, because the chestnut sprouts grow more rapidly and 

 crowd out the oak. He considers the growth now much better 

 than it was 30 years ago, as it is allowed to stand longer before 

 cutting. Good poplar is growing scarce. Each succeeding 

 growth of chestnut appears to be thrifty. The growth is better 

 on the south and east sides of the hills, although this is not so 

 noticeable when the soil is good. On the Jenny Jump mountain 

 district there seems to be a deterioration in the cleared lands, 

 but elsewhere they are well kept up. 



The timber in the Pequest valley, from Danville to Bridge- 

 ville, contains maple, elm, oak, hickory, and a little hemlock and 

 spruce. Mr. Williams, before quoted, says that 15 years ago he 

 cut off a piece of timber, near Townsbury, consisting principally 

 of oak, and since then nothing had grown there but red cedar. 



The plateau bounded by Bearfort mountain, the New York 

 line, Vernon valley, and the New York, Susquehanna and West- 

 ern railroad, has about 80 per cent, of its area in timber, consist- 

 ing mainly of oak and chestnut, a considerable portion of which 

 is from 35 to 40 years old, and only a few acres older, the remain- 

 der being younger, ranging down to 5 or 10 years. The growth 

 from 30 to 40 years old ranges from 6 to 10 inches in diameter, 

 and from 35 to 45 feet in height. The more accessible portion 

 of the timber is said to be cut at 20 years. Timber is believed to 

 grow as rapidly as in earlier years." The only wastefulness 

 apparent in cutting comes from the tendency to cut at too early 

 an age, and this practice seems to be just about at the point of 

 reform, owing to a change in demand for hoop-poles and cord- 

 wood, so that there is likelihood of future improvement. The 

 swamp areas indicated on the topographical maps on this plateau 

 are generally wooded with maple, beech, elm, and occasionally 

 with scattered pines, larches and white cedar. A dense growth 

 of rhododendron makes some of the swamps very dark and 

 almost impenetrable. Forest fires sometime - give trouble, and a 

 large area east of Canistear, near Bearfort mountain, was burned 

 over in 1894. On this same plateau, southwest of the rail- 

 road at Stockholm, the condition of the timber is quite simi- 

 lar to what we have already described for the first two or three 



