REPORT ON FORESTS. 83 



the same conditions, generally, prevail, the wood being mostly 

 small, but with a few large trees. Throughout the whole extent 

 of the ridges, red cedar appears to be abundant about the edges 

 of the clearings, and where the clearings have grown up. Not 

 much cutting was noted, as the growth was too small to make it 

 profitable. The woods consist of oak, hickory, maple, birch and 

 beech, with a little chestnut. We are inclined to think that 

 the general inferiority of the timber of the trap ridges arises, 

 partly from the nature of the trap-rock soils, and partly from 

 the fact that these ridges are very accessible to a thickly-settled 

 country, where timber is comparatively scarce, and, in conse- 

 quence, cutting has probably been more severe than elsewhere. 

 As a result of these two causes the timber is deteriorating. On 

 the whole, the tendency on these ridges seems to be to allow 

 clearings to grow up, but as they have, within a few years, 

 become occupied, to a great extent, by an immigrant population, 

 this tendency may, possibly, be reversed, owing to different 

 methods of farming. It may be mentioned, in this connection, 

 that the curious fact has been noted, in our forest studies, that 

 there is less disposition to destroy and waste the forests shown 

 . by our native rural population than by the immigrant popula- 

 tion from countries where the control and management of forests 

 is, on the whole, far superior to our own methods. 



HACKENSACK VALLEY. 



The red-sandstone country lying between Palisades moun- 

 tain on the east and Ramapo and Orange mountains on the 

 west was designated by us the Hackensack valley, in the " Phys- 

 ical Description." Topographically, it is all one valley, 

 although not all drained by the Hackensack river. It 

 includes all of Bergen and Hudson counties, Passaic county 

 southeast of Paterson, and the northeastern corner of Essex 

 county. It contains a large urban and suburban population, 

 and it seems somewhat anomalous that it should also include 

 some of the best timber of the State. The valley, as a 

 whole, has 30 per cent, of its upland area in timber, or, in 

 other words, 61,000 acres in a total of 180,000 acres of upland. 

 Bergen county has 39 per cent, in timber, Hudson county 



