98 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 



Cumberland county. Not only is there a liberal mixture of 

 deciduous trees west of this limit, but new clearings are more 

 numerous and P. virginiana prevails instead of P. rigida. 



An inquiry was begun to determine the extent of clearing 

 within the pine belt in order to establish present tendencies. A 

 careful survey of the clearings was made when the topographic 

 survey was executed. In the pine belt this was from 1883 to 

 1886, and most of the work was done in 1884 and 1885. A 

 re-survey at this time, therefore, will show the extent of clear- 

 ing which has been done in the interval. Such a re-survey has 

 been made at Hammonton, and a map showing the results has 

 been prepared. It shows that the forest area has been very 

 materially diminished. The same is true of most of the country 

 along the. New Jersey Southern Railroad all the way from 

 Hammonton to Bridgeton, especially at Carmel, Vineland and 

 Rosenhayn. Along the lines of the Camden and Atlantic, and 

 Atlantic City railroads, from Hammonton to the coast, the same 

 conditions prevail. Other centers of clearing are Richland and 

 Woodbine. Most of the clearing is south of Mullica river there 

 is little or none north. A few clearings have been allowed to 

 grow up again, but not enough to appreciably affect the tendency 

 to increase the cleared land. 



If present tendencies continue it seems plain that most of the 

 land west of the limit of exclusively coniferous forest will be 

 cleared up, or at least the forest will be divided up into small 

 parcels. 



Within the pine belt there will be a broad belt of cleared land 

 extending from Hammonton to Absecon, another along the New 

 Jersey Southern Railroad, southwest of Hammonton, and the 

 extension of the large cleared area at Vineland and southerly to 

 Woodbine will leave the pines divided into two tracts, the one 

 lying in the Great Egg Harbor water-shed and the other north of 

 Mullica river, extending to Lakewood. Within the limits of 

 these areas, there is no observable tendency to extensive clear- 

 ing. The forest is almost unbroken. It will be observed that 

 these are also the tracts where the severest fires rage at present. 

 It may be suggested that these are proper fields for something like 

 systematic forestry, or at least for the inauguration of permanent 



