THE FORESTS OF THtt UNITED STATES. 515 



" The valley of the New river is oiily lumbered for from 3 to 5 miles from the stream, although the walnut has 

 been gathered 10 miles farther back. This is a rough country in which to lumber, since the streams cut deep into 

 the earth, and New river cannot be driven. 



"Ronceverte is situated on the Greeubrier river at the point where the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad first 

 meets this stream as it descends from the Alleghauy mountains. Here is the boom of the Saint Lawrence 

 Boom Company, and here are located three or four lumber firms operating steam-mills. One of these, the New 

 York Hoop Company, uses two million hoop-poles per annum, chiefly hickory, manufacturing hoops for flour 

 barrrels, pork barrels, hogsheads, and tierces, besides strips for boxes, etc. The process of manufacturing hoops 

 was explained to me as follows : The poles, of assorted lengths and sixes, are passed through machines which split 

 each of them into two, three, or four pieces, and these are put through other machines which plane flat the inner side 

 of each strip, leaving the bark intact. The hoops thus made are tied into bundles and shipped to New York. 



" The Greenbrier river rises in the limestone sinks in Randolph county, whence it flows southwesterly through 

 the fertile limestone valley between the Alleghauy and the Greeubrier mountains for a distance of 120 miles, 

 emptying into the New river at Hiutou. Flowing through such a valley it is not a rapid stream, but from a point 

 12 miles below Travelers' Rest, on its headwaters, it is fine for rafting. Yet the stream needs some improvement, 

 especially by the closing up of back channels into which the logs are borne by high water, to be left in swamps 

 when the flood recedes. 



"Only a small proportion of the timber of the Greenbrier river has been removed as yet, and it is estimated 

 that in its valley white oak, white pine, poplar, cherry, hemlock, walnut, and ash enough remain to make 1,000,000,000 

 feet of boards, and that there are not less than 500,000,000 feet of white pine in this region, occupying a 

 belt through the center of both Greeubrier and Pocahontas counties. The eastern limit of the black-spruce belt 

 on the headwaters of the Elk and Gauley rivers, the most extensive and valuable in West Virginia, coincides 

 with the western limits of the white-pine belt lying in Pocahontas county. Its southern line runs northwesterly 

 from the south end of Pocahontas to near the center of Nicholas county. From this point its western line runs 

 northeasterly through the center of Webster county to the vicinity of Huttonville, in Randolph county, the northern 

 end of the belt covering the upper waters of Shaver's Fork of the Cheat river. Over this belt black spruce is scattered 

 more or less densely, sometimes occupying almost exclusively the high slopes, particularly the northern slopes 

 and the summits of the mountains. 



" It is believed that 10,000,000 feet of black walnut, in paying quantities, could still be gathered in this part 

 of the state, aud that there would then be left an equal amouut so scattered that it could not be profitably collected 

 at present prices." 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



The forests of North Carolina were once hardly surpassed in variety aud iinpo rtance by those of any other 

 part of the Uuited States. The coast region was occupied by the coniferous forests of the southern Maritime Pine 

 Belt; the middle districts of the state by a forest of oaks and other hard-wood trees, through which the old-field 

 pine is now rapidly spreading over worn-out and abandoned farming lands. The high ridges and deep valleys of 

 the Appalachian system which culminate in the western part of the state are still everywhere covered with dense 

 forests of the most valuable hard-wood trees mingled with northern pines and hemlocks. The inaccessibility of 

 this mountain region has protected these valuable forests up to the present time, and few inroads have yet been 

 made into their stores of oak, cherry, yellow poplar, and walnut. The hard-wood forests of the middle districts, 

 however, have been largely removed or culled of their finest timber, although the area of woodland in this part of the 

 state is now increasing. These new forests, usually composed of inferior pine, are of little economic value, except as a 

 source of abundant fuel and as a means of restoring fertility to the soil, preparing it to produce again more valuable 

 crops. A larger proportion of the pine forest of the coast has been destroyed in North Carolina than in the other 

 sou them states. This partof the state has long been the seat of important lumbering operations, while the manufacture 

 of naval stores, once almost exclusively confined to North Caroliua, aud always an important industry here, has 

 seriously injured these forests. The original forests have been practically removed from the northeastern part of 

 the state, the great regiou watered by the numerous streams flowing into Albemarle aud Pamlico sounds; and 

 although some lumber, largely second-growth pine trees of poor quality, is produced here, the importance of these 

 forests is not great. The merchantable pine, too, has been removed from the banks of the Cape Fear aud other 

 rivers flowing through the southern part of the state, and although these streams still yield annually a large 

 number of logs, they are only procured at a constantly increasing distance from their banks and with a consequent 

 increasing cost for transport. 



Forest fires inflict serious damage upon the pine forests of the south. During the census year 546,102 acres 

 of woodland were reported destroyed by forest fires, with a loss of $357,980. The largest number o'f these fires 

 were traced to the carelessness of farmers in clearing land, to locomotives, hunters, and to malice. 



Manufacturers of cooperage and wheel stock, industries which once flourished in the eastern and central 

 portions of the state, already suffer from the exhaustion and deterioration of material. Such industries, however, 

 are increasing in the extreme western counties, and promise to attain there an important development. 



