FORESTS OF THE EASTERN RED SANDSTONE BELT. 191 



where the dry and coarse gravelly soils are more suited for pine 

 than the larger and more exacting broad-leaf trees. Cattle have 

 for a number of years been excluded from the greatest portion of 

 the woodland in a considerable part of this area, and the beneficial 

 effects of this is evident in the thicker undergrowth. The black 

 oaks, particularly the black-jack and the Spanish, are generally 

 increasing more rapidly than the white oak, and do not seem to 

 be dying out so rapidly as in counties farther west. 



The very large areas of loblolly pine growth in old fields should 

 be favored when it is on moist soils or loose loams : but on all 

 stiffer or drier toils that of the short-leaf pine should be favored. 

 Thinnings might advantageously be carried out for each of these 

 species, as will be described further on. 



Along all gravelly ridges mature seed-bearing pines should be 

 preserved as seed-trees, and the proportion of pine in the small oak 

 growth on the crests increased ; on the more fertile soils of the 

 slopes and along the borders of the hollows the pines reach their 

 largest size, but the competition there with the broad-leaf trees is 

 such that it is only occasionally that a pine can succeed in reach- 

 ing maturity if it spring up among the broad-leaf trees. 



FORESTS OF THE EASTERN RED SANDSTONE BELT. 



Contiguous on the southwest to the granite areas in Granville 

 and Wake counties just described, and extending southward 

 through Durham, the eastern parts of Chatham, Montgomery and 

 Anson counties, are the sandy loams yielded by the Jura-trias red 

 and brown sandstones. This belt or terrain varies from 8 to 16 

 miles in width, and though its surface is generally undulating it 

 is broken and rugged only in the few places where sandstone 

 ridges occur, as in portions of Chatham, Moore, and the southern 

 part Anson counties. 



The soils vary from loose coarse-grained sandy loams to stiff 

 fine-textured loams, the latter being generally confined to river 

 bottoms. They are usually brown or gray in color, with charac- 

 teristic brown, purplish, or terra-cotta-colored, stifFer subsoils; 

 uisually deep, but in spite of their, depth ill-suited for tree growth. 



