196 FORESTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



inent cuttings could be advantageously conducted throughout 

 nearly this entire section, defective pines being removed and old 

 black oaks and Spanish oaks that are interfering in any way with 

 young growth of more valuable species. The proportion of pine 

 can be largely increased in such soils as are sufficiently deep to 

 permit its growth, the amount of post oak increased on the crests 

 of ridges, and of white oak on the slopes and better soils. 



THE DECIDUOUS FORESTS OF THE PIEDMONT PLATEAU. 



Beginning in Mecklenburg county and extending northeast 

 through Cabarrus, Rowan, Davidson, Guilford, and Caswell coun- 

 ties and west to the middle parts of Davie, Yadkin, and Rock- 

 ingham counties are red and gray compact loams, sometimes 

 loose, rarely sandy, derived largely from gneissic or granitic 

 rocks ; and with these may be included the loose loams of Orange, 

 Granville, and Alamance counties, and the stiff red loams 'of 

 central Iredell, middle part of Lincoln and Oatawba counties, and 

 the loose and sandy red and gray loams of southern Cleveland 

 and Rutherford counties. This territory embraces the great body 

 of the fertile upland soils, both stiff arid loose, of the Piedmont 

 plateau. 



The forests were originally of the first quality, consisting of 

 compact-growing hardwoods, oaks, and hickories, with pine dis- 

 seminated only on rocky or sandy soils along the crests of hills. 

 They differ from those lying to the eastward in the almost total 

 absence of the short-leaf pine in the original forest, the rather 

 limited area of young pine in pure growth, and the presence in 

 many sections of the red cedar and scrub pine as the old field 

 growth, t 



FORESTS OF THE COMPACT RED LOAMS OR " RED CLAYS." 



The stiff red soils, the so-called " red clays," derived from 

 hornblende-bearing rocks are fertile, and are usually free from 

 stones. The soils are in narrow terraines, two to twelve miles 

 wide, lying in a northeast and southwest direction, the largest 

 extending from Charlotte to Concord, with a length of about 



