SOUTH FORK OF HOLSTON RIVER BASIN (SOUTHERN TRIBUTARIES). 85 



NORTH SIDE OF HOLSTON MOUNTAIN (WASHINGTON COUNTY, VA., AND SULLIVAN 



COUNTY, TENN.). 



Boundaries. The South Fork of Holston River on the north, the crest of 

 Holston Mountain on the south, and the Virginia and Southwestern Railway on 

 the west. 



Area. Total, 120 square miles; cleared, 24 square miles; wooded, 96 square 

 miles. 



Surface. The bottom lands along the river are narrow and interrupted. 

 The foothills arie rolling to hilly and often stony. The ascent of the slope is 

 moderate to an elevation of about 2,500 feet, above which it is very steep and 

 rocky and capped by quartzite ledges, which face northwestward. 



Soil. Light and porous, except for the alluvial portions near the river and 

 along the larger tributaries, and for about 10 square miles of clayey limestone 

 lands in the lower foothills. 



Agricultural 'value. About 12 per cent of the whole tract is adapted to 

 agriculture. The principal crop is corn, but most of the rough land is kept in 

 grass for grazing purposes. 



Timber trees. Oak, 40 per cent; chestnut, 20 per cent; hemlock, 10 per cent; 

 white pine, 5 per cent; other species, 25 per cent. 



Yield. luog timber, 92,160 M feet B. M.; small wood, 768,000 cords. 



Demand. The best log timber brings from %\ to $5 per thousand feet on 

 the stump. Most of the tract has been culled, and the remaining timber is of 

 inferior quality. 



Accessibility. Very poor wagon roads lead from the railroad up the creek 

 toward the mountain. Some tramways have also been built well into the 

 mountain coves, but the main mountain ridge is steep and hilly, and diflScult 

 of access. 



Fire. Fires have been frequent and the forest has been greatly reduced. 

 But little log timber has been killed, though the young growth has been greatly 

 injured. 



Second growth. Among the foothills, where the woodland has been olosely 

 culled for charcoal or building timber and is somewhat protected from fire, 

 saplings are abundant, but on mountain slopes remote from clearings the stand is 

 deficient because of the fires and the remaining old trees. 



Undergrowth. Wherever the stand of tree seedlings is deficient there is an 

 abundance of huckleberry, laurel, azalea, and scrub oak. 



Beprod/iiction. Reproduction is very free, except as hindered by fire. 



Rate of growth. Rapid, except on the driest ridges. 



