NOLICHUOKY KIVER BASIN. 125 



Demand. There is a strong demand for good grades of white pine, poplar, 

 linn, oak, chestnut and ash, which bring from $1 to $2 per thousand feet on the 

 stump, according to quality and the ease with which they can be logged. 



Accessibility. The railroad crosses the mouth of the creek. 



Cutting. There are at present five mills cutting white pine and hard woods 

 on this area. Several other mills have cut here in the last two or three years. 



Second groioth. There are some thickets of white pine on cut-over pine lands, 

 but the greater portion of the second growth in the cut-over woods is sourwood, 

 chestnut, and white oak, whose seedlings are already growing in the partial shade 

 of the white pine. 



Undergrowth. There is considerable undergrowth in most of the forests; in 

 some places rhododendron and Kahnia; in burned woods it is chiefly sour- 

 woods, huckleberry, and sprouts from the stumps of fire-killed trees. 



Rate of growtli. The white pine grows at a fair rate, except at low elevations, 

 where it is much more rapid. 



^^ater power. Although the fall in all the streams is very great, the}^ are 

 too small to yield more than a very limited power. 



Ovmersliip. Residents own the greater part of the timber. 



Prices of land. Woodland brings from $1 to $10 per acre, according to its 

 situation and the suitabilit3^ of the soil for agricultural purposes after the timber 

 is cut. 



SOUTH TOE RIVER BASIN (MITCHELL AND YANCEY COUNTIES, N. c). 



Area. Total, 89 square miles; cleared, 18 square miles; wooded, 68 square 

 miles; severely burned, 3 square miles. 



8u7face. H\i^ upper portion of the basin is a deep north hollow lying 

 between the Black Mountains and the Sevenmile Ridge. It is very rough and 

 broken. The lower part opens out into a broader valley of low and generally 

 steep hills, and near the head of Little Crabtree Creek there is some rolling 

 uplands. The alluvial lands are not very extensive; they are distributed along 

 both the main river and its chief tributaries. 



Soils. In the lower portion of the basin the soils are loams and loose loams, 

 often yery deep and fine-grained, derived from gneiss and mical and hornblende 

 schists. In the upper part they are more sand}'^ and are derived from gneiss 

 and a coarse granite. 



Humus and litter. ^There is a deep accumulation of mold on north slopes 

 and in the hollows, but less on drier southern slopes. A great part of the forest 

 land on Sevenmile Ridge has been badly burned and the soil covering removed. 



Agricultural value. Some of the land in the lower part of the basin, 

 especially that on Little Crabtree Creek, is of excellent quality, though inju- 



