226 THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN FORESTS. 



corn, and apples are the chief crops. Small grain, except r3^e, does not do well, 

 (jrass is successfully raised, but it sometimes dries out on thin, porous soils. 



Tvmher trees. Scarlet oak, white oak, chestnut oak, chestnut, hemlock, red oak, 

 and birch, with occasional poplar, ash, linn, hickor}^, and maple, in relative abundance 

 about in the order named, constitute the dominant element of the commercial 

 forest. The first four species form three- fourths of the growth of the upland 

 forests. The hemlock is found in nearly pure groves along the colder valleys of 

 the watershed. The red oak, birch, poplar, ash, and linn occur chiefly in the 

 deep hollows with moist, fertile soil. 



Yield. The average yield of the hard woods will be less than 2,000 feet B. M. 

 per acre and perhaps 15 cords of small wood in addition. The hemlock forests 

 in the upper part of the basin will cut from 10,000 to 15,000 feet B. M. per acre 

 and yield about 12 cords of tan bark. There is also considerable oak tan bark. 



Demand. At present there is no demand for any kind of shipping timber. 



Accessibility. The valley is 25 miles from the nearest railroad station on the 

 Southern Railway. The wagon roads are in poor condition and badly graded. 

 Except in the lower part, the creek is not large enough to splash, and there 

 only in times of very high water. 



Cutting. There are no mills at present in operation and very little cutting 

 is being done on the creek. 



Fire. The greater part of the forest has been severely injured by repeated 

 ground fires, which have destroyed the humus, and greatly reduced the forest 

 cover by repeatedly suppressing the young growth and so increasing the dryness 

 of an already poor and shallow soil. In spite of the destruction of the mold, 

 many of the species reproduce abundant^ by oeed, especially the scarlet oak, 

 chestnut, white oak, and sourwood, and where it occurs, the black pine. The 

 reproduction from stools of young-growth oak, chestnut and sourwood, after 

 being top killed by fires, is free and vigorous; that of the pine is less vigorous 

 and is confined to small trees. 



Second growth. The second growth in most places is scanty and is largel}'^ 

 formed of stool shoots of scarlet oak, white oak, chestnut, chestnut oak, and 

 sourwood, and seedling black pine. 



Undergrowth. Kalmia forms most of the undergrowth in the oak woods, but 

 in most places there is very little of it. It is often killed by fires, but sprouts 

 vigorously from the old stools. There are thickets of laurel beneath the hemlock. 



Rate of growth. Trees grow slowly and only under the very best conditions 

 attain a large size. The rate of accretion is about the same as that shown on 

 Norton Creek, in Jackson County, N. C. 



