THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 499 



" To estimate the area of valuable original forest still standing in the Green mountains is not an easy task. 

 The belt extends from the Canada line to Massachusetts, and even into that state. The outlines of this belt are 

 made very irregular by the cleared and settled valleys which run up among the mountains, and by reason of foresfe 

 clearings, so that its width is constantly varying as we proceed from one end to the other. 



" The woodlands of the plateau, some 10 miles broad and elevated from 200 to 300 feet above lake Champlain, 

 lying between the foot-hills of the Green mountains and the lower plain beside the lake, occupy, for the most part, 

 rocky hills, and are composed principally of sugar maple, beech, basswood, white ash, black birch, and red oak. 

 Certain limestone hills offer a favorable situation for the butternut, the ironwood, the slipiiery elm, and the bitter 

 hickory. The swamps and other lowlands yield the red maple, the black ash, the white elm, and the black willow. 

 The latter, especially along streams, is associated with alders and the sheepberry. The colder, sphagnous swampa 

 are covered with a growth, more or less dense, of yellow cedar, black spruce, balsam, and larch ; sometimes in the 

 higher portions the white pine mingles with these, scattered or in groves. When grown in such soil this wood is liable 

 to be extremely hard and brittle. The poplars occupy hillsides and ridges where the soil is a light, cold, sandy loam ; 

 with them the bird cherry is perpetually associated. The black cherry is scattered in a diversity of soils. White 

 oak and hickory attain their best development on clayey soil or glades of slight elevation ; on the red sand-rock hills 

 they are smaller. Certain slopes of cold clay are still here heavily wooded with hemlock, while warm clay lands are 

 the favored site of the burr oak. In the vicinity of the lake and its tributaries low, wet shores are scattered over 

 with the swamp white oak and the burr oak. The chestnut oak is common on the thin, poor soil of the red sand-rock 

 hills, ranging through the valley from the lake as far back in some places as the foot-hills of the Green mountains. 

 The red pine appears on the sandy shores of lake Champlain, and extends far up the Winooski river. The moister 

 and more fertile portions of the sandy plain are still occupied to some extent by white pine, the poorer portions 

 by pitch pine. The white birch occurs on cold, wet, sandy soil near the lake ; and in the mountains the black 

 spruce becomes the most common tree ; with it in stronger soil are associated the yellow birch and the sUgar maple. 



" Burlington. This place is believed to rank as third, or next to Albany, among the lumber markets of the 

 United States. More lumber may enter some ports, as Oswego and Tonawanda, for transshipment, but all lumber 

 brought to this market is stored and sold here. The kind is chiefly white pine brought up the lake from Canada, 

 a little of it being cut in Michigan (perhaps one-tenth) ; all the rest is of Canadian growth. A few of the lumber 

 companies here own lands of limited extent among the Green mountains, from which they obtain spruce for 

 clapboards, etc. The general direction which the lumber sent from here takes is to the older portions of New 

 England, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, considerable pine being sent even to Maine, which once 

 supplied to commerce so much of this material. Much lumber is dressed here and sent to Boston for shipment to 

 foreign countries. The business still enjoys the highest prosperity, and during the census year, under the stimulus 

 of general commercial prosperity, it was especially active. As yet no lack in the supply is felt, the loggers only 

 having to go farther back in the Canadian forests than formerly to obtain timber enough to meet the demand. The 

 proportion of lumber worked up here is small, there being merely a few factories producing doors, sash, blinds, 

 packing boxes, etc." 



Essex county. Five-sixths of this county is reported covered with forest. The following is extracted from 

 Mr. Pringle's report : 



" Four-fifths of that part of the county of Essex lying north of Guildhall and Victory is still in virgin forest, 

 which will yield 5,000 feet of spruce per acre. The towns of Lewis and Averill are entirely unlumbered, and 

 so is Avery's Gore. Colton is mostly covered with forest, and so is Ferdinand. Timber-lands compose about 

 two-thirds of Granby and East Haven, and cover the back parts of the river towns and those crossed by the 

 Grand Trunk railroad. South of Guildhall and Victory the towns of Concord and Lunenburg are mostly cleared 

 and settled. The proportion of hemlock in these forests is not large ; there is considerable yellow cedar and a 

 large amount of maple, birch, and beech probably 50 cords per acre. There is but little pine in all this region, 

 principallj- confined to the township of Lewis; elsewhere only occasional pine trees occur." 



Fkanklin county. From one fourth to three-tenthK of this county is reported covered with forest, mostly 

 confined to the hills in the northeastern and northern portions. In the village of Montgomery a large establishment 

 for the manufacture of butter tubs is located, and at East Eichford birch is largely manufactured into turned ware. 



Grand Isle county. About a quarter of this county is reported covered with woods. 



Lamoille county. About one-third to one-half of this county is reported covered with woods, very generally 

 iistributed over its entire surface. 



Orange county. One quarter of this county is reported covered with forest. 



Orleans county. One-half of this county is reported covered with woods. The following is extracted from 

 Mr. Pringle's notes : 



"At Newport, situated at the southern extremity of lake Memphremagog, are several mills for cutting 

 veneering from birch. The product of these mills is closely packed in boxes, so that it cannot v^arp, and sent to 

 the manufactories near the large cities, to be used for chair bottoms and other XJurposes. Southward from Newport, 

 in the valleys of the Barton and Black rivers, which flow northward into lake Memphremagog, and of the 

 Passumpsic river, which runs southward and joins the Connecticut, are almost continuous swamps of yellow 



