460 FORESTS OF NEW JERSEY. 



icindfall or a brcaldoicn. If the former, it was probably sound when it 

 fell aud has siuce remained so. If Ihouyht worth working, the matted 

 roots are cat away, the log is sawed off, and when loosened it at once 

 floats in the water, which is always near the level of the swamp. Logs 

 are sometimes worked, though rarely, to a length of thirty feet. 



These logs come up with as much buoyancy as newly-falleu cedar, not 

 being in the least water-logged, and the bark on the under side is quite 

 fresh. The under side is always lightest, aud turns up in rising to the 

 surface. The workmen go over the same grouud again and again, and find 

 new logs each time, the lower logs probably rising in the mud when the 

 roots over them are cut loose, aud the logs which had laid on them are 

 removed. These logs are found not only in the swamp, but also out 

 in the salt-marsh beyond the living timber, and are worked below present 

 tide-level. 



Most of this business is carried on in the neighborhood of Dennisville, 

 and in some instances the industry has proved quite profitable. These 

 facts may suggest researches in other regions favorable to tbe preserva- 

 tion of timber in swamps, but where its presence in profitable quantities 

 has not hitherto been suspected.^ 



Burlington County. — Mr. Charles Stokes, of Eancocas, Burlington 

 County, New Jersey, now in his eighty-seventh year, and who has spent 

 his whole life in that section of New Jersey, writes that he has seen 

 great changes in the forest, but no perceptible changes of climate, his 

 conclusions being " that seasons differ, but nature repeats itself, as is said 

 of history." With respect to change in forest growth, Mr. Stokes re- 

 marks that the native timber-trees consisted mainly of oak, hickory, 

 walnut, chestnut, gum, maple, and red and white cedar, tulip, poplar, &c. 

 The oaks were the white, black, red, chestnut, peach or willow, turkey, pin 

 and Spanish oaks, and mostly of large size and excellent quality. The 

 pine was the yellow and swamp varieties, which formed nearly or quite 

 half the forests of the eastern part of the State bordering upon the sea : 



About the beginning of the present century were seen, along the shore of the Delaa 

 ■ware River, another description of pine, called " spruce " {Pinus i nops), \vhich. ha- 

 spread extensively in an easterly direction, by the seed being wafted by the westerly 

 winds ; and in many places where lands have been worn out under the former system 

 of exhaustive farming, the spruce pine has taken possession, and grown in an aston- 

 ishing manner ; at first so thick as to be almost impenetrable for man or beast. In a 

 short time, however, the weaker part would die out, nnd so continue to thin itself, while 

 the strouger would increase in height, and in a few years be fit to cut into cord-wood. 

 When fairly set, I think it will be safe to say it will grow two cords of wood to the acre 

 per year. It is thought to make much better fuel than the native pine, and for frame- 

 work in buildings it is also superior, being taller aud of greater strength. This pine has 

 been propagated both by the seed aud also by transplant iug when young, as a profitable 

 crop. Sometimes small oaks and chestnuts may be seen among the spruce-pines when 

 they get thinned out by growth, the seeds having been carried, perhaps,by squirrels 

 or birds, and when the pines are cut, they having possession will get the start of the 

 seedling pines, aud so grow together, and soon make a most beautiful aud valuable 

 forest of tall, slender, aud straight timber. I should think if the spruce piue a year old 

 and acorns aud chestnuts planted at about the same time on suitable or worn-out land, 

 the prospect might be as good as the above, which has in so many instances proved a 

 success. The red cedar has been extensively spread by birds, especially along fences, 

 and with proper care may be made both ornamental and profitable. The white cedar, 

 that grows in swamps at the head-waters of the rivers emptying into the ocean and 



1 The above is chiefly derived from Professor George H. Cook's Geology of New Jersey 

 (1868), pp. ;?G4-361, where further details aud several engravings are given, illustrating 

 tlie mode of mining cedar-timber. (See also Sdieyichbi and the *S<)-a>K7, by Edward S. 

 Wheeler (IbTOj, p. Ill, and LyeWs Stcoiid I'mt to the United States, i, 34.) Mr. Wheeler 

 states that between $9,000 and .$10,000 worth of shingles, at $15 per M., have been 

 made near Dennisville in a single year from this buried cedar. The larger logs are 

 sometimes sawed into boards. 



