202 FORESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 



ing, even though it is true that its soils are chemically rich 

 enough for agricultural use. The soils of the spruce region are 

 largely true forest soils; that is, soils which for all time should 

 be devoted to the production of wood crops. 



No accurate surveys for classifying the kinds of land have been 

 made; but from the best available data it has been estimated 

 that not more than ten to fifteen per cent of the land has agri- 

 cultural value; and less than ten per cent is at present used for 

 such purposes. The farm land lies in belts along the principal 

 valleys; or in isolated clearings near railroad stations, around 

 which small towns have arisen. Fully ninety per cent of the area 

 is now forested, in which is included cut-over and burned areas. 



The forest as a whole is composed of trees of all ages, inter- 

 mixed on the same area; it is thus an "uneven-aged" or an "all- 

 aged" forest. Exceptions to this character occur; for some- 

 times a part of the forest is found where the trees are all of one 

 age over considerable areas; i.e., an "even-aged" forest. But 

 such cases are in the minority. Mixed stands made up of several 

 species, both conifers and broad-leaved trees, prevail rather than 

 pure stands. The principal species are all shade-bearing (toler- 

 ant) trees, several of them possessing the power to endure shade 

 for many years, such as spruce and hard maple. 



Red spruce is the characteristic and predominant tree of the 

 region. Here it finds chmatic conditions suited to its best 

 growth and development. Nowhere else in the United States 

 does spruce do so well as in this region. It is at its optimum in 

 the White Mountains and in the upper drainage of the Andros- 

 coggin River in New Hampshire and Maine. There are three 

 species of spruce found : red, black, and white or Canadian spruce. 

 The latter two are of much less frequent occurrence than the red; 

 the black spruce occurring mainly in bogs as a small tree of little 

 commercial value, while the white spruce grows in small num- 

 bers in stream valleys on moist ground. 



Balsam {Abies balsamea) appears everywhere, sometimes as- 

 sociating with the spruce and occasionally forming pure stands. 



Two species of pine, the white pine and the red or Norway pine, 



