2o6 FORESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 



size. Old trees are usually blown over before they reach large 

 diameters. The timber of merchantable size is apt to be un- 

 sound. A yield of 5000 feet, board measure, per acre, over a 

 whole swamp would be high. 



The forest of the swamp land is decidedly uneven-aged. 

 Trees of all ages are intermingled singly or in groups. Wherever 

 openings are made by the death or decay of older trees, there 

 small patches of seedlings start up on the wet, mossy floor. The 

 reproduction secured in this manner is sufhcient to keep the 

 type thoroughly stocked. 



While the typical swamp forest contains a mixture of sev- 

 eral species with spruce predominant, yet in exceptional cases 

 pure stands of other trees occur in the swamps. Sometimes 

 the northern white cedar takes possession, forming a dense 

 valuable growth. Sometimes tamarack grows pure, always in a 

 rather open stand and on the wet ground near the shores of lakes. 

 The balsam may form pure stands in the swamps and grows in 

 almost impenetrable thickets. 



On newly-formed ground close to lakes the black spruce may 

 grow alone in a park-like stand, reaching a maximum size scarcely 

 large enough for pulp. 



2. Spruce Flat. — The spruce flat type occurs on low rolKng 

 ground above the watercourses. It is an abundant type in the 

 leveler portions of the region, such as parts of northern New 

 Hampshire and in Maine. 



The soils are moist but not wet as in the swamps. They may 

 be deep or shallow and are characteristically strewn with rocks. 

 The drainage is fairly good. 



Spruce forms about fifty per cent or more of the stand. The 

 spruce here is practically all red spruce, black spruce being 

 entirely absent and white spruce of only occasional occurrence. 

 Originally, white pine was an important tree in this type, but it 

 was largely cut out in the early lumbering operations. Balsam 

 is abundant, sometimes covering twenty to thirty per cent of 

 the area. Hemlock grows sparingly in this type, and the maples 

 and birches also occur. 



