THE SPRUCE REGION 20Q 



The thick litter of hardwood leaves, which covers the ground, 

 furnishes a germinating bed far more favorable for the develop- 

 ment of hardwood seeds than for those of spruce or balsam. 

 The latter like a cover of moss, rotten wood, or coniferous duff 

 for germination. 



A thick undergrowth of witchhobble and mountain maple is 

 characteristic of the hardwood type. Indeed, once seen it will 

 serve to identify this type of forest. 



Fig. 69. — Spruce slope type. .Stand about 40,000 feet per acre. 



4. Spruce Slope. — The spruce slope type occupies steep, 

 rocky slopes with thin soils. Often the soil is practically lacking, 

 thick deposits of moss and duff here taking the function of soil. 

 When a forest fire passes over such lands the moss and dufif are 

 consumed together with the wood and nothing is left but the 

 bare rock. The roughest sites and the shallowest soils of the 

 region fall in the t5^e. It is well distributed through the entire 

 region, but is most important in the more mountainous parts, 

 such, for example, as the White Mountains of New Hampshire, 

 where occur many slopes of extreme steepness. 



