THE FORESTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



By W. W. Ashe. 



FOREST DIVISIONS. 



North Carolina can be divided topographically into three well- 

 marked divisions : 



1. The coastal plain kegion, or coastal division lying to the 

 eastward and extending inland from the coast for a distance of one 

 hundred to one hundred and fifty miles, has an aggregate area 

 approximating 24,000 square miles. Its surface is that of a gently 

 undulating plain of slight elevation (ten to fifty feet above sea 

 level) and more nearly level surface eastward, and becoming more 

 elevated (three hundred to five hundred feet) and rolling along its 

 western border. The upland soils are sandy loams and loams, 

 rarely stifi', moderately fine and even-grained. To the north 

 of the Neuse river loams and loose loams are the more frequent 

 upland soils ; to the south of this river they are more sandy. In 

 the more eastern portion of this region, in the vicinity of the coast, 

 are numerous and extensive swamps, due either to insufiicient 

 surface drainage, or the presence beneath the surface soil of 

 impermeable strata. Their soils are silty and clayey, and com- 

 pact ; or sandy and loamy, and loose; over limited areas they 

 are peaty ; where they border the larger streams, that have their 

 head-waters beyond the coastal plain region, they are silty with a 

 small admixture of vegetable matter. 



In this region the normal annual temperature is about 61°F. ; 

 and the normal annual rainfall about fifty five inches. 



2. The Piedmont plateau region, extending westward from the 

 coastal plain, lies parallel to the Atlantic shore, and to the Blue 

 Ridge, the eastern base of which marks the region's western bor- 

 der. It is an extended peneplain, one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred miles in width, and has an area of about 22,000 square 



