186 FORESTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



other broad leaf trees, it. mast be kept in a thick stand until the 

 height-ojrowth has been nearly completed to secnre clean stems. 



FORESTS OF THE PIEDMONT UPLANDS. 



The upland forests of the Piedmont plateau region are of broad- 

 leaf species and pine, or of belts of broad-leaf trees witli pine 

 alternating with belts of broad-leaf trees without pine, tliere 

 being no areas in the original forest, if some shallow granitic soils 

 be possible exceptions, which produce a pure growth of either a 

 broad-leaf or coniferous tree. 



The se(|uence of belts, with and without pine, continues 

 unchanged in this State to tiie northwestward as far as the east- 

 ern boundary of the mountain region in Siirry, AVilkes, Caldwell, 

 and Burke counties; and to the southwest, crossing the Blue 

 Ridge, and with the difference between the pine and no-pine belts 

 more accentuated from the effect of elevation, occurs to northern 

 Georgia and eastern Tennessee. 



This succession of forest belts, or the ]iresence or absence ot" 

 pine in the woods, depends on the variations in the character of 

 the soil, as to texture, as well as in mineral constituents, and 

 drainage. The belts of soil, following or coinciding with the 

 geological terraines, lie, in general, northeast and southwest 

 courses, thougli the interposition of dykes, particularly granite 

 dykes, to the eastward, has produced more limited belts lying at 

 various angles to these ; and not infrequently this occurs when the 

 order of the rock strata iias beeii interrupted by the mere change 

 .in the direction of the outcrop. While in the original forest the 

 areas of dissimilar growth are coGxtensive with certain classes of 

 soils, and thesanit- is more or less true of the aftergrowth in culled 

 and coppiced woodland, in the great body of second growth seed- 

 ling woods the effects of these differences in soil are largely 

 obscured or altogether lost. 



The most radical change which is taking place in the great body 

 of the woodland is the change of growth from pine and mixed 

 hardwoods to pure pine, by abandoned fields being seeded in pine» 

 the place of these fields being supplied for agricultural purposes 

 by farther encroachment on the hardwood areas. B^tt where the 



