212 FORESTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



obtainable. Lumber mills obtaining their logs from these forests 

 are in operation at Lenoir and Hickorj', and smaller mills else- 

 where. A tannery at Morganton depends on these forests largely 

 for its oak bark. Fires have damaged these forests more than 

 those of any other part of the State except the pine woods of the 

 southeastern counties. 



The forests cover nearly the entire area. The farms are few 

 and confined almost entirely to the narrow alluvial bottoms; a 

 few clearings have been made on the more gentle slopes or broader 

 rounded crests. Some bottoms have been permanently damaged 

 by washing during floods and the deposition of a heavy mud sedi- 

 ment on the surface of the loams. Old fields are seeded chiefly 

 by the short-leaf, scrub and northern pitch pines ; less frequently 

 by the white. Sometimes they are all mixed. Such second 

 growth is, however, inconsiderable. 



The forests are capable of producing pine — short-leaf, and some 

 white— together with chestnut oak on the slopes and crests : while 

 walnut, yellow poplar, white oak and locust reach a large size in 

 the hollows. 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE FORESTS. 



A complete cessation of the present annual firing is necessary, 

 not only to insure the possibility of a vigorous stand of young- 

 trees, but to afi^ord protection to the standing stock. Pasturage 

 should not be perraitled in such portions of the]forest as contain 

 young growth that can be injured. Hogs must be excluded after 

 seed-years of nut-bearing trees. As there is now very little mer- 

 chantable timber on the ridges, all management should have for 

 its object the improvement of the general condition of the forest, 

 regarding both density and preference for the more valuable kinds 

 of trees. Few of the trees on the ridges will form large merchant- 

 able stocks ; their utilization extends only to small pine milling- 

 timber, oak railway ties, oak and Carolina hemlock tanbark, small 

 chestnut and locust timber for posts and construction. 



The trees naturally growing here are light-demanding, except 

 the chestnut, the white oak and white pine, all of which will 

 endure some shade ; the chestnut the deepest and the longest, the 

 white pine least and for the shortest time. 



