CONDITION OF FOREST TYPES 39 



loams ; sand ; and the heavier loams (silt loam and clay loam). The 

 last named, however, are very restricted and form a very small per- 

 centage of the entire area. 



II. The Condition of the Various Forest Types 



In General 



With reference to the kind of species, and, at the same time, to the 

 character of the soils on which they grow, the forests of the Trent 

 watershed were divided into the following four types : the hardwood 

 type, the mixed coniferous-hardwood type, the pure coniferous type, 

 and the poplar-birch type. Each of these will be discussed in detail 

 in the following pages. 



With reference to the degree of cutting, each of these types was 

 classified as virgin, moderately culled, and severely culled. With 

 reference to the age of reproduction, after clean cutting or after fire, 

 the young forests were classified as second growth and young growth. In 

 the final tabulation of the results of the field work — it was found that the 

 area of virgin forests, with the exception of that in the holdings of one 

 company in the extreme northern portion of the territory — amounted to 

 less than 700 acres. The virgin condition was, therefore, grouped with 

 the moderately culled condition. By 'moderately culled' is meant a 

 forest from which the better class of saw-logs has been removed. This 

 condition is most common in the hardwood forests, where the bass wood, 

 elm, ash, and, sometimes, the better quality of maple have been cut, 

 leaving the forest almost pure maple and beech, yet of a quality which 

 could be further utilized for saw-logs. In such cases the crown cover 

 remains practically unbroken. Only 22 per cent of the mature forest 

 is in the condition designated as moderately culled. 



In the severely culled forest, practically all the merchantable 

 saw-logs have been removed, leaving material fit only for cordwood, 

 charcoal, or wood distillation products in the case of the hardwoods. 

 This condition is the prevailing one in the hardwood type because a 

 large percentage of it is composed of farm wood-lots, in which a long 

 continued selection system of cutting has led to this result. In the ma- 

 jority of cases the crown cover in such a forest is unbroken, and it is 

 only by a close inspection of the interior that the real condition of the 

 forest is disclosed. Where, however, cuttings for fuel or for wood 

 distillation products have been made in the hardwood forest, the crown 

 cover has been very severely broken ; in fact, only scattering trees of 

 non-commercial species remain. Nearly 8,000 acres of this type of 

 cutting were found in the northern townships, principally in Dysart 

 and Dudley. Under the heading of 'severely culled' in the hardwood 

 type, therefore, a considerable range of conditions is included. The greater 



