352 TEXTBOOK OF BOTANY 



United States from Canada. The white and Norway pines 

 were at their best in the three lake states, and some valuable 

 tracts of these trees still remain ; but nowhere else in the 

 world, perhaps, has lumbering been carried on in so wasteful 

 a fashion. 



There is a mixture of hardwoods throughout this region, 

 hard maple, birch, and beech being abundant in the north- 

 ern part ; covering some of the mountain slopes of the south- 

 ern part are forests of chestnut, basswood, chestnut oak, and 

 yellow poplar ; and white, black, and red oak are abundant 

 in places. The forests of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minne- 

 sota, because of the soil and water conditions, were made up 

 mainly of coniferous woods, including white and Norway 

 pines, hemlock, white and black spruce, balsam and cedar ; 

 abundant stretches of larch covered the more swampy areas. 

 Hardwoods, such as elm, maple, basswood, and birch, are 

 found in considerable quantity. The jack pine is found on 

 sandy areas at the edges of the heavier growths of timber. 



The South Atlantic and Gulf states are covered in part 

 by immense forests of the long-leaved yellow pine (Pinus 

 palustris), which furnishes at present about one-third of the 

 annual lumber cut of the country. The forests, except in 

 the lowlands, are composed almost entirely of pine, and 

 conditions are such that it is easily handled. The long- 

 leaved and Cuban pines of these forests are the chief sources 

 of turpentine, and the turpentining methods used have as 

 a rule made the trees almost worthless for timber. Cypress, 

 the most enduring of woods, cottonwood, ash, sycamore, red 

 gum, elm, hickory, and many species of oaks are found in 

 the lowlands and along streams ; the cypress is at its best 

 in the more swampy regions. 



A region comprising a considerable portion of the eastern 

 and southern slopes of the Alleghenies and extending north 

 and west into the central states east of the Mississippi is 

 known as the hardwood belt . Here are found beech , hickory, 



