MIDDLE AND EAST TENNESSEE. 15 



spruce (Picea mariana) the almost saturated mucky land 

 bordering the cold-spring streams. 



The regeneration of white pine in Tennessee is a most 

 important feature of the future forestry of this section. 

 It grows as rapidly here for its allotted time as else- 

 where, and should certainly serve as a concomitant in 

 the forests to come. The present adequate natural seed- 

 ing capacity of old standing white pine is of the greatest 

 value, if a continuance of this timber is expected. Most of 

 the pine occurs with a dense undergrowth of oak, chest- 

 nut, hickory, maple, ash, and many smaller kinds, beneath 

 which to-day there are millions of pine seedlings from 

 one to ten years old. Better nurse conditions could not be 

 wished for, and, if properly managed, the seedlings would 

 again form a heavy stand of pine. But at this critical 

 point lumbermen are cutting over these white pine lands 

 as fast as they can, in some instances taking nearly every- 

 thing on the land. Such rapid and complete exploitation 

 is very and usually almost totally destructive to the 

 tender undergrowth of pines, as no care is taken to pre- 

 serve them. After the timber is taken off these cut-over 

 lands look much as if a South Dakota cyclone had vis- 

 ited them. Innumerable bare lanes are cut in "snaking" 

 out the logs, and with the quantities of dead brush and 

 tops strewn everywhere, the trampling of grazing cattle 

 after the incoming grass, with the inevitable torch of the 

 careless hunter, will forever sweep away the last chance 

 of reproducing white pine by natural seeding. 



In the moister sites the white pine is almost always 

 accompanied with large quantities of hemlock (Tsuga 

 mnadensis) , which, by the way, is also one of the other 

 valuable conifers of East Tennessee. In those portions of 

 the mountains near the eastern state line, especially in 

 the lower-lying, rich cove lands in sections where white 

 pine is not to be found, heavy stands of hemlock often 

 cover large areas, and form the dominant growth. 



The mention of two other species completes the list of 

 conifers found in the state, eleven in all. Nearing the 

 high peaks of this great mountain region, large bodies 



