THE SPRUCE INVESTIGATION. 215 



pasture for cattle. (Fig. X.) Farmers living fifty to seventy-five 

 miles distant from the fertile limestone regions throughout the 

 eastern and southern portions of Randolph and northern portion 

 of Pocahontas counties came into this spruce wilderness and pur- 

 chased from the original owners, large tracts of land, paying 25 

 to 75 cents an acre for it, usually selecting the higher plateaus 

 where, in addition to a fertile limestone soil, the land was rea- 

 sonably free from surface stones. They would then proceed 

 to girdle all of the timber on the best land and leave it to die. 

 In a few years after the timber had been girdled these hackings 

 wefe burned over to kill the.under-growth, and feo get rid of 

 the fallen timber: This was usually all that was necessary to 

 make the conditions favorable for a natural growth of blue 

 grass, which soon occupied the land. Then the cattle were 

 driven into these mountain pastures, from -the distant farms, to 

 be left in charge of a herder during the summer months. In 

 the fall those suitable for beef were driven to market and the 

 others returned to the farms. By these hunting and pastoral 

 methods large sections where the best spruce grew have been de- 

 nuded and a subsequent growth of timber prevented. (Fig. XL) 



THE ORIGINAL AREA REATLY REDUCED. 



Thus, I would judge that the spruce area up to about the 

 year 1865 has been reduced to a belt averaging about twenty 

 miles wide and one hnndred and eighty miles long, or an area 

 of about 3,600 sq. mi., on which not over one-half of the total 

 forest growth was spruce, or an equivalent to perhaps 750,000 

 acres of nearly pure merchantable spruce timber. 



Within the last thirty years the spruce in this region has 

 been greatly reduced by destructive insects, by fire, and by the 

 lumberman until the total merchantable spruce timber now 

 standing in the State in 1895 would not, according to my esti- 

 mation, based upon original observations and accessible statis- 

 tics, be equivalent to much over 225,000 acres of pure spruce 

 forests, averaging 15,000 feet of lumber to the acre. While this 

 may be considered a large amount of timber, it was a great re- 

 duction from the probable original 1,500,000 acres aiicl the 

 recent 750,000 acres. (Fig. XII.) 



