216 



WEST VIRGINIA EXPERIMENT STATION 



Fig. XII. Spruce Forests cut over and destroyed by fire, near Davis. 

 PRESENT CONDITION IN THE SPRUCE AREA. 



A study 'of the present conditions in the Spruce Area is in 

 many respects of especial interest, furnishing as it does a typi- 

 cal example of the influences exerted by progressive industry 

 in the developmeut of natural resources, upon the plant and 

 animal life, climate, etc., and the consequent disturbance of 

 nature's law in bringing about changed condition. The virgin 

 forests of this area are mainly restricted to the more inaccessi- 

 ble portions of the rocky or swampy condition of the soil which 

 has rendered them undesirable for pasture lands, unfavorable 

 for the origin and spread of forest fires, or for the operation of 

 lumber or timber companies. Thus, we find sections of greater 

 orjless extent throughout the south-western portion of|Mineral, 



