MARYLAND WEATHER SERVICE 373 



tion. The timber of this type is generally scrubby, as might be ex- 

 pected on the thin soils and exposed situations, and especially is this 

 true where forest fires are frequent, as is the case all through the 

 mountain section. The principal species are chestnut, red oak, white 

 oak, chestnut oak, maple and birch. This type is much more exten- 

 sive than the slope type, being about in the proportion of 4 to 1, but 

 commercially it is less important because of the poor quality of 

 timber. 



The slope type occupies the deeper soils of the lower slopes and 

 the more favorable benches and coves where the most valuable timber 

 is produced. The principal commercial species are chestnut, white 

 oak, red oak, hickory, sugar maple, basswood and occasionally hem- 

 lock. 



The coniferous forests consist of small areas of hemlock along 

 lower mountain slopes adjacent to streams, and a few scattered pitch 

 pine stands on higher situations but more particularly on southern 

 slopes. 



The mixed type of hardwood-coniferous forest is more extensive 

 than the pure coniferous forest, but is of relatively little importance. 

 The mixed stands of pine and hardwood usually consist of an upper 

 story of hardwood. In a few cases white pine is found in mixture 

 with hardwoods and nearly all hemlock stands have more or less of 

 the hardwood mixture. 



The Use of the Forests. 



Before modern logging methods were as highly developed as now, 

 and while timber was low in price, there was not sufficient induce- 

 ment to push logging operations into the more inaccessible timber 

 areas of the mountains, hence most of these areas were saved for 

 future need. But not so with the white pine forests that occupied 

 extensive areas, and especially where the timber was of sufficiently 

 high value to warrant the construction of logging railroads and the 

 equipment of large mills. This timber was cut over 35 years ago 

 and the fires that followed lumbering operations (as they almost in- 

 variably do, in this section) practically exterminated the species. 

 White pine in this State is now a comparatively rare timber tree, 



