Rolhrock.] ^■^'-' [March 2, 



found attaining its most vigorous growth and size on a rocky liillside 

 where there is ahuost no soil in sight. Of course it is clear that under 

 such conditions it must have departed from its usual rule and sent its 

 roots deeply down beneath the surface. 



The white oak would probably come next in popular esteem. It is, 

 however, fairly a question whether the rock oak is not of greater com- 

 mercial importance to this State. The best white oak, as regards both 

 strength and durabilit3% contrary to the general opinion, comes from the 

 rich alluvial lands. To the truth of this proposition both science and the 

 most intelligent experience testify. Probably of all our important forest 

 trees, no species is more readily grown than the white oak. Mere alti- 

 tude (so far at lenst as our State is concerned) appears to be no obstacle 

 to its growth. "We find it at the level of tide and also at an elevation of 

 two thousand feet and upwards. It will flourish along the mountain 

 sides, then suddenly disappear as you reach the steeper, rocky slopes, 

 where the rock oak by its abundance gives character to the forest. It 

 can hardly be supposed that altitude alone has been the determining 

 cause of its disappearance. Tlie statement has already been made that 

 wliite oak from higher, poorer soil was of inferior quality, and this may 

 indicate such a lack of physical vigor as makes it unable to cope with the 

 hardier rock oak and locust which abound on such situations. Some of 

 the most thrifty young white oak groves I have found in this State have 

 been between tlie altitudes of one thousand and sevent^pn hundred feet 

 above the sea level. In such situations the soil, however, was loamy, 

 and with so few rocks that, once cleared, it might well enough have 

 served for agricultural purposes. On the mountain slopes, just at the 

 foot of the steeper incline, where there is an accumulation of loam 

 washed from the heights above, the growth of white oak is often the most 

 vigorous. This fact seems to obtain in our Stale without regard to alti- 

 tude, and points again to the conclusion that for the most successful 

 growth of this species, a fertile, comminuted soil is of the first import- 

 ance. 



Rock oak, locust and chestnut form, in one sense, a group by them- 

 selves—that is they agree markedly in certain peculiarities of habit, 

 being always found associated under certain conditions, and yet on the 

 other hand each able to thrive under conditions which would be inimical 

 to the best development of the other. For example, they all may be 

 expected to grow in association along those mountain slopes where the 

 Medina and Oneida sandstones appear ; neither altitude nor the rocky 

 masses seem to prevent their growth. Yet the limestone almost certainly 

 exercises a limiting influence on the chestnut and possibly on the rock 

 oak, while the locust often becomes a very large tree on limestone soil. 



The pitch pine may bo regarded as a tree of pliant constitution. Its 

 most constant home is on the higher mountain areas of the Slate. It is, 

 however, to be observed that the reason why it now appears most fre- 

 quently there is simply because it has been largely extirpated from all 



