THE EASTERN HEMLOCK. 5 



According to this, hemlock is the most abundant conifer in the 

 mountainous regions south of Pennsylvania. Its nearest com- 

 petitor is spruce, with a total of less than 3,000,000,000 board feet. 

 In Maryland nearly all the hemlock is in Garrett County. In West 

 Virginia over 80 per cent is in the high mountains of Pocahontas, 

 Randolph, Tucker, and Webster Counties, and the western part of 

 Grant and Pendleton Counties, where it covers large areas just below 

 the spruce belt. Eighty per cent of the hemlock in Virginia lies west 

 of New River, and 50 per cent is in Grayson, Smyth, and Washington 

 Counties. Here, also, the heaviest bodies he below the spruce in the 

 "spruce and hemlock region." Farther south hemlock forms a smaller 

 proportion of the stand, though it is often very dense in the coves 

 and lower slopes. It becomes less abundant as the mountains become 

 lower, and fails altogether where the foothills and plains begin. 



VALUE OF STANDING HEMLOCK. 



The stumpage value of hemlock is generally lower than that of the 

 other important eastern trees. White and red pine, white ash, 

 basswood, elm, oak, and hickory all considerably exceed it. Birch 

 and maple, which average a little less in value than hemlock in the 

 northeast, exceed it in the Lake States and Southern Appalachians. 

 Beech is perhaps the only important species in the Lake States whose 

 average stumpage value is not greater than that of hemlock, while 

 in the South hemlock is the least valuable of all the species. Table 6 

 gives the relative stumpage values of hemlock and associated species 

 in 1912, based on a large number of reports of timber sales received 

 by the Forest Service. 



Table 6. 



-Comparative stumpage values per thousand board feet of hemlock and 

 associated species, in 1912} 



Species. 



Hemlock . . 

 White pine 



Ash 



Basswood . 



Elm 



Maple 



Birch 



Beech 



North- 

 eastern 

 States. 



S6.2S 

 8.44 

 9.03 

 8.40 

 6.71 

 5.98 

 5.61 

 4.38 



Lake 

 States. 



$3.78 

 10.39 

 5.82 

 6.30 

 5.87 

 4.58 

 4.85 

 3.67 



Southern 

 States. 



$2.62 

 3.91 

 6.16 

 4.92 

 3.41 

 3.45 

 3.33 



1 From the reports of sales collected by the Forest Service, Office of Industrial Investigations. The 

 States included under the headings of "Northeastern States," "Lake States," and "Southern States" are 

 those given in Table 7. 



Stumpage values are derived by deducting all logging, transporting, 

 and manufacturing costs from the value of the lumber or other 

 salable product. Wide ranges in stumpage value due to differences 

 in accessibility may prevail within the bounds of a single State. As 



