THE NORTHERN HARDWOOD FOREST. 



9 



regions. In the higher mountains spruce covers the peaks and 

 ridges, especially on northerly slopes, and associates freely with the 

 northern hardwoods along the lower edges of the spruce belt. White 

 pine and hemlock also continue south along the Appalachians, and 

 by mixing with the hardwoods help to maintain the characteristic 

 structure of the northern forest. 



Extensive pure stands of beech are found on ridges in southern 

 North Carolina and farther north along the Blue Ridge. The com- 

 mercial importance of the northern hardwoods is minimized, how- 

 ever, by the abundance of valuable southern timber trees like white 

 oak and yellow poplar. 



Elm and basswood as forest trees are more abundant in southern 

 New England than in Maine and northern New Hampshire. These 

 species appear at low altitudes and increase in quantity toward the 

 west and south, their scarcity throughout the east being in marked 

 contrast to the abundance in which they are found in the west. The 

 great abundance of basswood and elm is perhaps the most striking 

 characteristic of the northern hardwood forest in the Lake States. 

 According to estimates compiled by the Bureau of Corporations, 1 

 basswood forms 12 per cent and elm 9 per cent of all the hardwoods 

 in these States. Maple leads in amount with 35 per cent, birch com- 

 prises 24 per cent, beech 4 per cent, and ash 2 per cent of the total 

 hardwood stand. Together these six species make up more than a 

 third of the total stand, hardwoods and softwoods, in the Lake States. 

 Table 3, arranged from a similar table in the Bureau of Corporations 

 report, illustrates the relative importance of the northern hardwoods, 

 individually and collectively, in the Lake States forests during 1910 

 (the year in which the data were gathered) . The estimates do not in- 

 clude publicly owned timber, which, however, does not amount to a 

 large proportion of the merchantable stand. 



Table 3. — Privately owned standing timber in the Lake States, by species. 2 



Species. 



Total. 



Michigan. 



"Wisconsin. 



Minnesota. 



Total 



Board feet. 

 100, 000, 000, 000 

 58, 100, 000, 000 



Board feet. 

 47, 600, 000, 000 

 22,200,000,000 



Board feet. 

 29, 200, 000, 000 

 17, 100, 000, 000 



Board feet. 

 23,200,000,000 



Conifers 



18, 800, 000, 000 







Hardwoods 



41,900,000,000 



14,500,000,000 



10, 100, 000, 000 



5,100,000,000 



3, 700, 000, 000 



1,600,000,000 



1,000,000,000 



2,000,000,000 



700, 000, 000 



3, 200, 000, 000 



25,400,000,000 

 12,200,000,000 

 5, 100, 000, 000 

 2,200,000,000 

 2, 100, 000, 000 

 1, 600, 000, 000 

 600, 000, 000 



12, 100, 000, 000 

 2,300,000,000 

 4,300,000,000 

 2, 500, 000, 000 

 1, 500, 000, 000 



4, 400, 000, 000 



Maple 



Birch 



700, 000, 000 



Basswood 



400, 000, 000 



Elm 



100, 000, 000 



Beech 





Ash 



300, 000, 000 



100, 000, 000 

 2,000,000,000 



Poplar (and balm of gilead) . . 



Oak 



200, 000, 000 

 1, 400, 000, 000 



300,000,000 

 900,000,000' 



200, 000, 000 

 900, 000, 000 







i Report on the lumber industry, Pt. I, Standing timber. 



2 From Bureau of Corporations, Report on the lumber industry— Standing timber, 1913, p. 78. 



