FORESTS. OF THE EASTERN GRANITE AREAS. 189 



of young pine, both the short-leaf and loblolly, in pure growth, 

 forests of the eastern red sandstone. 



(3) A southeastern division with soils from slates, for the most 

 part rather shallow, supporting forests of short-leaf pine and 

 small broad-leaf trees, with only a small area of young pine in 

 pure growth. This will be called the forests of the slates. This 

 does not include the entire eastern slate area, but chiefly that in 

 the more southeastern counties* of that belt, the general limits 

 of which will be given in describing this head. 



Such differentiation, it must be understood, is merely for the 

 simplicineation of description ; further division might well be 

 made, but these show fairly well, being natural divisions, the 

 most evident differences existing in the forests and the intimate 

 relation existing between them and the soils. 



THE FORESTS OF THE EASTERN GRANITE AREAS. 



The northeastern counties of the Piedmont plateau region, 

 Franklin, Warren, Vance, and the northern and central parts of 

 Wake, with rolling surface, have generally grayish and loose top- 

 soils, frequently gravelly, especially along ridges, from the detritus 

 from numerous quartz veins, and red or reddish subsoils, deep, 

 fresh or moist along hillsides, but often coarse-grained and porous. 



The body of the forests is formed of post oak, black oak, white 

 oak and Spanish oak, with a considerable intermixture of white, 

 small-nut and pignut hickories, and, in most places, short-leaf 

 pine. The larger forest pines have, however, been largely 

 removed. Along the hollows and cooler slopes, mixed with the 

 white and black oaks, are the northern red oak and yellow poplar, 

 yielding a low grade of lumber, red maple and some ash ; along 

 the drier crests there is more post oak and often an increasing 

 proportion of black-jack oak. 



The woods around many of the towns, periodically cut over or 

 heavily culled for fuel, are rapidly deteriorating into mere post 

 oak and black-jack oak coppice, with, if fires are excluded and 

 there are seed-bearing pines near by, an ever-increasing propor- 

 tion of the short-leaf pine. 



* Largely the Monroe slates. See Bull. 3, N. C. Geological Survey, 1896, p. 36. 



