WHITE PINE FORESTS. 215 



pine and yellow poplar is concerned. Oak and chestnut, though 

 chiefly of a small size, are still to be obtained. 



The forest is capable of yielding milling timber, fuel, railway 

 ties, and fencing, for most of which a local market can be found. 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE FORESTS 



Protection from fire and cattle should be afforded where this is 

 not already done. Defective trees, or those of inferior kinds, 

 which are interfering with young growth beneath them should be 

 removed. Proximity to farms will generally allow this to be done 

 as such wood can be made use of as fuel. The growth should- be 

 allowed to thicken up to restore the humus and give the requisite 

 shade. 



Most of the land here is too broken to permit clean cuttings 

 without danger of great injury to the soil. Pure growth of pine, 

 on the gentler slopes could, however, be cut without danger of 

 excessive washing. Naturally the forest requires selection cut- 

 ting. 



The pines and yellow poplar require reproduction in all cases 

 from seed. To supply smaller wood for fuel and farm use most of 

 the broad leaf-trees can be reproduced from stool-shoots. 



Fields are seeded by pines and to some extent by locust; rarely 

 by nut-bearing trees. The yellow poplar will propagate in thin 

 woods on a damp soil as the seedlings require some shade. The 

 short-leaf is the most valuable of the pines, and though at first 

 not the most rapid-growing, the Jersey or scrub out growing it, 

 should be protected at the expense of the others if it is intended 

 to permit the trees to reach a large size. 



WHITE PINE FORESTS. 



The woodland in which white pine is the dominant coniferous 

 tree is not extensive, but lies in isolated, small bodies along the 

 crest, and southern and eastern slopes of the Blue Kidge, or on the 

 low hills on the west. 



The most extensive forests containing white pine lie in the 

 southeastern part of Ashe county, extending, though interrupted, 



