216 FOKESTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



up the valley of the South Fork of New river into Watauga 

 county ; in the upper valley of the Linville river in Mitchell 

 county ; in the valley of the French Broad river in Transylvania 

 county ; and in the southern parts of Macon and Jackson coun- 

 ties, at an elevation of 2,800 to 3,800 feet above sea level, exten- 

 sive forests seldom being found above the higher limit, or perfect 

 individual development attained below the lower. The total area 

 of white pine forest is not over 200,000 acres. 



In a few places on the southern slope of the Blue Bidgc, par- 

 ticularly along the headwaters of the Elk, Yadkin, and Koaring 

 rivers in Wilkes and McDowell counties, and the upper valley of 

 the Johns river, the white pine is associated'with yellow pines as 

 well as with deciduous trees, but the trees are generally short- 

 boled and neither so large nor tall as those growing at a higher 

 elevation to the west of this range. 



Single specimens or small groups of trees are locally dispersed 

 in the broad-leaf forests throughout the mountain counties 

 between the limits of altitude given above. Their value, how- 

 ever, is potential rather than actual, since, growing on the thin- 

 soiled crests of ridges and failing to develop clear shafts, they lack 

 the essential requirements of timber trees ; but, as possible sources 

 for the dissemination of seed either in denuded land or in thinned 

 woodland, especially where pastured, their utility may become 

 great. Such groups of trees are to be found in Alleghany, 

 Madison, Haywood, and Graham counties, besides in portions of 

 other counties in which bodies of more compact growth occur. 



The white pine is generally associated with white, black, red, 

 and less often, scarlet 'and chestnut oaks, chestnut, and hickory, 

 when growing along the crests or flanks of rolling hills, on coarse, 

 often porous, gravelly, loamy soils; or less frequently with hem- 

 lock, sweet and yellow birch, red oak, and pitch pine along moist 

 or wet fluvial deposits on fertile, loamy soils. 



CONDITION OF THE WHITE PINE FORESTS. 



In seme localities these forests have been extensively culled or 

 lumbered ; in others, their integrity is as yet scarcely broken. 

 Where they have not been dismembered two groups of trees are 



