222 FOKESTS OF NOKTH CAROLINA. 



■especially such kinds as will not endure, beneath the shade of 

 other trees, repeated cropping : yellow poplar, white ash and 

 oak ; sugar maple and beech to a less degree. In many places 

 about fallen trees and the openings made in lumbering, where 

 there would be a heavy young stand, cattle have prevented its 

 growth until thickets of brambles have sprung up within which 

 young seedling trees find protection. 



Forest fires have inflicted only slight injury either to standing 

 timber or to young growth on the northern slopes, as the damp 

 or fresh humus does not readily carry fire, but on the south sides 

 much timber has been damaged. 



MERCHANTABLE TIMBER OF THE HIGHER MOUNTAINS. 



Merchantable trees of walnut and cherry, which have been 

 much sought after for cabinet-making have been nearly all 

 removed. Occasionally large trees of the former kind are to be 

 found, and a few small bodies of the latter still exist upon the 

 higher mountains. Yellow poplar and cucumber-tree, being the 

 chief building materials of the region, have largely been removed ; 

 large bodies are still to be found, however, intact, particularly in 

 Yancey, Mitchell, and Transylvania counties, and smaller ones in 

 many other places in the mountains. Floating timbers, white 

 pine, yellow poplar, ash and chestnut have been largely removed 

 from the lower valley of the French Broad to supply mills at 

 Asheville. Oak has been cut nowhere except for local use. The 

 Little Tennessee river and its tributaries have had much of the float- 

 ing timber removed from them near the water courses. Hemlock 

 has been cut only around Cranberry and adjacent to some of the 

 larger water courses. Ash has been generally removed wher- 

 ever means of transportation were available. Birch, except 

 curly yellow birch, has never been lumbered, and the same is true 

 of maple, beech, and lin (basswood). 



Chestnut has been locally removed. Around all settlements 

 and farming communities a great portion of the oak, chestnut and 

 poplar has been removed, and the forests are much broken. 



FOREST INDUSTRIES OF THE MOUNTAIN REGION. 



There are mills sawing lumber at Linville, Cranberry, Asheville 



