FOREST POLICY. 



9. Irrigation: 123 acres on 11 farms producing vegetables 

 and tobacco. 



FORESTRY CONDITIONS OF NORTH CAROLINA: 



1. Area: 35,300 square miles of woodlands, or 73% of 

 the State, are 'reported as "mostly timbered." 



2. Physiography: The western mountain region occupies 

 6,000 square miles. It is formed by the Blue Ridge on the South 

 Carolina line and the Great Smokies on the Tennessee line. 

 Cross ridges connecting these chains show the highest elevations. 

 Mount Mitchell, of 6,711 feet elevation, is the highest mountain 

 east of the Rockies. Normal precipitation, 57 inches annually. 



Normal average temperature, 50 degrees F. Rivers running 

 northward, breaking independently through the Great Smokies. 



The Piedmont plateau, 400 to 1,500 feet high, occupies 

 22,000 square miles. Its configuration is rolling, in the west 

 hilly. This fertile plateau is drained by the Catawba and Yadkin 

 Rivers; further, by the headwaters of the Cape Fear, Neuse and 

 Roanoke Rivers. Its elevation averages about 900 feet above 

 sea level; its precipitations, 50 inches; its annual temperature, 

 59 degrees F. 



The coastal plain of North Carolina, an area of 24,000 

 square miles, falls from 400 feet elevation down to sea level. 

 North of the Neuse River the soil is loamy; south of it more 

 sandy. Normal precipitations, 55 inches. Normal temperature, 

 61 degrees F. Large swamps along coast. 



3. Distribution : 



(a) Mountain region: 



(i) Lower mountains. There are 6 species of oaks, 4 of 

 hickories, chestnut, dogwood, black gum, sourwood and chin- 

 quapin. Post and Spanish oak are said (by W. W. Ashe) to be 

 rather local. Pinus echinata, rigida, virginiana, strobus and 

 (after Ashe) pungens prevail. White pine is said to cover 200,- 

 000 acres, notably in counties close to the Virginia line, reaching 

 its finest development at altitudes ranging between 2,800 and 

 3,800 feet elevation. The lower mountains are practically deprived 

 of virgin growth. 



(2) Higher mountains. (3,000 feet to 5,000 feet elevation.) 

 On the north slopes, hemlock, birches (lutea and lenta), red oak, 



70 



