REPORT ON FORESTS. 21 



mean that fully 6,500 acres of timber, or six square miles, must 

 be cut annually for use in the iron industry alone. This demand 

 began to disappear in 1850, owing to the introduction of anthra- 

 cite blast-furnaces, although some forges continued in operation 

 15 years later, and a very few up to 1880.* 



Add to this large use the fact that the larger timber was being 

 steadily cut off for sawed lumber, that much charcoal was used 

 for domestic and other purposes, and the other demands which 

 we have noted, it is easily seen how severe was the cutting of 

 Highlands forests, when the charcoal iron industry was most 

 active, at about 1850. 



Since that time the cutting of very young timber, such as is 

 suitable only for charcoal, cordwood or hoop-poles, has become 

 less and less profitable. It must now be allowed to attain an 

 age of 35 to 40 years at least, so as to be useful for railroad ties 

 or telegraph and telephone poles. 



Some portions of the Highlands have been cut over so fre- 

 quently that there is evidence that the chestnut timber is suffer- 

 ing from the need of re-planting. Coppice wood will gradually 

 deteriorate, and in some places it is said to rot at the heart at an 

 early age. Some of the complaints may indicate that the soil is 

 becoming exhausted, for there is no reason to expect that soil 

 can produce repeated growths of timber without being deprived 

 of its fertility. The .production of one cord of wood yearly, con- 

 taining about one and one-half tons of dry solid matter, together 

 with the leaf crop of the trees, is certainly as great a tax upon 

 the acre of land as is the production of thg average one and one- 

 half tons of hay or other-farm crops. There are also instances 

 noted where a growth df oak cut off has failed to reproduce 

 itself, but red cedar has come iip instead. But these evidences 

 of deterioration are exceptional, and generally confined to dis- 

 tricts which have been most frequently cut in the past. In gen- 

 eral the forests of the Highlands and Kittatinny valley, although 

 they contain little timber over 50 years old, may be pronounced 

 luxuriant and in better condition than they were 40 to 50 

 years ago. 



In the red sandstone country there is likewise no evidence of 

 deterioration, and the same may be said of the clay and marl 

 region. The forests here consist almost exclusively of small 



• For a list of forges and charcoal furnaces see Annual Report of the State Geologist, 1879. 



