REPORT ON FORESTS. 7 



ill-suited to farming, in forest and the practice of more scientific 

 methods of agriculture mtist be depended upon to maintain the 

 proper proportion of woodland to farmed lands in these districts 

 of the State. 



In the Highlands, on the Kittatinny mountain, on the trap- 

 rock ridges, inclitding the Palisades mountain, and in the Pines 

 belt of Southern New Jersey, there are large tracts which 

 should be kept in forest. General clearing would be unprofit- 

 able in the Kittatinny mountain because the surface is too rocky 

 and the soil too thin for making farms oh it. The inaccessibility 

 on account of lack of roads and the distance from market, make 

 it ill-suited to agriculture. This mountain range is one of the 

 natural subdivisions of the State which may be considered as 

 adapted to forest — it may be game preserves, or woodland for 

 the production of wood. The Highlands is a well-wooded 

 natural division of the State, and especially the northern 

 part, or about as far south as the line of the Lackawanna Rail- 

 road, from Morristown westerly to Hackettstown, and thence to 

 Belvidere. The terminal moraine marks the southern limit of 

 the more densely wooded part. The southern part, stretching 

 southwest to the Delaware river, is more largely in farms and 

 under cultivation. The map which accompanies this report 

 shows the cleared land and the woodland in detail. It may be 

 noted that the slopes of the hills and mountains, and the moun- 

 tain-tops are generally wooded ; the farm-lands are in the valley- 

 bottoms, and on the level plateaus. The timber is generally 

 chestnut and oak and other broad-leaf species. In places chest ■ 

 nut coppice wood predominates over all other kinds. There 

 is less white oak, hickory and ash than on the limestone and 

 slate of the Highland valleys and the Kittatinny valley. Black 

 walnut, tulip poplar and beech are scarce. The coniferous 

 trees are white pine, pitch pine, hemlock, larch and red cedar. 

 The value of this Highlands forest is in the favorable conditions 

 which it makes for gathering ground for the streams supplying 

 water to the cities of the northeastern part of the State. The 

 brooks in the woods do not carry so much earthy material as 

 streams which receive water from bare ground and ploughed 

 fields. The water is clear and not turbid or roily and is suited to 

 city supply. The superior quality of water from such wooded dis- 

 tricts, over that gathered in a cleared farming country, makes it 



