REPORT ON FORESTS. 59 



comes from fires and cattle, the latter browsing off the young 

 growth, or breaking it down. It is said that a fire which causes 

 no great apparent damage at the time will cause the timber 

 later on to decay at the heart. There seems to be very little 

 wood in this district over 40 years old taken as a forest, although 

 there are scattering trees very much older. As a rule the tim- 

 ber grows slower on the west and north slopes of the hills. The 

 growth also varies with the character of the soil, and where the 

 latter is very thin in certain instances a 40-years' growth has not 

 attained sufficient size to be of any use, even for cord-wood. Mr. 

 , Decker, who formerly ran a forge at Sparta, says that he shut 

 his works down in 1865. He also says that when forges were 

 running throughout this section wood was often cut when 15 

 years old for coaling. Sprouts now come up quickly, and appear 

 to be thrifty, but he thinks that if fires continue they will cause 

 a deterioration in the forests. He also says that hemlock is 

 usually left standing when the other timber is cut off, as it does 

 not pay to get it out if at all inaccessible. This fact accounts 

 , for the larger size of most of the coniferous growth standing 

 throughout this part of the State. 



On Bearfort mountain timber has suffered much from fires. In 

 1882, during the prosecution of the topographic survey of that 

 section, a fire ran over a large area south of the road from Green- 

 wood lake to Wawayanda, and this fire did injury from which 

 the forests have not yet recovered. A fire in 1891 ran over 

 most of the mountain tops from the State line to Cedar lake. 

 The timber is generally, both on account of these fires and the 

 thinness or entire absence of soil over much of the mountain, 

 scattering and of little value on the high ridges, but owing to 

 its inaccessibility there has always remained a considerable 

 amount of original forest, and in 1882 there was some quite 

 heavy timber in the ravines, notably in the one heading at the 

 ■westernmost of the two small ponds near the State line. This 

 ravine was then heavily timbered, and travel through it was 

 difficult, owing to fallen tree-trunks. It was a good example of 

 virgin forest. But, generally speaking, over the mountain tops 

 the growth is scattering and inferior, which condition has been 

 much aggravated by the recent fires referred to. There is a 

 o-ood deal of the common pine and some hemlock scattered over 



