OUR FORESTS 11 



appeared. Of the original growth of hemlock, only a small portion 

 remains, and the spruce forests even in the less accessible regions 

 ha ve been depleted. 



In the southern Appalachian área the eastern hardwoods attain 

 their highest development. Yellow poplar is perhaps the outstanding 

 hardwood species oí this área, but many others are to be found here. 

 American chestnut, once an important timber species here, has been 

 killed by blight. Although the bulk of the virgin timber is gone 

 from the southern Appalachians, this section contains vast áreas of 

 culled second-growth and restoeldng land. Commercially this sec- 

 tion is likely to become one of the great permanent forest áreas of the 

 United States because of the large área of nonagricultural land, the 

 valuable species of hardwoods it can produce, and its proximity to 

 the large markets for forest producís. 



Many other species are found in the northern forest región. Those 

 characteristic of the northern portion include red, black, and white 

 spruces; balsam fir; eastern white, red, jack, and pitch pines; hem- 

 lock; sugar and red maples; beech; northern red, white, black, and 

 scarlet oaks; yellow, paper, black, and gray birches; several species 

 of aspen and cottonwood; basswood; elms; ashes; northern white 

 cedar; and tamarack. The species of the southern or southern Ap- 

 palachian portion, are white, northern red, chestnut, black, and scarlet 

 oaks; hemlock; eastern white, shortleaf, pitch, and Virginia pines; 

 black and yellow birches; basswood; sugar and red maples; beech; 

 red spruce; Fraser fir; cucumber; black cherry; hickories; black 

 locust ; black gum ; and buckeye. 



Hardwood Forest Región 



The hardwood región is the most extensive of the forest regions. 

 It covers the piedmont section east of the Appalachian Mountains, 

 the greater part of the drainage basins of the Mississippi and Ohio 

 Rivers, and extends southwestward through Oklahoma over central 

 Texas. It may be divided into three portions — northern, southern, 

 and Texas. 



Three-fourths of the timber-producing acreage in this forest región 

 is in farm woodlands, generally 10 to 40 acres in extent, and only 

 one-fourth is in comparatively large tracts of practically continuous 

 forest. The largest forest stands are found in the hilly sections, 

 mainly on lands not well suited for farming, in southern Ohio, Illi- 

 nois, and Indiana, the highland rim of Kentucky and Tennessee, and 

 the Ozark Plateau in Missouri and Arkansas. The farm woodlands 

 are scattered more thickly throughout the better-developed agricul- 

 tural sections (fig. 7). 



The present stands of timber in the hardwood región are largely 

 the culled remnants of former splendid hardwood forests. 

 Continued cutting of the best species and individuáis, forest fires, 

 and the heavy pasturing of woodlands have worked havoc, but a 

 few virgin stands are still in existence. 



The hardwood forest región has a large variety of hard- 

 wood species. The northern portion of the región contains white, 

 black, northern red, scarlet, bur, chestnut, and chinquapin oaks; 

 shagbark, whiteheart, pignut, and bitternut hickories; white, blue, 



