30 FOREST CONDITIONS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA. 



situations, and extending up into the spruce type these two birches are 

 together, and often classed as one species. Here they form from 5 to 

 20 per cent of the forest, hut are crooked and defective. They repro- 

 duce well and form from 25 to 50 per cent of the young stands on old 

 burns or windfalls in the higher mountains. The sweet birch is a good 

 tree for such situations and should be encouraged. Another species, 

 the river birch, grows along streams in the plateau type. It is of little 

 value, and is rarely used for anything except firewood. 



Balsam. 



Frazer's balsam or "she balsam," as it is called locally, is mixed with 

 spruce in proportions varying from 15 to 50 per cent of the stand. 

 Though this tree makes a somewhat more rapid growth than the spruce, 

 when young, it does not attain as large a size, a tree 2 feet in diameter 

 being exceptional. Balsam has been little used for lumber in North 

 Carolina even where lumbering operations have been carried on; it is, 

 however, now being used with spruce for pulp wood, the two being cut 

 indiscriminately. Balsam reproduces better than spruce, and in most 

 second growth stands young balsam predominates. Spruce is more 

 abundant in the old stands simply because it is a longer-lived tree. 



Cucumber. 



Several species of magnolia are locally known as cucumber, but 

 among lumbermen this name is generally applied to but one species, 

 Magnolia acuminata. This tree grows to a large size in the rich coves 

 and slopes of the chestnut type, though its commercial distribution is 

 confined to the more remote parts of Graham, Swain, Macon, and Hay- 

 wood counties. Over considerable areas in Graham County it forms 

 as much as from 8 to 10 per cent of the entire stand. The value of 

 cucumber lumber is second only to that of poplar, with which it is 

 generally sold. Its comparative rarity prevents any general demand 

 for it under its own name. Seedlings of this species are scarce even 

 where seed trees occur, though where areas are protected from fire it 

 comes in rapidly in the second growth, both as sprouts and as seedlings. 

 One other species of magnolia grows throughout the higher mountains, 

 the mountain magnolia or Frazer umbrella-tree. This tree rarely at- 

 tains sufficient size to make merchantable lumber, though it is occa- 

 sionally cut by some of the large mills. 



Black Gum. 



Black gum grows in scattered stands throughout the plateau type, 

 and on the ridges and lower slopes of the chestnut type. It is so often 



