other upland hardwoods. The highly productive cove 

 hardwoods type occupies less than 10 percent of the forest 

 land in the mountains. It includes the beech-birch-maple 

 forest of the upper moist slopes, together with hardwoods 

 growing in the coves, of which yellow poplar is the leading 

 species and basswood, northern red oak, hickory, hemlock, 

 birch, ash, buckeye, and dead chestnut are commonly 

 associates. Abandoned fields in this type have often re- 

 stocked almost entirely to yellow poplar. The white pine 

 type is scattered throughout the mountains, but is most 

 abundant on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge. The 

 type actually contains only 170,000 acres of eastern white 

 pine, for included in this classification are 81,000 acres of 

 hemlock and 23,000 acres ol spruce and fir. Hemlock 

 grows in the coves, on the north slopes, and on the banks 

 of the small mountain streams. The present spruce and 

 fir stands are only remnants of the orginal forest of conifers 

 (fig. 20) that once occupied about 150,000 acres on the 

 upper slopes of the Black, Balsam, Unaka, and Smoky 

 Mountains. 



Forest Conditions 



Of the different forest conditions, summarized in table 6 

 for each physiographic region and the State, uncut old 

 growth is the smallest in area, save for clear cut. Old- 

 growth stands are usually 100 years old or more, although 

 occasionally loblolly and shortleaf pine will have the size 

 and quality of virgin timber at a younger age. These are 

 seldom large unbroken stands, but occur in small acreages 

 on farms, scattered patches in second-growth stands, 

 narrow strips along rivers, and less accessible blocks in the 

 tidewater swamps and the mountains. Probably the best 

 indication of its scattered distribution is contained in the 

 cutting records of sawmill operators. Data obtained in 

 1940 from operators who cut 33 different tracts of virgin 

 timber in various parts of the State show that the smallest 

 tract cut was 2.5 acres and the largest 1,200 acres. Half of 

 them were less than 26 acres in size. Most of the few large 

 blocks of old growth that remain are in the mountains and 

 the Coastal Plain. 



Table 6. — Distribution of forest area by forest condition and physiographic region, 1938 



Forest condition 



Coastal plain 



Piedmont 



Mountain 



region 



All regions 



Old growth: 



Uncut. _ _ 



1,000 acres 

 461.6 

 799.3 



Percent 

 4.8 

 8.3 



1,000 acres 

 107.1 

 357.2 



Percent 

 2.1 

 7.2 



1,000 acres 

 146.0 

 240.5 



Percent 

 4.1 

 6.8 



1,000 acres 

 714.7 

 1, 397. 



Percent 

 4.0 



Partly cut. _ _ ... .. 



7.7 







Total 



1, 260. 9 



13.1 



464.3 



9.3 



386.5 



10.9 



2,111.7 



11.7 







Second growth, sawlog size: 



Uncut- . . - .. 



2, 329. 1 

 1, 780. 5 



24.3 

 18.6 



1, 242. 7 

 887.1 



25.0 

 17.9 



838.2 

 454.2 



23.7 

 12.8 



4. 410. 

 3,121.8 



24.4 



Partly cut _ ... _ . . .. 



17.2 







Total 



4, 109. 6 



42.9 



2, 129. 8 



42.9 



1, 292. 4 



36.5 



7. 531. 8 



41.6 







Second growth, under sawlog size - . . 



3,111.0 

 842.2 

 266.1 



32.4 

 8.8 

 2.8 



2, 180. 4 



189.4 



4.2 



43.9 

 3.8 



.1 



1, 732. 8 

 107.6 

 24.5 



48.9 

 3.0 



7. 024. 2 



1, 139. 2 



294.8 



38.8 



Reproduction __ _ .. . 



6.3 



Clear-cut ._ 



1.6 







All conditions. 



9, 589. 8 



100.0 



4, 968. 1 



100.0 



3, 543. 8 



100.0 



18, 101. 7 



100.0 



Figure 21. — Distribution of forest area by forest condition and physio- 

 graphic region, 1938, reproduction and clear cut being included in "Under 

 sawlog size." 



About two-thirds of the old growth, including a large part 

 of the area in the longleaf pine, Virginia pine, and upland 

 hardwood types, has been cut over for select species or 

 sizes. In the piedmont many such upland hardwood 

 stands now contain only low-quality species and timber 

 More than one-third of all the old growth is in the bottom- 

 land hardwoods type (table 7), chiefly confined to the 

 Coastal Plain. Much of this old growth is black and water 

 tupelo, which were unmarketable in the early days of 

 logging. Throughout the State the area of old-growth 

 pine is small compared to the total area of pine types in 

 all the physiographic regions of the State (fig. 21). In 

 contrast, old-growth timber makes up almost 30 percent 

 of the hardwood type in the Coastal Plain and over 12 

 percent in the mountains. 



11 



