102 



PRESENT FOREST CONDITIONS. 



stand of timber trees of a sufficient size for saw logs. Many of 

 the tracts more recently cut over, however, have been worked 

 down to a low limit and the remaining timber would estimate 

 almost nothing. The cut-over forests of spruce and other 

 softwoods have only a slight reproduction in most cases. There 

 is a tendency in many softwood sections toward a natural re- 

 placement of the original species by locust and other hardwoods. 



Farmers* Woodlots. 



Almost every farmer in West Virginia has retained an area 

 of wooded land on his farm from which he can draw for domes- 

 tic purposes. The area of woodlots in some counties is very 

 small, not exceeding 10 or 15 per cent. In others it is much 

 above this — in some cases as much as 80 or 90 per cent. In a 

 number of the hilly counties in the western half of the State, 

 especially, the average woodlots are found to contain a scrubby 

 growth of white oak, and other hardwoods, with but little tim- 

 ber that is valuable for lumber or even for railway ties or for 

 poles. Other counties have a large percentage of woodlots with 

 from 1,000 to 5,000 feet of merchantable timber per acre. 

 Throughout the State there is a tendency toward neglect of 

 woodlots, and thousands of acres of land in rough ravines and 

 on hillsides that are now overgrown with worthless brush and 

 briers could easily be made to yield profitable crops of locust 

 and other valuable species of trees. 



Burnt Areas. 



There are fully 70,000 acres that are almost or quite desti- 

 tute of trees lying along the west side of the AUeghanies and 

 the nearby parallel ranges. About 20,000 acres of this is in 

 Pendleton county and the remainder in Eandolph, Tucker and 

 Grant counties. In some places, as on the Roaring Plains in 

 Eandolph, on the summit of Spruce mountain in Pendleton, and 

 in smaller areas on the summits of stony ridges in Tucker and 

 Grant, the bare rocks are exposed and the existence of any vege- 

 tation other than lichens, mosses, and the like, is impossible. In 

 most places, however, there is still enough soil remaining to sup- 



