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COITOITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



About the year 1883 a narrow gauge railroad was built 

 from Grafton to PMlippi and a few years later was widened to 

 regular gauge and extended up the Tygarts Valley river to 

 Belington. Immediately after the completion of this railroad 

 portable saw mills were stationed, first along the line and later 

 farther back, toward the heads of the streams. Since then there 

 has been a continual operation of portable mills in all sections 

 where merchantable timber could be found. The principal ship- 

 ping points for lumber have been Moatsville, Belington, Philippi 

 and Clements. There have been no band saw mills in the 

 county. Considerable timber from along the river, however, 

 was drifted out and manufactured about 25 years ago on Cur- 

 tin's band mill at Grafton and later by G. C. Blatchley at the 

 same place. 



The Present Forest Conditions. 



The only forest land of any consequence now remaining in 

 the county lies in a belt from 1 to 3 miles wide extending along 

 the western face of Laurel ridge on the east and adjoining 

 Randolph and Tucker counties. There are a few small virgin 

 areas in that section which contain in the aggregate about 1,000 

 acres, and approximately 12,000 acres of cut-over forest. There 

 are about 3,000 acres of cut-over forest, also, lying in broken 

 tracts along the Tygarts Valley and Middle Fork rivers from a 

 short distance above Philippi to Clements. 



The small areas of woodland throughout the county are 

 principally connected with cleared farm land and contain only 

 a small stand of merchantable timber. 



BERKELEY COUNTY. 



Location and Area. 



Berkeley, the second oldest county in West Virginia, was 

 formed in the year 1772 from a part of Frederick county. It 

 lies in the Eastern Panhandle, between Jefferson county on the 

 east, Morgan county on the west, Maryland on the north, and 

 Virginia on the south. Its area is 257 square miles or 164,480 

 acres. 



