WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



211 



Original Timber Conditions. 



The difference between the original tree growth of the 

 mountains and that of the limestone uplands was as marked as 

 the variation in the surface itself. The characteristic trees of 

 the limestone areas were white oak, red oak, black oak, sugar 

 maple, black walnut, shellbark hickory^ wild cherry, poplar, 

 basswood and cucumber; while those of the mountains which 

 rise on the east were scrubby chestnut oak and pitch pine. 

 Hardwoods grew exclusively on the northwestern faces of both 

 Peters mountain and Potts mountain, but on their southeastern 

 faces and on both sides of Gap mountain. Middle mountain and 

 Cove mountain softwoods, such as pitch pines and a few white 

 and scrub pines, grew in pure stands or mixed with various 

 species of hardwoods. Hemlocks and the pines once formed a 

 fringe around the hardwood forests of the limestone lands, and 

 grew in considerable abundance along Second creek and other 

 streams which descend to the Greenbrier and the New rivers. 



A writer on the natural resources of West Virginia has 

 said that ''Monroe was never a well timbered county." This is 

 true so far as the mountainous sections were concerned; but an 

 examination of a number of practically virgin woodlots, scat- 

 tered from Sinks Grove to Gap Mills, has shown that the state- 

 ment would not have applied to the forests that once stood on 

 the limestone areas. Mr. C. P. Lewis, the present county sur- 

 veyor of Monroe, for many years familiar with every section 

 of the county, asserts that there was once a very fine stand of 

 timber growing on the extensive and fertile uplands, and that 

 there are still some single acres of virgin forest owned by the 

 farmers from which 25,000 feet of white oak could be cut. 



The Lumber Industry. 



In considering the destruction and utilization of the tim- 

 ber of the county we may divide the time into two periods : the 

 first extending from the year 1750, the approximate date of 

 the earliest settlement, to the year 1880; and the second ex- 

 tending from 1880 to the present. The first may be called a 

 period of home consumption. The parts of the county settled 



