236 



CONDITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



required several hundred feet of lumber in excess of the 11,200 

 feet now used in their construction. 



The Present Lumber Industry. 



Th*e removal from this small county, through a period of 

 75 years or more, of hoop poles, tan bark, staves, shingles, 

 cross-ties, lumber and logs, together with the clearing of the 

 land by farmers, has practically exterminated the forests. The 

 lumber industry is now reduced to the work of half a dozen 

 small mills, which saw irregularly from place to place, and to 

 the small operations of a few floating saw mills along the 

 Ohio river. 



The Present Forest Conditions. 



Only the fragments of a forest now remain in the county, 

 From 65 to 70 per cent of the whole area has been cleared for 

 agricultural purposes. The largest tract of timber remaining 

 is one of about 200 acres in Jefferson district. This has not 

 been cut over because of its ownership by the infant heirs of 

 an estate. As a rule the farmers' woodlots contain but little 

 timber of any kind. In many cases even the cross-tie and pole 

 timber are gone. Portions of numerous farms, especially in 

 the oil fields, have become impoverished by long-continued 

 cropping and are now overgrown with briers and brush. 



It should be noted here that in some sections of the county 

 there is a most promising growth of young trees of valuable 

 kinds and that yellow locusts are beginning to occupy otherwise 

 unprofitable ground in many places. 



POCAHONTAS COUNTY. 



Lrocation and Area. 



Pocahontas county was formed in the year 1821 from parts 

 of Bath, Pendleton and Eandolph. It lies on the eastern border 

 of the state, the summit of the Alleghany mountains being the 

 dividing line between the county and Virginia. Greenbrier 

 bounds it on the south, Greenbrier, Webster and Eandolph on 

 the west, and Webster and Randolph bound it obliquely on the 



