256 ^ CONDITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



Two or three farmers along the river are keeping up groves 

 of red cedar which produce profitable yields of excellent posts. 



Present Forest Conditions. 



Not far from half of the county is still wooded but there is 

 but little good timber remaining. A few farmers have reserved 

 small boundaries of good timber. Most of them, however, have 

 disposed of even their young trees for cross-ties. 



Farmers own all the forest land in the county except a 

 broken tract of 24,000 acres lying above Winfield and fronting 

 on the Great Kanawha river; a tract of 10,000 acres owned by 

 Whitehouse heirs who have leased same to coal companies; and 

 about 2,200 acres owned by a coal company on the south side 

 of the river 2 miles from Winfield. Scattered improvements 

 are found in many parts of the forest tracts mentioned above, 

 and an area of only about 4,500 acres, lying northeast of Win-' 

 field can properly be classed as cut-over forest land. 



RALEIGH COUNTY. 



Location and Area. 



Raleigh county, formed from part of Fayette in 1850, is 

 bounded on the north by Fayette, on the east by Summers and 

 Mercer, and on the south and west by Wyoming and Boone. 

 Its area is 560 square miles or 358,400 acres. 



Topography. 



The land now included within the boundary lines of 

 Raleigh was once part of a great inland plateau which has been 

 modified, in many places beyond recognition, by the action of 

 streams and other natural agencies. New river, which forms 

 the northeast boundary of the county, has cut a winding chan- 

 nel through this plateau to a depth of more than 1,000 feet, and 

 numerous tributaries of the Big Coal, the New and the Guyan- 

 dot rivers have furrowed it deeply in all directions. An area 

 of not less than 100,000 acres lying in the interior of the county 



