308 



CONDITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



Basswood 

 Spruce . 



Hemlock 



Sugar Maple 



13 per cent. 

 5 per cent. 

 5 per cent. 

 5 per cent. 



Others (including beech, birch, ash, 



cherry) 



10 per cent. 



In other sections the percentage of some species named 

 above would be low and that of others high according to eleva- 

 tion of the tract, etc. 



Most of the area in Webster county now occupied by virgin 

 and cut-over forests should always remain as forest land. There 

 are at least three good reasons why this is so : First, the land 

 is not in any sense agricultural; second, it is capable of pro- 

 ducing, naturally, an abundant and profitable yield of timber; 

 and third, the region is of pre-eminent value for its effect upon 

 the flow of waters which finally reach the Ohio river through 

 the Elk, the Gauley and the Great Kanawha. 



In the glady regions near Cowen truck-growing will doubt- 

 less become very profitable, and there are many sections through- 

 out the northwestern half of the county where fruit and the 

 ordinary farm crops can be successfully grown. The agricul- 

 tural areas are small, however, and the county must protect and 

 encourage the growth of its forests as the principal source of 

 wealth. 



Wetzel county is separated from Greene county, Pennsyl- 

 vania, and from Marshall county on the north by a portion of 

 the historic Mason and Dixon line and a westward extension of 

 the same to the Ohio river; on the east the Monongahela-Ohio 

 river watershed forms the natural boundary line; on the south 

 the line follows the southern edge of the Fishing creek drain- 

 age basin; and on the west it follows the western bank of the 

 Ohio river. In 1846 Wetzel was cut off from the northern 

 end of Tyler county and the boundaries given it then have re- 

 mained unchanged. Its area is 360.47 square miles or 230,701 

 acres. 



WETZEL COUNTY. 



Location and Area. 



