FOREST CONDITIONS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA. 67 



which the spruce forests grow and the steepness of the slopes necessi- 

 tate some variation in method. In one operation, tree-length logs are 

 pulled up one side of a mountain by steam skidders at the top. Here 

 the trees are cut into log lengths, skidded to a log slide, down which 

 they plunge to a yard some thousand feet below. In the yard, the logs 

 are cut and split into blocks, and put into a flume which carries them 

 six or eight miles to the railway. In another operation skid roads are 

 made about fifty yards apart on the side of the mountain, and the 

 logs are "ball-hooted" into these skid roads, then taken by teams to a 

 narrow gauge railroad which carries them to a mill, where they are 

 cut into lengths and quartered, and then shipped to the pulp mill. It 

 can readily be understood that such operations are quite expensive, and 

 probably would not be carried on by the company if a sufficient supply 

 of this kind of pulp wood could be assured at the present price, $6 a 

 cord at the railroad. 



This industry is the only one that is using spruce and balsam to any 

 extent and probably the only one which can afford to cut or buy spruce 

 under prevailing conditions. This cutting is leaving the spruce forests 

 in very poor condition. All trees down to four inches in diameter are 

 cut, and those smaller than this are generally so broken and crushed 

 that they can never be thrifty. Then also, fire is likely to get into the 

 cutover area and destroy not only the young growth but all the vege- 

 table matter in the soil, so that little but the bare rock remains. If 

 fires can be kept out, the "slash" will eventually decay, and a second 

 growth of balsam and spruce may come in. The only hope for this 

 southern extension of the spruce forests seems to be in keeping out fire. 



Spruce and balsam, which furnish about one-fifth of the wood used 

 for pulp, are treated by the sulphite process. The white color and long 

 fiber of the wood give a good quality of paper without bleaching. 



Hemlock. — Ten to twenty years ago millions of feet of hemlock tim- 

 ber were cut and left lying in the woods to rot, the bark alone being 

 sold to the tanneries; this was done because of the low price of hem- 

 lock lumber. Only within the last few years has hemlock become prom- 

 inent as a source of pulp, and only since the establishment of the mill 

 at Canton has it found a market in this region. 



At the present time, where transportation facilities are adequate, the 

 wood is worth two or three times as much as the bark on it. One cord 

 of peeled wood at the railway is worth, on the average, $6.00, whereas 

 formerly this cord would have furnished 1-3 of a cord of bark worth 

 about $2.35. 



Approximately two-fifths of the total amount of pulp wood marketed 



