26 



FOREST CONDITIONS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA. 



poses, much of this timber was cut years ago, but since hemlock lumber 

 brought a very low price at that time only the bark was used, the 

 wood being left on the ground to rot. This practice is now abandoned, 

 and even reversed^ since the timber is now utilized, while the bark is 

 often wasted. Young hemlock cannot stand fire, and comes in on only 

 moist soil with a cover of humus, so that where the forest is burned 

 hemlock is exterminated. Many of the areas on which hemlock now 

 stands will be used for agriculture; others will grow more valuable 

 trees, such as yellow poplar, linn, and ash, so that hemlock will decrease 

 in the future mountain forest. 



Chestnut Oak. 



This oak, which belongs to the white oak group, is one of the most 

 widely distributed and generally important ' oaks of the region. Its 

 lumber is far inferior to that of the red oak, but its bark, which is 

 used for tanning purposes, greatly increases the value of the stumpage. 

 Chestnut oak forms a smaller proportion of the forest than red oak, 

 and has a smaller individual development. It is reproduced chiefly by 

 sprouts; its acorns are abundant enough, but are largely destroyed by 

 hogs and by fire. 



Maple. 



Sugar Maple. — Sugar maple grows chiefly on the moist slopes of the 

 higher elevations, but is nowhere important. Sometimes, on restricted 

 areas, it forms 15 per cent of the stand; over larger areas it seldom 

 forms more than 3 or 4 per cent of the forest, yet local saw mills occa- 

 sionally cut as much as 10 per cent maple. In the northeastern coun- 

 ties there has been some production of maple sugar, though the indus- 

 try has practically died out. Sugar maple reproduces abundantly from 

 seed where fires are kept out, but it is of so much less value than other 

 trees that it need not be encouraged. 



Red Maple. — Red maple is scattered in very small groups or as single 

 trees through all types, but is of such poor quality and inferior value 

 that it is unimportant. Sprouts and seedlings are abundant, and, 

 owing to their vitality, form a large portion of the young growth where 

 fires kill off other trees. 



Basswood. 



In the coves and on northerly slopes basswood, or linn, as it is gener- 

 ally called, is scattered as single trees or in clumps rising from the same 

 root. Though nowhere forming a large proportion of the forest, it is 

 yet abundant enough to constitute more than 2 per cent of the entire 

 stand. Two species are common, the white and the American, the latter 



