Allegany County. 



43 



vania line to the Potomac River, wliieii receives the entire drainage of 

 the county. Various soils occasion several forest types — shales pre- 

 dominating in the eastern three-quarters of the county, forming the 

 shallow upland soil where most of the forest growth occurs ; on some 

 of the higher ridges, limestone, resulting in land well suited to agri- 

 cultural and horticultural development; along Dan's Mountain and to 

 the west, other soils, made up largely of sandy loam, giving a tree 

 growth superior to that occurring on the other soil formations. 



The Forests. 



Sixty-two per cent of the county's area is wooded. Of this, not 

 greater than one per cent is virgin forest, the remaining ninety-nine 

 per cent having been cut over once, if not several times, since the set- 

 tlement of the county about one hundred and fifty years ago. At that 

 time virgin woodland covered probably ninety-five per cent of the 

 county's total area. The present land in forest has been cut over and 

 burned repeatedly, so that its original character has been very greatly 

 changed. At the same time the quest for valuable kinds of wood has 

 led to a systematic culling of the forests throughout accessible regions, 

 with a consequent reduction of merchantable material. This area of 

 forest is being still further reduced by the extensive clearing of land 

 for fruit growing in the eastern section of the county, and it is to be 

 expected that forests will be cleared away for farm crops on small 

 areas in other sections. Excessive cutting and fires have almost elimi- 

 nated in places certain species that were of the greatest value years 

 ago, so that a normal balance cannot be restored except through radi- 

 cal changes in prevalent methods of logging, protection, and manage- 

 ment. 



Existing forests may be divided into three classes : hardwood, pine, 

 and a mixed growtli of each. Hardwood forests cover 128,322 acres, 

 or seventy-eight per cent of the wooded area ; pine stands, including a 

 small amount of hemlock, are found on 3,164 acres, two per cent of the 

 forested area; while the mixed hardwood and pine forests cover 32,- 

 346 acres, or twenty per cent of the wooded area. In the total stand 

 of saw timber the hardwood forests contain 105,369,000 board feet, 

 and the pine 42,073,000, the stumpage found in mixture being combined 

 with these two other main classes. According to the forest survey of 

 1909 there were only 174 acres of hardwoods in the county having a 

 stumpage of 5,000 feet or more to the acre, and 128,148 acres contain- 

 ing less; pine of 5,000 board feet or greater occupied 6 acres, and less 

 than this, 3,158 ; while mixed stands of pine and hardwood covered 

 442 and 31,904 acres, respectively, of over 5,000 and less than 5,000 

 board feet. 



