44 



The Forests op JVIaryland. 



The pines, of which there are four species — white, pitch, table 

 mountain, and scrub — are confined almost altogether to the eastern 

 half, where mixtures of the hardwoods with pine, to a lesser extent 

 with hemlock, also occur. Further westward these mixed stands are 

 found less frequently, until beyond Cumberland and along the Gar- 

 rett County line the forest cover is almost exclusively mixed hardwood 

 growth. These various forests show three tj^es, a lower slope, an 

 upper slope, and a ridge type. "White oak, sugar maple, basswood, 

 beech, red oak, ash, and more sparingly hemlock and white pine, 

 characterize the first and most important type. The leading species 

 of the upper slopes are chestnut, hickory, black birch, red and black 

 oaks, and scrub pine. The last and poorest type, on the ridges, shows 

 chestnut oak, with pitch and table mountain pines. 



Uses of the Forests. 



The uses of the Allegany County forests are indicated to some ex- 

 tent by the three types which characterize their occurrence and 

 growth. The woodland on the lower slopes produces the bulk of the 

 saw timber; the upper, crossties and other small material; the ridge, 

 ties (railroad and mine), tanbark and props. The annual cut of lumber 

 in the county is not nearly so great as it was a decade ago, but is still 

 an industry of considerable importance, and one now largely kept 

 alive by a wide use of the portable mills that are easily removed from 

 place to place in search of merchantable material. Altogether, Alle- 

 gany County has forty-five sawmill and timber operators, nearly all 

 with mills of the portable kind, and though their individual cut is 

 relatively small, these operators, as a whole, have an annual produc- 

 tion somewhat in excess of 3,000,000 cubic feet. The 45 miles of rail- 

 way in the county, as well as the line which follows the southern 

 boundary, are important adjimcts to the local timber industry. Al- 

 legany does not manufacture a great amount of wood. Lonaeoning, 

 Midland, Ellerslie, Frostburg, Mt. Savage, and Cumberland have re- 

 tail yards or planing mills which work and sell lumber, from Mary- 

 land and West Virginia, to the local trade. In Cumberland alone 

 there are nine planing mills and manufacturers of planing mill pro- 

 ducts, but other than this, and the large pulp paper mill at Luke, 

 local forest industries are those of production rather than of manu- 

 facture. 



The chief forest products in order of their relative value and im- 

 portance to the county are lumber, mine props, tanbark, crossties, 

 poles, lath, pulpwood, shingles, and posts. There is a good market in 

 supplying the coal mines in the western section of the county with 



