96 



The Forests op Maryland. 



chestnut, and locust. Of the three types of forest in the county, the 

 mixed hardwood covers 97 per cent of the entire area; mixed hard- 

 wood and pine, 2 per cent, and pine, 1 per cent, being found in only 

 three and two districts, respectively. There are 33,776 acres of forest 

 in Kent County, and the stand of timber is 50,019,000 board feet. Of 

 this, the survey of 1907 showed that there were 6,787 acres of hard- 

 wood amounting to 5,000 feet or over to the acre, and 26,063 acres of 

 less than this; 483 acres of mixed hardwood and pine of less than 

 5,000 feet; and 443 acres of pure pine, also under 5,000 feet per 

 acre. 



Uses op the Forests. 



Saw timber in this county has become so scarce that practically all 

 species of any commercial importance are now cut and marketed for 

 lumber, the 1914 cut of 10 local mills amounting to 1,326,000 board 

 feet of pine and hardwood. Other than this the cut consisted of rail- 

 road ties, fence posts, piling, cordwood, pulpwood, poles, mine props, 

 and shingles, these products being given here in order of their rela- 

 tive value. The total cut was 382,870 cubic feet, worth $53,047, and 

 represents the output of the millmen, and many smaller operators or 

 individual farmers. The sawmills are nearly all of the small portable 

 kind, which move from place to place wherever stumpage is obtain- 

 able ; most of the timber cut is used at home, and much is imported for 

 construction purposes in addition to that which is locally supplied. 

 The 30 miles of railroad lines constitute a readily available market 

 for cross-ties, the high prices paid furnishing a strong incentive to cut 

 young timber which has not fully matured, either financially or other- 

 wise; the demand for telegraph and telephone poles has caused most 

 of the chestnut suitable for that purpose to be removed ; posts to the 

 number of 36,000 were used for renewing old fence lines and building 

 new ones in the county ; while the quantity of wood used for fuel is 

 always an item of some importance here. Other forest products got- 

 ten out in lesser amounts were piling, mine props, shingles and pulp- 

 wood. At Cliestertowu and Rock Hall alone there are wood-using 

 establishments which annually convert over 1,500,000 feet of rough 

 material to manufactured products which include baskets, barrels, 

 crates, flooring, ceiling, interior finish, window and door frames, but 

 in this county, as elsewhere, the producing end of the timber business 

 if of greater importance than the industries which manufacture wood 

 or timber. 



This being so, it lends emphasis to the fact that in view of present 

 forest conditions a greatly increased timber output would be possible 



