THE EASTERN HEMLOCK. 5 
According to this, hemlock is the most abundant conifer in the 
mountainous regions south of Pennsylvania. Its nearest com- 
petitor is spruce, with a total of less than 3,000,000,000 board feet. 
In Maryland nearly all the hemlock is in Garrett County. In West 
Virginia over 80 per cent is in the high mountains of Pocahontas, 
Randolph, Tucker, and Webster Counties, and the western part of 
Grant and Pendleton Counties, where it covers large areas just below 
the spruce belt. Eighty per cent of the hemlock in Virginia lies west 
of New River, and 50 per cent is in Grayson, Smyth, and Washington 
Counties. Here, also, the heaviest bodies lie below the spruce in the 
" spruce and hemlock region." Farther south hemlock forms a smaller 
proportion of the stand, though it is often very dense in the coves 
and lower slopes. It becomes less abundant as the mountains become 
lower, and fails altogether where the foothills and plains begin. 
VALUE OF STANDING HEMLOCK. 
The stumpage value of hemlock is generally lower than that of the 
other important eastern trees. White and red pine, white ash, 
basswood, elm, oak, and hickory all considerably exceed it. Birch 
and maple, which average a little less in value than hemlock in the 
northeast, exceed it in the Lake States and Southern Appalachians. 
Beech is perhaps the only important species in the Lake States whose 
average stumpage value is not greater than that of hemlock, while 
in the South hemlock is the least valuable of all the species. Table 6 
gives the relative stumpage values of hemlock and associated species 
in 1912, based on a large number of reports of timber sales received 
by the Forest Service. 
Table 6. — Comparative stumpage values per thousand board feet of hemlock and 
associated species, in 1912} 
Species. 
North- 
eastern 
States. 
Lake 
States. 
Southern 
States. 
Hemlock . . 
White pine 
Ash 
Basswood . 
Elm 
Maple 
Birch 
Beech 
$6.28 
8.44 
9.03 
8.40 
6.71 
5.98 
5.61 
4.38 
$3.78 
10.39 
5.82 
6.30 
5.87 
4.58 
4.85 
3.67 
$2.62 
3.91 
6.16 
4.92 
3.41 
3.45 
3.33 
2.86 
1 From the reports of sales collected by the Forest Service, Office of Industrial Investigations. The 
States included under the headings of "Northeastern States," "Lake States," and "Southern States" are 
those given in Table 7. 
Stumpage values are derived by deducting all logging, transporting, 
and manufacturing costs from the value of the lumber or other 
salable product. Wide ranges in stumpage value due to differences 
in accessibility may prevail within the bounds of a single State. As 
