. Forestry and wood industries . Major Hotchkiss, an authority on the re-sources of the Virginias, did there exist a more luxuriant growthof spruce and hemlock than over a large part of this area. Thetrees were as straight as an arrow and frequently rose to aheight of 120 feet or more. In places their branches were so in-terwoven that they formed a thick, dark shade, which, in thesummer season, was most delightful, but in winter, when thesombre branches were drooping with snow, the prospect wasgloomy beyond description. Disturbances in Canaan. Canaan Valley and the surrounding plateau country
. Forestry and wood industries . Major Hotchkiss, an authority on the re-sources of the Virginias, did there exist a more luxuriant growthof spruce and hemlock than over a large part of this area. Thetrees were as straight as an arrow and frequently rose to aheight of 120 feet or more. In places their branches were so in-terwoven that they formed a thick, dark shade, which, in thesummer season, was most delightful, but in winter, when thesombre branches were drooping with snow, the prospect wasgloomy beyond description. Disturbances in Canaan. Canaan Valley and the surrounding plateau country re-mained practically undisturbed until 1863. That year a forestfire occurred which, with other burnings started by hunters,destroyed the spruce timber on a large area. In 1877 a stormswept a narrow path through the heart of the spruce belt, ex-tending eastward from Dobbin Mansion for a distance of 6 or 8miles. From this windfall other fires started and spread throughthe forest. The timber suffered in 1882 from a severe WEST VIRGINIxi GEOLOGICx\L SURVEY. 285 In 1883 the Southern Pine Beetle, (Dendroctonus frontalisZimm.) began to infest the timber, killing thousands of treesduring the decade which followed. In this same year the tim-ber was cut on the West Virginia Central Railroads right ofway from Fairfax, in Grant county, to Davis, and the railroadcompleted to the latter point in 1885. This railroad furnishedan outlet for the great quantity of timber and admitted num-erous portable and stationary saw mills which have continuedto operate to the present time. The timber where the town ofDavis now stands was cut in 1885 and the large band saw mill,which has ent over 400 million feet of softwoods, was erected 2years later. Those who visited this locality prior to the introduction ofthese disturbing influences would hardly recognize it now. C. Rives, an eminent naturalist of Washington, D. C,who made some field observations in the vicinity of Davis in1891 and
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectforestsandforestry
