. Forestry and wood industries . through Pendleton, Randolph,Grant and Tucker counties, ^he opening was begun by a firewhich spread from the camp of confederate scouts on the Roar-ing Plains, of Randolph county. It has been enlarging eversince. Many destructive and spectacular conflagrations haveoccurred in the region, the most formidable being that whichswept the eastern side of Alleghany mountain on the head-waters of Big creek in Pendleton county. Eye witnesses havestated that the flames overtopped the tallest pines and ad-vanced ten miles an hour. Apparently, the pine forests have suffered
. Forestry and wood industries . through Pendleton, Randolph,Grant and Tucker counties, ^he opening was begun by a firewhich spread from the camp of confederate scouts on the Roar-ing Plains, of Randolph county. It has been enlarging eversince. Many destructive and spectacular conflagrations haveoccurred in the region, the most formidable being that whichswept the eastern side of Alleghany mountain on the head-waters of Big creek in Pendleton county. Eye witnesses havestated that the flames overtopped the tallest pines and ad-vanced ten miles an hour. Apparently, the pine forests have suffered most fromfire, but in reality the damage to the hardwoods (broad-leaftrees) has been more in the aggregate, because covering muchmore country. The undergrowth is often destroyed, and thiskills the forest which would be productive a century hence. Abad pine-wood fire may kill old and young, all at once, whilein a hardwood forest one must look forward a hundred yearsto see the full injury—^perhaps a thousand years would not be. WEST VIBGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 53 time enough to show it all where the humus of the soil has beenburned out. The manner in which fire destroys the foundation onwhich a forest grows is apparent from an examination ofchanges in the soil on the Alleghany summit and neighboringranges where the woods have ceased to exist, and that one caseis typical of many, and in a lesser degree of all. Over much ofthat territory the foundation on which the forest stood was amass of broken and split rocks^ and beneath that the solidrock. Trees had found an anchorage for their roots, and forcenturies the decaying needles and leaves had been falling intoand filling the cavities among the stones. Mosses and lichenshad grown and decayed. Each season added a little to the soil,and the accumulation of organic substances, with the mat ofliving moss, covered the underlying rocks to a depth of fromone to three feet. This mass of vegetable matter^ vnth thefragments of broken rocks
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectforestsandforestry
