Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-04-12
ABOUT OUR FORESTS.
THE ENORMOUS VALUE CT THE aARl
WOODS OF WEST VIRGINIA.
Her Hard Woods Unequllsd Either 10 Quantity or
Qual!:y-WsSt Yrginians Not Aware Of
the Value Of Their Forest
Possessions.
BY VIRGIL A. LEWIS.

To he Editor Of Gs Register:
II is safe to say that the citizens Of no
American commonwealth have ever been
engaged in the promotion of more laud-
able or important enterprise than are the
peop,e Of West Virginia when making an
earnest effort to bring prominently to the
yiew ofthe commercial Gnd manufacturing
world, the untold aud almost incompre
heuSible material reaources of their State.
Regarding these, much has been said and
written, but the half has not been told, and
it rsmsined for. the organic atom of the
present-Tne State Emigration snd Deyei-
opmeut Seciety-to undertake the work,
to accomplish which, has been the object
of its creation, in q systematic and bust
| ness like manner.
Let us notice briefly her forest products
alone By the census Of 1sS0, it Is shown
that II, 80 square miles, or sixty-two per
cent. OF the entire area Of the State IL
covered with primGval forest. This vast
IioreSt acreage is characterz d by variety
OF hard woods, which for quantity and
quality has NO parallel In the New World.
| A brief examination Of the botanical re-
giOns Of the New World will establish the
! truthiulness of this assertion. The Flora
OF the entire country living between the
shores OF tds Arctic Ocean and Cape Horn
may be distinguished under the heads OF
several distinct plant regions as follows:
The Arctic region, which exttnds south
ward IRON the Frozen Seas 10 the northern
limit Of trees Cd the margin of the somber
pine forests OF British America. Here,
| the ground being frozen almost the entire
year, only the Hmple3t vegetable forms -
moses and IcheEs are produced, and the
scene is one Of drs8ry desolation.
! Tho Forest Region, which extends
southwark from Hudson Bay to Florida.
North OF toe gieat lakes stretch from east
to west the vast pine forests OF Canada,
| Here is the home OF trees with needle
shap,d leaves, all being soft woods
Stretching southwark from the 81. Law
renee 10 the head waters OF the Tennessee
aud Cumberland, with Wess Virginia In
the central part, lies the great belt OF de
cidu0us trees from the hard woods. OF
which come the building material oil the
continent From the Tennessee southTerd
to the Mexican Gull is found the cypress,
the cottonwood, the magnolia and Others,
like the last, evergreen foliage trees.
Westward Of the above lies the Pral'
| RE Region, or, as the Fame implies, tr6cieSS
plaias This vast eNpanse IS entirely Ges-
titute of the hard woods, and OF the soft
varieties az we'll, save the narrow ribbons
of forest which here and there fringe the
margins OF rivers.
On the western slope Of the Rocky
Mountains aud stretching away from the
| Colombia river or the north, to the Gull
Of California on the south lies the Califor-
MAN region. Here the redwood aud
| Douglas fir grow luXuriantly even to the
submits of the Sierra and Coast mountains
The mammoth trees, the Westinghouse
gigantsa Of the botanists, the largest trees
IN the world, are found on the western
slopes of tue Sierra Nevadas. These ever
greens with here and there, isolated groups
Of deciduaus trees, constitute the forests oil
the Pacific slope. All, except few varie-
ties of the latter, are soft wood and almost
yalueless as building material.
| Next is the West Indian region, emorsclu
| within its limits the West India Islands,
Yucatan and the southern extremity OF the
Floridan Peninsula. The palm, birch
and cotton wOod-all soft woods-are the
representative trees.
South of the latter and stretching
from the Atlantic on the east to the lofty
Andes on the west, is the Amazonisn
Region, whose vas. expanse is covered with
q labyrinthian forest called 'Silyas. 4"
Nature here works on q grand scale, and
the wonderful vegetable aggregation Is one
vast Intervening of vines and the soft
woods Of the tropics.
Beyord the latter 10 the southwark
is the Region of the Southern Andes, in
GLIDING the lofty ranges Of the Chilisn ard
Patagonian Andes, stretching away 10 the
Strait of Magellan. Here are extensive
forests of deciduous trees, pines and heni-
locks, resembling the forest growth IN the
vicinity of Hudson BSy.
The LIST is the Pampas R'gion, or
trseless plains of the Argentine Republic
lyiug southwark =: the TablelaDd OF
Brazil.
Having taken this cursory view OF the
floral regions of tbe two continents, let Us
now inquire from which have come, and
are to como, the hard wood used ard to BE-