TIMBER REGIO>!S SUPPLY AND PKUDUCTION. 



37 



at a little over 40.000 .square iniles. It i)reseiits no material differeuces from the Atlautie region, 

 ot whicU it is a direct ('oiitiimation, beinj-' similar to it in both soil and climate. 



This eastern Gulf rejjion is unsurpassed in the advantages it offers for the development of 

 the industries based ou the products of the pine forests. Its genial climate throughout the year 

 permits the uninterrupted exploitation of its abundant resources of resinous products and of timber 

 of the best (juality. The fine harbors and safe roadsteads on the Gulf Coast are reached by navi- 

 gable rivers, which, with their tributaries, cross the lower division in every direction, and give 

 Fv^ady and cheap transportation to its ports, while great railway lines afford easy comnuuiication 

 with inland markets. This region thus presents inducements scarcely found elsewhere for the 

 investment of capital and labor in the development of the resources of its forests. 



It is impossible to arrive at anything like an accurate estimate of the amount of timber 

 standing at present, or of the rate of its consumption, since in the returns of the annual lumber 

 product that needed for home consumption has not been included. 



Wrxtrrn Florida. — Placing the eastern limit of that part of Florida to be considered as 

 belonging to the Gulf pine region at the lower course of the Suwanee liiver, the area included 

 comprises about 7,200 Sijuare miles, exclusive of the swam|is and marshes of the coast. The 

 forests of Longleaf Pine form a narrow strip along the course of the Suw^anee L'iver and along 

 the coast to the Appalachicola liiver, covering about 1,280,000 acres. At their northern limit 

 they merge into the oak and hickory uplands of middle Florida. Along the coast they are sur- 

 rounded by marshes and swamps, rendering them dififltuilt of access, consequently they have 

 remained untouched. The same may be said of the pine forests between the Api>alacliicola and 

 the Choctawhatchee rivers. These have been invaded to some extent along the banks of the 

 latter river to supply the small mills situated on the bay of the same name. 



The pine lauds of western Florida rise slowly above the coastal plain and form a vast expanse 

 of slightly undulating surface. Those surrounding Perdido, Pensacola, IJlackwater, and Mary 

 St. Galves Bay, the oldest sites of active lumber industry in the Gulf region, were stripjied of 

 their valuable timber more than thirty years ago, and since that time have been cut over again. 



The largest tracts of liiiely timbered virgin forests of Longleaf Pine are found in the undulating 

 uplands from the Perdido and Escambia rivers along the Alabama State line to the banks of the 

 Choctawhatchee Eiver. East of this ri%er, in the same direction, where the younger Tertiary 

 strata make their appearance, Longleaf I'ine liecomes associated with hard woods, with southern 

 Spruce Pine added in the valleys. Since the opening of the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad 

 considerable (piantities of sawn scpiare timber find their way to Pensacola from these remoter 

 forests. 



A large i)ortiou of the timber supplied to the mills along the coast having been derived from 

 Alabama, it is impossible to arrive at an exact estimate of the products of the forest of western 

 Florida. 



Statement nl' e.cpoil of lieicii miKarr iiiiilier. siiini s(iiinre timber, and himher to foreii/n ami domcstie iiorln from- I'eiiaacola, 



Fid., from 1S7'J-S0 to 1892-93. 



In the shipment of these ])roducts in ISS."), valued at $2,,'?0r),.500, there were 471 vessels engaged, 

 of 294,595 tons, of which 370 of 95,922 tons cleared for foreign ports. 



