^a^idz)E]itidtj:vi:. 



LOSCJLKAF PINE IN HKJH LANDS. 



Under date of August 5, 1896, Dr. Mohr sends the following interesting note descriptive of a tract of Long- 

 leaf Pine grown at the remarkable altitude of 2,000 feet: 



In my investigations of the Hora of the region of greatest elevation in Alabama 1 was surprised to find the Longleaf 

 Pine, which forms the greater part of the tree growth on the flanks of the mountains in the region of the State, to ascend 

 to a height of 1,600 to l.'iOtI feet above the sea— (Chenawhaw Mountain, Clay County. 2,400 feet). According to the 

 observation taken by Pi-of. E. S. Smith and Mr. Brewer, assistant geologist, at points of the same mountain range. 5 or 6 

 miles farther to the south, it appears that the Longleaf Pine is found at an elevation little short of 3.000 feet, whereas I 

 found the tree to disappear at an elevation of about l.oOO feet on the same range (Blue Mountain or Talladega Mountain 

 Range) about Chandler's Spring, Talladega County, and on the isolated ridges of the Alpine Mountains in the same county 

 (in 189:!). Frotn my observations in former years I was convinced that the pine forests of the metamorphic regions of 

 Alabama deserved no mention among the timber resources of the State, however valuable they might be as a resource for 

 fuel in connection with the mineral resources of these parts of the State. 1 was not a little surprised to hear, on my trip 

 of last week, of a sawmill with a daily output of from 6.5.000 to 70.000 feet of lumber of Longleaf Pine, situated in the 

 lower part of Clay County at the outskirts of the geological formation mentioned. I visited, yesterday morning, the pine 

 forests from which the supplies of this large and well conducted establishment, at HoUins on the Georgia Pacific Railroad, 

 are drawn. There I foimd the foothills and harrow valleys between them, at an elevation of from 1,400 to 1,500 feet, 

 covered with a truly magnificent forest of Pi/i".s- /«i/(/.v/ris, yielding to the acre as much merchantable timber as the best 

 class of pinelands in the coast pine belt from Alabama to Texas. The trees are tall; some of them measured on the ground 

 were foimd from 110 to liy feet total height, with the crown 60 feet above the ground, and the shaft clear of heart and 

 limb for almost the whole of that length: two cuts of '20 feet each above the stump are generally free from blemish. The 

 surface soil appeared as arid and poor as that found on the steep declivities of the main ranges. Its pine timber growth 

 was to me indeed an enigma, which, however, soon foimd its solution by examining in a deep cut the subsoil condition: the 

 decomposed dioritic schist, forming a kind of soft marl for a great depth, ofl:'ered no obstacle to the long taproot of the 

 pine. These hills extend for a length of about 6 miles in a northeasterly direction by a width scarcely exceeding 3 miles. 

 I could not learn that any other locality is found in the same geological formation of an equal extent with the same con- 

 ditions of the timber growth. 



