DISTRIBUTION OF SHORTLEAF PINE. 



89 



are possibly 300,000,000 feet, Loaid measure, Shortleaf I'iiie stamliiiy- in the (•(unities border iiiy the 

 oak uplands iu tlie eastern part of tlie State. 



In South Carolina this pine is similarly distributed sparingly in the coast region and more 

 frequent in the midland country to the lower mountain ranges. 



In (ieorgia, in the lower part of the coast pine belt, the Shortleaf Pine is rarely met with. On 

 the sandhills in the center of the State, forming the northern bolder of the pine belt, it occurs 

 mixed with the Longleaf Pine among the inferior hard-wood timber. In the regidu of crystalline 

 rocks, which embraces the more or less mountainous ujiper half of the State, covering over 10,000 

 square miles, at an average elevation of about 2,500 feet, this tree is most frerpieut, in many parts 

 predominating. 



In the three States last named the Shortleaf Pine was originally most abundant iu the regions 

 now most densely populated, and hence their snpjdies of timber are more or less exhausted, much 

 of the so-called North Carolina Pine .sent to market being Loblolly Pine. Young forests, however, 

 of this tree are seen everywhere on the hills and mountain .slopes, where the original timber 

 growth lias been removed, and on the worn-out lands abandoned by the cultivator. 



Iu Florida the Shortleaf Pine is conlined to the uplands along the northern border of the 

 State, scattered among the Longleaf Pine and hard wood trees. In the northwestern part, it 

 approaches the seashore within a distance of from 2.~» to oO miles on the isolated patches of red 

 loam lands, where, together with the Longleaf Pine, it is associated with the Southern Spruce 

 Pine (Piitns t/lahra). 



In Alabama and Mississippi the Shortleaf Pine is rarely seen in the lower jmrt of the coast 

 pine belt, but forms a more or less conspicuous part of the forest covering of the uplands in the 

 central and upper sections, and sometimes predominates to such an extent over the hard woods as 

 to impart to the woodlands the somber aspect of a pure pine forest. In the region of crystalline 

 rocks, with its arid ranges in Alabama, covering an area a little over 3,000 square miles, between 

 the Coosa lliver and the southern tributaries of the Tallapoosa, the tree is less frequent than in 

 the region of the same formation in Georgia, the Longleaf here taking its place. In the northern 

 part of Alabama, on the table land of the Warrior coal field over an area of fully 5,000 S(iuare 

 miles, mostly in forest, the Shortleaf Pine forms a more prominent feature of the growth. This is 

 the case particularly in the eastern part of this area, where the tree occupies mostly the summits 

 and steej) declines with a thin, dry soil, while in the (b'c|)er and moister soils the Loblolly Pine 

 takes its place. In ('ullmaii County, altitude SOO feet, where numerous acre measurements have 

 been made, rarely over 2,000 feet, board measure, of this timber have been found upon one acre, 

 and it can safely be said that in the localities where it is more frequently met with the average 

 stand docs not exceed 1,500 feet to the acre on this table-land. The supplies of Slnntleaf I'ine 

 timber are rapidly diminishing before the demands of a rapidly increasing population and of the 

 adjacent centers of the mining industry, and their total exhaustion is sure to be effected within a 

 short time. 



Wherever the original timber growth has been removed on these uplands the young growth 

 of the Shortleaf I'unt is rapidly spreading and Dredominates over tlie deciduous trees. The timber 

 trees of full growth average on these table-lands about 22 inches in diameter breast high and 05 

 feet in height, furnishing clear sticks of from 35 to 45 feet in length. Such trees have been found 

 with from 90 to 135 rings of annual growth on the stump. 



Four trees felled iu the vicinity of Cullman showed the following dimen.sions: 



Measuremoils of four trees. 



On the gravelly hills of tlie northern extension of the central pine belt in Alabama the 

 Shortleaf Pine becomes frequently the predominating tree in the forest of oak and hickory. In 

 Lamar County, Ala., and in northeastern Mississii)pi it forms forests which in the latter State give 



