19 



In the Gulf States, from the Chattahoochee Eiver to the lowlands of the Mississipiji, the pine 

 belt covers about 40,000 sqnare miles. The forests of long-leaf pine in western Florida have been 

 largely exhausted. The most extensive and flnest bodies remaining are found between the Perdido 

 and Escambia rivers toward tlie Alabama State line and in some of tlie remoter townships along 

 the same bonier further east to the Yellow River. 



In Alabama the best and largest snpi)lies of long leaf pine timber are found in the forests of 

 undulating pine lands between the (Jliattahoochee Valley and Perdido River. Over one-third of 

 the timber and lumber annually shipjied from Pensacola, amounting on the average for the last 

 live years to about 250,000,000 feet, is derived from these forests. The high (luality of their 

 timber is strikingly exhibited in the quantities of hewn square timber exported from the above 

 Itort and fnmi Mobile to England and I-:ur(>i)e. At present Mobile is meeting tlie highest require- 

 ments in this line of export trade, furnisjiing sticks without a blemish of 120 (;ubic feet on the 

 average. During the past year 2,903,000 cubic feet of hewn square timber has been shipped from 

 this place. In the up))er diNision of the coast ])ine belt, or region of mixed growth, the forests of 

 long-leaf pine arc contined to the steep gravelly or rocky ridges and can be said to cover about 

 7,000 square miles; where the long-leaf pine is found either alone or associated with the short-leaf, 

 the loblolly pine, and hardwood trees. The growth is heavy, the trees generally ranging between 

 20 and 25 inches in diameter, breast high ; they are from 200 to 250 years old, and for the greatest 

 part found to be wind-shaken, a result, no doubt, of a freer exposure to the force of the wind 

 The forests of long-leaf pine crossing the State centrally in a belt from 5 to over 20 miles wide ami 

 covering a little over 1,000 square miles, and those of lesser extent found in the northern half of 

 the State, furnish timber not inferior to that from the rolling pine lands of the maritime belt. The 

 drift deposits along the Ooosa River, covering about ;!00,000 acres, and a detached portion of 

 drift in Walker county of 00,000 acres, is covered with pine of tine quality hardly yet touched. 

 Tlie forests of long-leaf pine in Mississippi in their extent fall but little short of thos'e in Alabama, 

 and are fully ecjual in the quality of their timber; not less than 300,000,000 feet of timber and 

 lumber have been shipi)ed by water and rail from the mills along the Pascagouhi and Pearl 

 ri\'cvs and the :N\>w Orleans, Northeastern, and Illinois Central Railroad lines. 



During the year 1892 fully 751,000,000 feet of timber and lumber have been shipped to foreign 

 and domestic markets from the coast pine belt of the Gulf States east of the Mississippi Eiver. 

 Toward the west, in Louisiana, the coast pine belt gradually passes iiito a mixed growtli of short 

 leaf pine, oaks, and hickories on the uplands bordering the Mississippi. The slightly undulating 

 Hatwoods of Louisiana sniqiort a better timber growth than is generally found in tlie upland pine 

 barrens; but this forest has been largely invaded, while the pine-hill region of Louisiana has re- 

 mained almost untouched. The pine region west of the Jlississippi River, limited to the sands 

 and gravels of the region, follows on its eastern boundary the valley of the Ouachita River for 150 

 miles. 



In the center of the region above the Red Eiver pine ridges alternate with tracts of oak and 

 hickory. 



In western Louisiana and eastern Texas the forests of the long-leaf pine occupy, roughly esti- 

 mated, an area somewhat exceeding 10,000 square miles. The pine lands north of the Red River 

 are undulating and ditfer in no way in the nature of their timber growth from similar lands in the 

 coast pine belt of the eastern Gulf States. South of the Red River the rolling laiuls merge into 

 flat woods which, from Lat. 31° N. continue from the basin of the Calcasieu Eiver without change 

 across the Sabine River to the valley of the Trinity Eiver in Texas. These flat woods of south- 

 western Louisiana- and eastern Texas suppoit a denser timber growtli, said by experts to fre- 

 quently exceed 7,000 square feet to the ace. The trees are for this species of a remarkably quick 

 growth. As observed in the forests near the Xatchcz Eiver in Texas, full-sized trees from 23 to 

 25 inches in diameter, breast high, showed from 20S to .■540 lings respectively im the stump; and 

 trees from 19 to 21 inches in diametershow 105 and 113 annual rings; trees of tiiis stage of growth 

 show, on a radius of from 9^ to 9f inches (clear of bark), 4 iiK'lies ol' sap. In the mature trees 

 mentioned first the thickness of sap was found in the first instance 2i inches on a radius of 13 

 inches and in the second IJ inches on a radius of nearly 11 inches. The grain is coarser and 

 even, and the timber remarkably tree from the defects caused by wind shaking. Nearly all of the 



