DISTRIBUTION OF SHORTLEAF PINE. 



89 



are, possibly 300,000,000 feet, board measure, Sliortleaf Pine standiii'; in the counties bordering the 

 oak nplands in the eastern part of the State. 



In South Carolina tlii.s pine is similarly distributed sparinjfly in tlie coast region and more 

 frequent in tlic luidland country to the htwer mountain ranges. 



In Georgia, 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 border of the pine belt, it occurs 

 mixed with the Longle;if Pine among the inferior hard wood timber. In the region of crystalline 

 rocks, which embraces the mori; or less monntainous ni)])ei' half of tlie State, covering over 10,00(t 

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

 predominating. 



In the three States last nnnied the Shortleaf Pine was originally most abundant in the regions 

 now most dcTisely populated, and lieuce their sup])lies of timljcr 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 tlie hills and mountain slopes, where the original timber 

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



In Florida the Shortleaf Pine is confined 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 witliin a distance of from 2.j to 30 miles on the isolated patches of red 

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

 Pine {ri)tus filahra). 



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

 ])ine 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 Eiver and the southern tributaries of the Tallapoosa, the tree is less frequent than in 

 the region of the same formation in Cieorgia, 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 square 

 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, wliere the tree occupies mostly the summits 

 and steep declines with a thin, dry soil, while in the deeper and moister soils the Loblolly Pine 

 takes its place. In Cullman County, altitude 800 feet, wliere numerous acre nieasuremeuts 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 does not exceed 1,500 feet to the acre on this table-land. The supplies of Shortleaf Pine 

 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 njilands the young growth 

 of the Shortleaf Pine is rai)idly spreading and itredominates over t1ie deciduous trees. The timber 

 trees of full growth average on these table lauds about 22 inches in diameter breast high and !•."» 

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

 with from 90 to 1.15 rings of annual growth on the stump. 



Four trees felled in the vicinity of Cullman showed the following dimensions: 



Measuremitits of four trees. 



On the gravelly hills of the northern extension of the central pim^ 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)i)i it forms forests which in the latter State give 



