DISTRIBUTION OF LOIiLOLLY PINE. 



Ill 



In Louisiana, west of the Mississippi bottom, the Loblolly I'iiie is found frequently scattered 

 in the level woods bonlering upon the grassy marshes of the coast. North of the region of the 

 Lougleaf I'ine on the pine flats with a poor, sandy, undrained soil, between Lake Beandean and 

 Bayou Dauchitt, extending to the Arkansas State line, this species forms the jirincipal tree 

 covering. The tree is cut only for local consumption in the absence of means of transportation. 



In Arkansas heavily timbered forests of Loblolly Pine cover the thit woods in the southeastern 

 part of the State and the region of the Tertiary and Post-Tertiary formation. The lower levels in 

 the rolling uplands are covered with heavily timbered forests of the Loblolly Pine. It forms in this 

 State an important factor in the mannfacture of lumber. From observations made in the logging 

 camps in conuecticm with the principal points of production along the St. Louis and Iron Mountain 

 Eailroad south of Gurdon and on the St. Louis and Southwestern Eailroad it can be safely assumed 

 that about one-half of the lumber cut and shipped as "Yellow Pine" to Northern markets from 

 southwestern Arkansas is Loblolly Piue, the other half being Shortleaf. The Hood plain of tlie Little 

 Missouri River and the Ouachita Kiver is covered with extensive forests of this tree. The deep 

 soil, a stiff sandy loam, flooded after e\ery rainfall, produces a heavy and finely developeil timber 

 growth. Upon one acre, rei)resenting fairly the average of the merchantable timber standing, 30 

 trees were counted of from 12 to 4:8 inches in diameter at breast high; of this number were found : 

 One tree 48 inches in diameter at breast high, length of timber estimated at 40 feet; one tree .'?G 

 inches in diameter at breast high, length of timber estimated at 35 feet; three trees 30 inches in 

 diameter at breast high, length of timber estimated at 35 feet; seven trees 23 inches in diameter 

 at breast high, length of timber estimated at 35 feet; three trees 15 inches in diameter at breast 

 high, length of timber estimated at 35 feet; fifteen trees 12 to 15 inches in diameter at breast high, 

 length of timber estimated at 24 feet. 



Measurements of four trees. 



The timber of these trees was almost free of any defects; sap from 3 to 4 inches ou radius. 



lu Texas this species is distributed in greater or less abundance to the south and southwest 

 of the Shortleaf Pine region over an area exceeding 6,800 square miles. There is even less basis 

 for statistical statements regarding timber standing at present and consumption than for the 

 Shortleaf Pine, since it is not even recognized as a i^articular species, and always cut together 

 with the latter, especially between the Trinity and the Brazos rivers. No data have lately been 

 obtained of the annual production of lumber derived from the I^obloUy Pine forests iu this State, 

 but in the light of the statements of the Tenth Census' it must contribute largely to the timber 

 supplies of this State. According to this authority, the merchantable timber of Loblolly standing 

 in 1880 was estimated at 20,907,000,000 feet, board measure, and the cut for the same year at 

 01,500,000 feet, board measure. 



PEODUCTS. 

 VALUE .4ND rSES OF THE WOOD. 



Considered solely as the source of furnishing an abundant and cheap material for purposes 

 where strength and durability are not the first considerations, the Loblolly Piue would be entitled 

 to take its place am«ng the timber trees of greater importance. The average tree of full growth, 

 as it is geuerally found in the original forest on a poorer soil, furnishes timber with a fair proportion 

 of heartwood, with sticks of from 30 to 50 feet and over in leugth, free from blemish and in some 

 points scarcely inferior to the timber of the Shortleaf and sometimes even of the Lougleaf Pine. 

 In fact, the selected lumber of Loblolly classes with the latter in many of the markets for the same 



1 Charles S. Sargent, report of Tenth Censua, Vol. IX, p. 511, 1884. 



