528 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



conifers. This certainly was the case before the settlement of the country, but as the broad leaved trees occupy 

 the best land, the areas of hard-wood forest have been more reduced by the demands of agriculture than have the 

 forests of pine. 



"The distribution of the different species of trees throughout this region depends upon the nature of the soil 

 and the topographical features of the country. In general it can be stated that the marls and calcareous 

 Tertiary strata which form the lower ridges and more or less undulating uplands and plains are chiefly occupied 

 by trees with deciduous leaves, and by a few yellow pines. Here oaks predominate, and especially the post 

 oak (Quercus obtusiloba), which prefers the level or gently-swelling ground with a generous, warm, and open soil; 

 with it is frequently found the black oak (Quercus tinctoria), the Spanish oak and black-jack upon soils of poorer 

 quality, the last, particularly, preferring one of closer, more argillaceous character mixed with fine sand. The 

 black-jack finds here its best development, rivaling often in size the post oak ; it enters largely also into the 

 undergrowth of the post-oak woods, forming dense thickets on lands too poor to sustain a heavier tree growth. 



"The hickories are unimportant features in the forests of this region. In the dry uplands they seldom attain 

 more than medium size, although in the more shaded and richer situations the mocker-nut and pig-nut are not rare. 



"The long-leaved pine, on account of the broad extent it covers, its gregarious habit, and the splendid 

 growth it attains here, must be regarded as the most important timber tree of this region. Confined to a siliceous, 

 dry, and porous soil, it occupies the high ridges invariably covered with a deposit of drift, often found widely 

 spread over the more elevated highlands. For this reason the pine forests crown the hills and cover the more 

 or less broken plateaus. They are found also toward the southern boundaries of this region, where the sands 

 and gravels of the drift of the lower pine region encroach upon arid mingle with the strata of older formations. 

 Under these circumstances it is evident that the line of demarkatiou between this and the pine region of the coast 

 is difficult to determine. The best distinction is found in the fact that in the pine forests of the lower pine 

 region the growth of pines upon the uplands is never broken by patches of oak, and that the short-leaved pine 

 never occurs there. Another point of distinction is found in the nature of the second growth, which springs up 

 after the large pines have been removed. In the pine woods in the region of mixed tree growth the subsoil, of 

 Tertiary origin, seems more favorable to the growth of oaks than to a second growth of the long-leaved pine. This 

 is replaced generally by oaks mixed with the short-leaved pine and various deciduous trees. It is safe to assert that 

 the southern limits of this region coincide with a line following the northern boundary of the coast drifts, along 

 which the lower strata have completely disappeared be neath it. 



"PiKE COUNTY. On the broad ridges which form the divide between the waters of the Pea and Conecuh rivers, 

 upon a purely sandy soil, are found, within the forest of long-leaved pine, tracts with strictly-defined outlines from 

 a half mile to several miles in width, covered with a dense vegetation of small trees and shrubs peculiar to the 

 perpetually moist and cool hummocks of the coast. The soil covered with this growth presents no unusual features ; 

 it is as poor and arid as that covering the rest of these heights. Hurrounded on all sides by pine forests, not a 

 single pine tree is seen within the limits of these glades, called by the inhabitants 'pogosines', an Indian name 

 the meaning of which I was unable to learu. 



" The trees are of small growth, the willow oak, the water oak, beech, red maple, and black gum rarely rising to 

 a height of more than 30 feet among the sourwoods, junipers, hornbeams, hollies, papaws, fringe-trees, red bays, 

 and other trees of the coast. These glades verge upon deep ravines from which issue large springs, and from 

 this fact I conclude that, below their sandy, porous soil, strata must exist perpetually moistened by subterranean 

 waters near enough to the surface to supply the moisture necessary to support such a luxuriant vegetation. 



"FOKESTS OF THE TENNESSEE VALLEY. 



" The character of the forest vegetation changes upon the limestone formation of the valley of the Tennessee. 

 This new region of tree growth extends from the northeastern confines of Alabama to a short distance beyond the 

 Mississippi state line with a width of from 35 to 40 miles, and reaching beyond the northern boundary of the state. 

 Its prominent feature is the total absence of pine and the scarcity of other evergreen trees. A few scattered 

 saplings of the loblolly pine are found on its lower borders, waifs strayed from their natural habitats, the lower part 

 of Morgan county, the true northern limit of this species, in Alabama at least. The red cedar is the only 

 evergreen tree common among the forest growth of this limestone region, and the durability of its wood combined 

 with its beauty places this tree among the most useful produced in this region. The red cedar forms here almost 

 exclusively the second growth after the removal of the original forest, covering everywhere with extensive groves 

 the dry, rocky hillsides and flats. The timber, however, of this second growth is only fit for the most ordinary 

 purposes. The trees branch low, and the trunks are consequently full of knots and unfit for anything except fence 

 posts. The fertile portions of this region have been largely denuded of their forest growth, although more than 

 half is still covered with wood, a considerable portion with almost virgin forest. This is particularly true of 

 Lauderdale and Colbert counties and the mountainous portions of the counties of Madison and Jackson. The vast 

 quantities of oak, ash, walnut, and poplar timber contained in these counties can be sent to northern markets as 

 soon as the Tennessee river has been made navigable by the removal of the obstacles at the Mussel shoals. 



