THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 529 



" The road from Decatur to Moulton, in Lawrence county, leads through broad and fertile valley lands, broken, 

 as the mountains are approached, by limestone ridges jutting out into the plain. The beautiful Monlton valley, 

 . inclosed by the low foot-hills of the Sandy Mountain range which form its southern boundary, shows only along the 

 base of the mountains a remnant of its original tree covering. Here the water oak, willow oak, red oak, mulberries, 

 elms, and ashes were the trees found in the lower situations, and on rolling, higher land the white oak, the black 

 oak, post oak, sassafras, and dogwood formed the prevailing forest growth. The lower flank of the steep escarpment 

 of the highlands, a terrace of limestone cliffs mostly destitute of soil, bears a stunted tree growth. Here the red 

 cedar and the upland hickory abound, and where the surface is less broken and a deeper soil covers the rock, 

 chestnuts make their appearance with white oaks and the shell bark and mocker-nut hickories. The ascent is less 

 precipitous as the sandstone ledges are reached, and here the yellow pine (Pimm mitis) and the scrub pine (Pinus 

 inops) are prominent among the oak forests of the mountains. When the crest of this abrupt decline is passed the 

 oak forest is reached. It covers the extensive table-land between the Coosa and the eastern tributaries of the 

 Tombigbee, and extends southward from the valley of the Tennessee to the lowlands commencing below Tuscaloosa, 

 occupying an area of nearly 6,000 square miles. 



" GENERAL REMARKS. 



* 



"The forests of long-leaved pine are principally confined to the following limited regions east of the Mississippi 

 river: 1. The Great Maritime Pine region. 2. The Central Pine Belt of Alabama. 3. The Pine Eegiou of the 

 Coosa. 



" Pine forests of more or less extent, too, mixed with woodlands composed of deciduous-leaved trees, occupy 

 the ridges covered witli a porous siliceous soil in the region of what I have called the mixed tree growth, and which 

 upon its southern borders verges upon the Coast Pine Belt. Upon the heights of the low ranges of the metamorphic 

 region of Alabama are also found more or less extensive tracts of this pine, generally, however, of inferior quality 

 and size, while as far north as the thirty-fourth degree of latitude patches of thinly-scattered pine are met on the 

 brows of the mountains, and, rarely, on the plateau of the carboniferous sand. 



" The pine forests of Alabama, from the Escambia to the Mississippi state line, in the counties of Monroe, 

 Baldwin, Washington, Mobile, and in portions of Clarke county, cover 3,500 square miles. Of these about 1,000 

 square miles have already been more or less destroyed in the manufacture of naval stores. Allowing 25 per cent, 

 for land under cultivation, or covered by a forest of different trees, by water, etc., there are still 1,875 square miles 

 left of this forest to supply the demands of the future. 



"The whole amount of long-leaved pine lumber received at the port of Mobile averages about 60,000,000 

 feet, board measure, representing the product of mills at that place and along the various railroad lines leading 

 to it. The amount of hewed square timber received is still small, but the business of exporting timber of this sort 

 promises to assume large proportions in the near future. 



"THE PINE BELT OF CENTRAL ALABAMA. This forest occupies the deposits of drift which, in a strip varying 

 from 10 to 30 miles in width, traverses the state from east to west. Jt is nearly in the center of the line connecting 

 its eastern and western limits that its greatest width is found. This forest is estimated to cover 550 square miles, 

 no allowance being made for lands cultivated or covered by other trees. The timber, both in quality and quantity, 

 is unsurpassed by that growing on the best sections of the lower pine region. The manufacture of lumber and its 

 export to northern markets has only been carried on in this region to any large extent during the last three or four 

 years, and it is now rapidly assuming large proportions. The most important saw-inills in this region are situated 

 on the line of the Louisville and Nashville railroad, between Clear creek and Elmore, Elinore county, and produced 

 in the aggregate 67,000,000 feet of lumber, board measure, during the years 1879-'SO. Considerable lumber is also 

 produced along the line of the Selma, Home and Dalton railroad, in Chilton county. 



"Naval stores are not yet manufactured in this region. 



" THE PINE REGION OP THE COOSA. A detached belt of drift largely composed of coarse pebbles stretches 

 from the eastern base of the Lookout Mountain range through the valley of the Coosa river, near Gadsden, covering 

 nearly the whole of Cherokee county, to the Georgia state line. This forest is estimated to cover from 400 to 450 square 

 miles, although much of the best timber nearest to the river has already been exhausted. Logs are driven down the 

 Coosa and sawed at Gadsden. The manufacture of lumber at this place has been carried on for a number of years, 

 and amounts to an average of 20,000,000 feet. 



"NAVAL STORES. 



"The manufacture of naval stores in the central Gulf states is almost entirely restricted for the present to the 

 forest contiguous to Mobile and to the railroad lines leading to that port and to the southern confines of the pine belt 

 in Mississippi. It is only during the past two seasons that turpentine orchards have been worked near Pascagoula, 

 Mississippi, Pearl river, and in eastern Louisiana above Covington. The first turpentine distilleries were established 

 on the Gulf coast a little, more than a quarter of a century ago, along Fish river on the eastern and Dog river on the 



western shores of Mobile bay. The business soon assumed such proportions as to lead to the destruction of the 

 :.J4 rou 



