538 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



mixed with hair. The product of the New Orleans factories is principally shipped to the western states, a 

 comparatively small amount being sent to Europe. Six moss factories are located in Xew Orleans, and there are 

 also small establishments at Plaquemine and at Morgan City, Louisiana, and at Pcnsacola, Florida. New Orleans 

 received during the year ending August 31, 1881, 3,500 bales of rough moss, weighing 10,000,000 pounds, and valued 

 at $315,000. A considerable amount, however, is ginned in the country and shipped direct to consumers, or is 

 prepared by the consumers themselves. Persons most familiar with the volume of this industry estimate that the 

 value of the prepared moss gathered annually in Louisiana, the principal region of supply, is not far from $550,000. 

 The amount gathered, however, varies considerably from year to year. Moss can only be profitably collected at 

 times of high floods, when the swamps are navigable to small boats, and the moss, hanging from the branches of 

 the trees, can be easily gathered. The wages earned by the swampers, too, are not large, and the gathering of 

 moss is only resorted to when more profitable employment upon farms cannot be obtained. 



The following extracts are from notes of a hasty journey made through the forest region of western Louisiana 

 by Dr. Charles Mohr : 



" For the investigation of the important pine region of western Louisiana I selected Alexandria as my starting 

 point. Situated almost centrally between the forests of long-leaved pine which skirt both sides of the Eed River 

 valley, Alexandria is the seat of the actual lumber trade and the point where the lumber interests of this great 

 timber region must be developed in the future. Little is left of the vast cypress swamps which once covered the 

 alluvial lands on the Mississippi river below the mouth of the Red river and the lower basin of that stream. It is 

 only in the most inaccessble swamps, cut off from all communication with the rivers, that patches of this timber 

 remain. The ever-increasing demand for this lumber has almost exhausted the available cypress of the Red River 

 country, and cypress is now drawn from the forest farther north bordering the Black and Ouachita rivers. The 

 lowlands along the river front, subject to inundation and devoid of drainage, present in their tree growth the same 

 features as the low forests of the Mississippi and the Yazoo valleys. The bitter pecan flourishes here luxuriantly, 

 and with it the white ash, the swamp over-cup oak, the persimmon, sycamore, sassafras, sweet gum, and cottonw.ood. 

 The green ash is common, and in better-drained localities the willow, white, cow, and red oaks appear, with elms and 

 occasional pecans. Twelve or 15 miles below Alexandria the first pines are seen looming up in the forest; upon 

 a nearer approach they are recognized as the loblolly. A short distance farther up the river, upon sandy bluffs 

 fronting the western shore, fine specimens of the short-leaved pine are observed, associated with black oaks, 

 Spanish oak, the black-jack, and many of the shrubs peculiar to the drift of the coast pine region east of the 

 Mississippi." The wide bottom lands of the river upon which Alexandria is situated extend west to bayou Boeuf. 

 This district, unsurpassed in fertility and regarded as the garden of Louisiana, has but little left of the forest with 

 which it was once covered. The pecan trees alone of the original forest growth have been spared from the general 

 destruction. Of these, fine specimens line the roadsides and dot the fields. The unsightly honey locust occupies 

 the waste low places, in company with a second growth of willows, hackberries, and catalpas. The shores of 

 bayou Boeuf are covered with a variety of trees. Cypresses line the brink of the water; beyond these, sycamores, 

 bitter gums, sweet and white gums, pecans, water and willow oaks, red and white elms, red maple, and 

 ash occupy the gentle acclivities, with a dense undergrowth of smaller trees the dogwood, several haws, wahoos, 

 catalpas, Carolina buckthorn, southern prickly ash, etc. Ascending the ridge to the uplands the deep alluvial 

 soil is left behind, and the light sandy loams of the Tertiary strata make their appearance, and with this change 

 of soil the vegetation changes as suddenly. Stately loblolly pines rise above the groves of post, black, and Spanish 

 oaks, and where the ridge descends again to what might be called the second bottom of bayou Bceuf, a forest of 

 white oak is entered, which contains a stand of timber seldom equaled. On the long, gentle swells these are 

 associated with fine Spanish oaks, a few pig-nuts and mocker-nuts, and in the depressions with red oak, elms, ash, 

 and other trees found on soil of good quality in the same latitude east of the Mississippi river. 



"The hills formed by the sandstone drift gravels rise suddenly from the plain covered with the forest of 

 the long-leaved pine, comparing favorably both in the size and number of the trees with the best timber districts 

 in the Coast Pine Belt of the eastern Gulf states. Trees under 12 inches in diameter are rarely seen, as is the case 

 everywhere in these undisturbed primeval pine forests. The soil of this region is closer, more retentive of moisture, 

 and richer in plant-food than that in the Maritime Pine Region east of the Mississippi. The pines here are 

 therefore of more rapid growth and below the standard of quality for which the pine produced on the poor, siliceous 

 ridges of lower Mississippi and Alabama is so highly valued. The numerous streams which cut their way through 

 these pine hills are fringed with many of the evergreens peculiar to the eastern Gulf coast; and magnolias, the 

 red and white bay, wax myrtles, willows, and the devilwood are common. 



"The pine region west of the Red River valley spreads westward to the Sabine, forming part of the great pine 

 forest which extends far into eastern Texas. Southward it constantly increases in width ; and its length from 

 north to south, where it verges upon the lower maritime prairies of the Calcasieu, is not less than 100 miles. It 

 includes the whole of the parish of Vernon, the largest part of Calcasieu, and portions of the parishes of Natchitoches 

 and Rapides, covering an area of about 4,500 square miles. The northern portion of this belt is one vast primeval 

 forest. The small inroads made by the scattered settlers and the few small saw-mills which supply a small local 



