EASTERN RED HILLS. 



45 



About 65 per cent of the forest is evergreen. If a cen- 

 sus of the forests could have been taken before the country 

 was settled, say 100 years ago, the differences in composi- 

 tion between the eastern and western divisions would doubt- 

 less have been greater than they are now, for the forests 

 that have been destroyed to make room for crops in the 

 western division are mostly those of fertile valleys, and 

 in the eastern division those of dry uplands. So in listing 

 the species in order of present abundance we are in a sense 

 contrasting the rocky ridges of the western division with 

 the valleys of the eastern. 



Herbs other than Spanish moss and weeds are rather 

 inconspicuous, as explained in the introduction. Long-leaf 



FIG. 13. Typical rural scene about six miles south of Luverne, 

 Crenshaw County, showing moderately hilly topography, cotton and 

 corn, white farmer's home (unpainted, with the far end of logs) and 

 barn. July 30, 1919. 



pine, poplar, black-jack oak, red oak, black gum and hick- 

 ory are more abundant here than in the western division, 

 while the reverse is true of sweet gum, spruce pine, beech, 

 water oak, and most river-bank trees. The forest industries 

 are much the same as in the western division. In 1912 there 

 were 39 sawmills in this division, with an average capacity 

 of 10,280 board feet per day. (But if similar data were 

 obtainable for a generation ago, when the western division 

 had more cleared land than the eastern, the mills of the 

 eastern division would probably have shown up the larger.) 

 The abundance of yaupon (Ilex vomitoria) along the Pea 



