102 RESOURCES OF SOUTHERN ALABAMA. 



waste the forests, leaving the desolate cut-over lands, of 

 which Fig. 21 shows an extreme condition. 



On account of the combined activities of farmers and 

 lumbermen, and a few other influences of less magnitude, 

 the present stand of timber is doubtless less than half of 

 what it was originally ; but with the increasing use of sub- 

 stitutes for wood and the consequent decreasing per capita 

 consumption, it may be that the minimum has nearly been 

 reached and that our forest wealth will soon increase again, 

 as happened in New England (and in lesser degree in other 

 northeastern states) about forty years ago.* 



Table 22 shows the estimated relative abundance of the 

 timber trees in each region at the present time. As some 

 of the regions are too small for the greatest precision, and 

 none of them have been explored as thoroughly as they 

 should be, a system of letters is used instead of percentage 

 figures, according to the following easily remembered 

 scheme :f 



Over 10% A (abundant). 

 3% to 10% C (common). 

 1% to 3% F (frequent). 

 0.1 to 1% (occasional). 

 .01% to 0.1% R (rare). 



Species whose occurrence in a given region is probable 

 but not proved are indicated by a question mark. The let- 

 ters corresponding to the highest percentages in each line 

 are underlined, instead of being printed in heavier type as 

 in most of the tables following. This enables one to pick 

 out the characteristic species of each region very quickly. 



As in most works on systematic botany in the last quar- 

 ter of a century, the species are arranged in systematic se- 

 quence, beginning with the pines, which according to the 

 evolutionists are our most primitive trees. Both technical 

 and common names are given, and evergreens indicated by 

 heavy type, as in the separate regional lists, but the habi- 

 tats are omitted. At the beginning of the table there is indi- 

 cated the approximate percentage of forest remaining and 

 of evergreens in the existing forest. 



*For statistics on this point see Journal of Forestry (Washing- 

 ton, D. C.) 16:442-452. 1918. 



fThis method is discussed more fully in the Journal of Forestry 

 17:553, 1919. 



