TIMBER REGIONS SUPPLY AND PRODUCTION. 



37 



at a little over 40,000 square miles. It presents no material differences from the Atlantic region, 

 of which it is a direct continuation, being similar to it in both soil and climate. 



This eastern Gulf region is unsurpassed in the advantages it offers for the development of 

 the industries based on the products of the pine forests. Its genial climate throughout the year 

 permits the uninterrupted exploitation of its abundant resources of resinous products and of timber 

 of the best quality. The fine harbors and safe roadsteads on the Gulf Coast are reached by navi- 

 gable, rivers, winch, with their tributaries, cross the lower division in every direction, and give 

 r^ady and cheap transportation to its ports, while great railway lines afford easy communication 

 with inland markets. This region thus presents inducements scarcely found elsewhere for the 

 investment of capital and labor in the development of the resources of its forests. 



It is impossible to arrive at anything like an accurate estimate of the amount of timber 

 standing at present, or of the rate of its consumption, since in the returns of the annual lumber 

 product that needed for home consumption has not been included. 



Western Florida. Placing the eastern limit of that part of Florida to be considered as 

 belonging to the Gulf pine region at the lower course of the Suwanee Eiver, the area included 

 comprises about 7,200 square miles, exclusive of the swamps and marshes of the coast. The 

 forests of Lougleaf Pine form a narrow strip along the course of the Suwanee Eiver and along 

 the coast to the Appalachieola Kiver, covering about 1,280,000 acres. At their northern limit 

 they merge into the oak and hickory uplands of middle Florida. Along the coast they are sur- 

 rounded by marshes and swamps, rendering them difficult of access, consequently they have 

 remained untouched. The same may be said of the pine forests between the Appalachieola and 

 the Choctawhatchee rivers. These have been invaded to some extent along the banks of the 

 latter river to supply the small mills situated on the bay of the same name. 



The pine lands of western Florida rise slowly above the coastal plain and form a vast expanse 

 of slightly undulating surface. Those surrounding Perdido, Pensacola, Blackwater, and Mary 

 St. Galves Bay, the oldest sites of active lumber industry in the Gulf region, were stripped of 

 their valuable timber more than thirty years ago, and since that time have been cut over again. 



The largest tracts of finely timbered virgin forests of Longleaf Pine are found in the undulating 

 uplands from the Perdido and Escambia rivers along the Alabama State line to the banks of the 

 Choctawhatchee River. East of this river, in the same direction, where the younger Tertiary 

 strata make their appearance, Longleaf Pine becomes associated with hard woods, with southern 

 Spruce Pine added in the valleys. Since the opening of the Peusacola and Atlantic Eailroad 

 considerable quantities of sawn square timber find their way to Pensacola from these remoter 

 forests. 



A large portion of the timber supplied to the mills along the coast having been derived from 

 Alabama, it is impossible to arrive at an exact estimate of the products of the forest of western 

 Florida. 



Statement of export of hewn square timber, sawn square timber, and lumber to foreii/n and domestic ports from Pensacola, 



Fla., from 1879-80 to 1892-93. 



[From Hyer & Bro.'s annual circulars.] 



In tin- shipment of these products in 1SS.">, valued at (2,305,500, there were471 vessels engaged, 

 of 204.505 tons, of which 370 of 9.~>,!)3 tons cleared for foreign ports. 



