LONGLEAF PINE IN ALABAMA. 



41 





THE CENTRAL PINE BELT OF ALA1IAMA. 



The middle portion of the State is crossed from its eastern boundary nearly to its western, 

 with a decided northern trend along the western border, by a belt of drifted loamy sands, pebbles, 

 and light loams covered in the eastern and central parts with an almost continuous forest of Long- 

 leaf Pine, interrupted only by strips of hard wood which occupy the bottom lands. In its eastern 

 extent the Longleaf Pine becomes associated with upland oaks, hickories, and Shortleaf Pine, the 

 Longleaf Pine being entirely replaced in the northern extension of this belt by the latter species. 



This region of gravelly hills, as it is designated in the agricultural reports, 1 is 200 miles in 

 length, 5 to 35 miles in width, and extends over about 2,000 square miles. In the sections where 

 the forest consists almost exclusively of Longleaf Pine the stand of timber is heavy and of fine 

 quality. Operators claim for these timber lands a yield of from 5,000 to 6,000 feet of merchantable 

 timber to the acre, excluding all trees under 12 inches diameter. 



Ever since the opening of the great railroad lines leading to Northern markets the manufacture 

 of lumber in this central pine belt has been carried on with unabated activity. In 1880 not less 

 than 80,000,000 feet, board measure, were transported by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad 

 alone, mostly to the great Northwestern centers of commerce. In 1880 the production declined to 

 50,000,000 feet. At present most of the older mill sites have been abandoned and a few new ones 

 established in other localities. Colonel Wadsworth reports 12 mills in operation located along 

 the Louisville and Nashville Kailroad, with an output of a little over 40,000,000 feet a year on the 

 average of the past few years. To this is to be added the production of the few mills on the Mobile 

 and Birmingham Railroad, which will increase the present production in the central pine belt to 

 about 50,000,000 feet a year. 



THE FORESTS OF LONGLEAF PINE IN NORTH ALABAMA. 



Forests of Longleaf Pine prevail with more or less interruption in the basin of the Ooosa River, 

 principally on the beds of flinty pebbles and light, sandy loam which follow the upper course of 

 the river from the base of the Lookout Mountain range near Gadsden to a short distance beyond 

 the State line in Floyd County, Ga., where the Longleaf Pine finds its northern limit in about 34 

 north latitude, at an elevation above the sea of about GOO feet. With the reappearance of the 

 above deposits south of Calhoun County the pine forests extend on the eastern side of the valley 

 south to Childersburg. On the isolated ridges of old Silurian sandstone (Potsdam), and the met- 

 amorphic region adjoining, the Longleaf Pine is scattered and stunted and ascends to an eleva- 

 tion of nearly 2,000 feet above the sea. In proximity to the mineral region the rugged hills and 

 mountain sides have been completely denuded, the pine having been cut for charcoal to supply the 

 blast furnaces. In the valleys the forests of Longleaf Pine are of average density and the timber 

 is considered of excellent quality, particularly in the northern part of the valley in Etowah and 

 Cherokee counties. On the lower hills the timber is less abundant and somewhat inferior in size. 

 The measurements of five trees felled in the hills near Renfroe, Talladega County, can be said to 

 fairly represent the average quality of this pine timber. The undergrowth in the open forest 

 covering the low ridges and the narrow valleys is dense, consisting of Blackjack, Spanish Oak, 

 Pignut, and Bitternut Hickory. 



Meaxurrmenta of fire trees. 



'K. A. Smith: Agricultural Resources of Alabama, Vol. V. Reports of Geological Survey of Alabama. 



