LONGLEAF PINE IN HIGHLANDS. 73 



LONGLEAF PINE IN HIGHLANDS. 



Under date of August 5, 1896, Dr. Mohr sends the following interesting note descriptive of a 

 tract of Longleaf Pine grown at the remarkable altitude of 2,000 feet: 



In my investigations of the flora of the region of greatest elevation in Alabama I was surprised to find the 

 Longieaf I'ine, which forms the greater part of the tree growth on the flanks of the mountains in the region of the 

 State, to iiseeuf)to a height of 1,600 to 1,700 feet above the sea (Chenawhaw Mountain, Clay County, 2,400 feet). 

 Whereas I found the tree to disappear at an elevation of about 1,500 feet on the Blue Mountain or Talladega Mountain 

 Range about Chandler's Spring, Talladega County, and on the isolated ridges of the Alpine Mountains in the same 

 county (in 1X93), Prof. E. S. Smith and Mr. Brewer, assistant geologist, found at points of the same mountain range, 

 5 or 6 miles farther to the south, the Longleaf Pine at an elevation little short of 2,000 feet. 



From my observations in former years I was convinced that the pine forests of the metamoqihic regions of Ala- 

 bama deserved no mention among the timber resources of the State, however valuable they might be as a resource 

 for fuel in connection with the mineral resources of these parts of the State. I was not a little surprised to hear, on 

 my trip of last week, of a sawmill with a daily output of from 65,000 to 70,000 feet of lumber of Longleaf Tine, situated 

 in the lower part of Clay County, at the outskirts of the geological formation mentioned. Yesterday morning I visited 

 the pine forests from which the supplies of this large and well-conducted establishment, at Hollins, on the Georgia 

 1'ac itic Railroad, are drawn. There I found the foothills and narrow valleys between them, at an elevation of from 

 1,400 to 1,500 feet, covered with a truly magnificent forest of I'inus paUisiris, yielding to the acre as much merchant- 

 able timber as the best class of pine lands in the coast pine belt from Alabama to Texas. The trees are tall; some 

 of them measured on the ground were found from 110 to 118 feet total height, with the crown 60 feet above the 

 ground, and the shaft clear of heart and limb for almost the whole of that length; two cuts of 20 feet each above 

 the stump are generally free from blemish. The surface soil appeared as arid and poor as that found on the steep 

 declivities of the main ranges. Its pine timber growth was to me indeed an enigma, which, however, soon found its 

 solution by examining in a deep cut the subsoil condition ; the decomposed dioritic schist, forming a kind of soft marl 

 for a great depth, offered no obstacle to the long taproot of the pine. These hills extend for a length of about 6 

 miles in a northeasterly direction, by a width scarcely exceeding 2 miles. I conld not learn that any other locality 

 is found in the same geological formation of an equal extent with the same conditions of the timber growth. 



