522 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



are more easily supplied with logs rafted down the river from Georgia. Many hewed logs of large dimensionrf are 

 shipped from this jwint. The country near Apalachicola in surface and timber growth is mnck like that of 

 northeastern Florida, all the good timber having been cut. 



"PENCIL OEDAB. 



"The favorite variety of red cedar, of tall and straight growth, is becoming scarce, but there remains a large 

 quantity of quality sufiBciently good for pencils in nearly all sections of the state north of a line drawn from cape 

 Canaveral to the north end of Charlotte harbor. There is no red cedar in southern Florida, the Dixon mill at 

 Tampa having exhausted the supply within reach of that place; but new mills have been established near Webster, 

 in Sumter county, and at the head of Crystal river, at present the best source of supply. 



"CTPEESS. 



"The main body of cypress in southern Florida is located in the 'Big Cypress', a region of which I have heard 

 much from persons who were in an expedition which went through it during the last Indian war. They entered it at 

 the 'Little Palm hummock', 18 miles northeast of cape Romano. Traveling east about 12 miles they came to the 

 'Big Palm hummock', when they turned and traveled nearly due north for six days, averaging 12 miles a day. 

 Their guide then informed them that the cypress extended 12 miles farther north; so it would seem that the main 

 body of the 'Big Cypress' has a length of about 85 miles and a width, as they think, of about 20 miles. The cypress 

 grows in belts running north and south, the main central belt being about 6 miles wide and consisting of large 

 timber. There are narrow strips of cypress and pine alternating with prairie, although probably two-thirds of the . 

 whole region is covered with cypress. According to these estimates there must be at least 1,000 square miles 

 covered with cypress timber in this region, which in times of high water could be floated out by the numerous 

 creeks and inlets flowing toward the Gulf. There are also large quantities of heavy cypress on the swampy borders 

 of Peace creek, the Hillsborough river, the Withlacoochee, etc., many trees squaring from 2 to 4 feet. 



" The long-leaved pine extends south to Prairie creek, in about latitude 27 N. The pine between Prairie and 

 Peace creeks, which is sawed at the mill near Ogden, belongs to this species. Timber in this region is quite shaky, 

 and from all reports it is evident that the yellow pine in Manatee, Orange, and Hillsborough counties is quite 

 inferior, being mostly of the rongh-barked, sappy variety called in this region bastard pine. The long-leaved pine 

 occupies nearly the whole of the interior of the peninsula north of a line drawn from Charlotte harbor to cape 

 Malabar. At its southern limit 1 saw trees which measured over 2 feet in diameter and which would furnish logs 

 30 feet long. 



" Pitch pine (Finns Cubensis) appears on the west coast at Margo, 10 miles north of cape Eomano, and extends 

 northward to Prairie and Fishhead creeks, being the only pine of this region. From Charlotte harbor northward 

 it is confined to a belt from 10 to 15 miles wide, bordering the Gulf, extending to Tampa and as far northward 

 as Pensacola, being also scattered through the interior. This tree seldom exceeds 2 feet in diameter or 50 feet in 

 height, and will afiford a great quantity of framiug timber, although it will be probably generally used in the 

 production of naval stores, for which it is nearly or quite equal to the long-leaved pine. 



"One of the most important facts in regard to the pine forests of Florida is their permanence. Owing to the 

 sterility of soil and the liability to inundation of most of the state, it is certain that but a very small portion of 

 Florida will ever be cleared of its forest covering. Taking into consideration the great area covered with valuable 

 pine forests, and the fact that there will be a continuous new growth if the spread of forest fires can be checked, 

 only trees of the largest size being cut, it is evident that Florida will furnish a perpetual supply of the most 

 valuable pine lumber." 



The following notes upon the pine forests of western Florida were furnished by Dr. Charles Mohr, of Mobile, 

 Alabama : 



"The pine forests occupying the region between the valley of the Apalachicola river and the banks of the 

 Choctawhatchee, and from the headwaters of the Chipola to the bay of Saint Andrew's, are yet mostly in their 

 primeval condition and contain a vast body of valuable timber. The district between the Choctawhatchee and 

 the Perdido is the seat of the oldest and most active lumbering industry of the whole Gulf coast. The numerous 

 streams flowing through the pine forests of eastern Alabama to the large bays upon the coast of western Florida 

 make fully 4,000 square miles of southeastern Alabama comparatively accessible and tributary to the region from 

 which the lumber finds an outlet by way of the bay of Pensacola. 



"The better class of the somewhat elevated and undulating timber-lauds which surround Escambia, Blackwater, 

 and Saint Mary de Galves bay were long since stripped of their valuable timber. These forests having been culled 

 time after time during the last quarter of a century, are now completely exhausted. The low, wet ])ine barrens, 

 with their soil of almost pure sand, which trend eastward along the shores of Santa Rosa sound and Choctawhatchee 

 bay, have never borne a growth of pine sufficiently large to furnish more than a small supply of timber of very 

 inferior quality. The ridges between the Choctawhatchee river and the Yellow river are also, for the most part, 

 arid, sandy wastes, never yielding more than a few hundred feet of lumber per acre. 



