THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 525 



In this estimate no account is made of small timber standing on some 1,282,000 acres which have been cut 

 over, and from which the merchantable pine has been practically removed, or on 600,000 acres injured by the 

 manufacture of turpentine. 



There are fewer pine trees per acre in the region of mixed growth than in the pine belt proper, with which it 

 mingles on the north ; but the individual trees being larger, the average amount of standing pine per acre is 

 greater, although generally of poorer quality. 



Mobile is stiU the priucipal center in the state for the manufacture of pine and cypress lumber ; a large amount 

 of pine lumber is-panufactured also along the line of the railroads penetrating the pine belt in Etowah county, and 

 considerable hard wood is sawed in counties bordering the Tennessee river for local use and northern shipment. 

 Mobile is also the distributing point for the naval stores manufactured in the state. 



The following notes upon the forests of Alabama are extracted from Dr. Mohr's report: 



"THE MARITIME PINE EEGION. 



"West of Mobile the road traversed for a distance of over 5 miles the plain, or so-caUed 'second bottom', 

 composed of a more or less tenacious or sandy yellow clay. It has an elevation above the alluvial of the river of 

 15 to 25 feet, and is bordered on the west by the ridges of the stratified drift, which extend to within 6 to 18 miles 

 of the shore-line. Near the coast this plain, flat and devoid of drainage, forms for many miles the low, wet savannas 

 sparsely covered with a stunted growth of long-leaved pines ; near the estuaries it is interspersed with tracts 

 covered with a black, light soil, rich in humus and bearing a luxuriant growth of broad-leaved trees associated 

 with a few Conifera, and with the wooded swamps which extend over the depressions about the base of the higher 

 land, and follow the low, inundated banks of the numerous streams. The prevailing forest tree of this plain, now 

 much cultivated in the vicinity of Mobile, is the long leaved pine. Situations offering a moister and somewhat 

 richer soil along the hummocks and gentle acclivities bordering the swamps and the bottoms of the water-courses 

 are occupied by the loblolly pine. With this is often associated the pitch pine {Finns Gubensis), which prefers, 

 however, the more or less inundated and always wet, swampy forest, where its spreading crown towers above 

 the gum trees and white cedars. Wherever in the plain the long-leaved pine has been cut down, this pitch pine 

 principally and the loblolly pine spring up to replace it. 



"Many acres can be seen in this region covered with thrifty seedlings of this pitch pine, and trees have sprung 

 up, to my own knowledge, since 1865, which are now from 20 to 25 feet in height with a diameter of trunk of 

 from 4 to 6 inches ; and trees from 50 to 60 feet in height with a circumference of from 3 to 4 feet, forming quite 

 extensive forests, may be seen upon the shores of the bay from which the primeval forest was removed about fifty 

 years ago. 



"Ascending the highlands of drift, with its porous soil composed of irregular strata of white or ferruginous 

 sands, gravels, and pebbles interspersed with layers of clay, the home of the long-leaved pine, which here arrives 

 at perfection and forms the entire forest growth over immense areas, is entered. Upon this formation, after the 

 removal of the original forest, either the long-leaved pine takes possession again of the soil or is replaced by a 

 more or less stunted growth of various species of oak (Quercus Gateabcei, cinerea, nigra, obtusilob.z, and falcata), the 

 mocker-nut, and a few other small trees and shrubs. What the conditions are by which such a rotation is 

 regulated is not apparent. It is no doubt much influenced by the conflagrations which annually sweep through 

 the woods and which are particularly destructive to the young pines, but it cannot be explained solely upon that 

 ground. I have, however, observed that the more broken lands with the same sandy character of surface soil, but 

 with a more argillaceous subsoil more or less impervious to water, are mostly covered with this second growth of 

 deciduous trees, and that the flat table-lands with either a sandy or gravelly soil are invariably covered again with 

 a second growth of the long-leaved pine. Among such young growths of this species I have never been able to 

 discover a single seedling of the other pines. 



" Cypress swamps of the Tensas river. The ri\ er was extraordinarily high, the lowlands being overflowed 

 to a depth of more than 10 feet. The torrents which had fallen during the past three weeks caused a heavier freshet 

 than any that had been experienced since the spring of 1875. Siuce that year no such opportunity has been offered 

 for getting heavy cypress timber from the depths of these swampy forests. No idle man was to be found on shore; 

 everybody who could swing an ax, paddle a boat, or pilot a log was in the swamp engaged in felling and floating 

 cypress timber. All the mill-hands worked in the swamps ; fields and gardens were left untouched, and even clerks 

 from the stores were sent to the swamps as overseers. 



"We soon entered the deep, dark forest stocked with some fine and large cypress trees, and came upon 

 two negroes, each standing in his little skiff, engaged in felling a tree of the largest size. It was astonishing 

 to witness the steadiness and celerity with which they performed their work, considering the instability of their 

 footholds in the narrow boats. Every stroke of the ax told at the designated jjlace, and it took them scarcely 

 longer to cut a tree in this way than if they had been working upon solid ground. The top of the tree when 

 felled is sawed off close to the first limbs by one man working under water a single-handled crosscut saw. 

 Another, provided with a long pole armed with a sharp iron spike, seizes the trunk and tows it, with the aid of 



