530 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



foreste covering buudreds of 8<]uure miles, particularly in Baldwin county. The production of naval stores in this 

 county, as well as in the lower part of Mobile county, has at present nearly ceased, on account of the exhaustion of 

 the forest. It is, however, now carried on with the greatest activity on the line of the Mobile and Ohio railroad. 

 Between Mobile station, in Mobile county, and Quitman, Mississippi, there are at this date not less than thirty-three 

 stills in operation, while along the Louisville and Nashville railroad there have been during the last five years fifty- 

 three stills established in Alabama and Mississippi. These, with few exceptions, are controlled by Mobile capital, 

 their whole product being handled from that market, so that the returns contained in the annual reports of the 

 board of trade of Mobile fairly represent the whole production of naval stores in this pine region. 



"According to the statements contained in the report for 1880, the crops amounted in the years 1879-'80 to 25,409 

 barrels of spirits of turpentine and 158,482 barrels of rosin. During a period of eight years, between 1873 and the 

 close of the business year of 1880, 160,000 barrels of spirits of turpentine and 800,000 barrels of rosiu have been 

 pnxluced in this same district, (a) 



"The increase in prices during the last few years for all kinds of naval stores, and particularly the active demand 

 for the best class of rosin, have given an increased impetus to this business, in consequence of which many of the 

 older orchards have been abandoned and new ones started, while the number of new boxes cut during the present 

 season is greater than ever before. There are no returns to be obtained of the production prior to 1875, but it can 

 be safelj' assumed that up to that year 250 square miles of pine forest had been boxed. The production since 1875 

 must have involved a further destruction of 640,000 acres, or 1,000 square miles of forest. With the low price at 

 which pine lands are held there is not the slightest regard paid to the utilization of their resources, and under 

 the present system they are rapidly destroyed, regardless of the needs of the future and with the sole object of 

 obtaining the quickest possible returns on the capital invested. 



"It may be of interest to mention here the results obtained by a practical manufacturer by submitting the 

 refuse of saw-mills, that is, slabs and sawdust, to a process of combined steam and dry distillation, with the view 

 of utilizing the volatile products of such waste. He obtained from one cord of slabs 12 gallons of spirits of 

 turpentine, 25 gallons of tar, 120 gallons of weak pyroligneous acid, and 12 barrels of charcoal. From one cord of 

 lightwood ho obtained 12 gallons of spirits of turpentine, 62^ gallons of tar, and 60 gallons of pyroligneous acid. 

 The sawdust obtained from sawing 10,000 feet of i)ine lumber, subjected to distillation during one day, produced 

 22 gallons of spirits of turpentine." 



MISSISSIPPI. 



The forests of Mississippi originally extended over nearly the entire state. Prairies of no great area, situated 

 in the northern central part of the state, presented the only break in its tree covering. The forest consisted of a 

 belt of long leaved pine, occupying the coast plain and reaching from the eastern confines of the state to the 

 bottom lands of the Mississippi river, and from the coast nearly to the line of Vicksburg and Meridian. The 

 northeastern i>ortion of this long-leaved pine forest spread over a high rolling country, and here the pines were 

 mixed with various hard- wood trees ; north of the long-leaved pine forest a long belt gradually narrowing toward the 

 north and occupied by a growth of short-leaved pine and of hard woods reached nearly to the northern boundary of 

 the state, while south of the Tennessee river, in Tishomingo, Prentiss, and Itawamba counties, a considerable area 

 was covered with forests of the short-leaved pine. The remainder of the state was clothed with a growth of hard 

 woods, which in the swamps of the Yazoo delta and the bottom lands of the Mississipiii river formed vast and 

 almost impenetrable forests, where cypresses, gums, water oaks, ashes, and other trees which find their home 

 in the deep, inundated swamps of the South Atlantic region attained noble dimensions and great value. 



The pine forests have been removed from the immediate neighborhood of the Pascagoula and Pearl rivers and 

 from their principal tributaries within the southern tier of counties; the most accessible timber has been cleared 

 from the Biloxi, Blind, Jordan, Wolf, and Tchefuncta rivers, flowing into Mississippi sound, and from the line of the 

 Chicago, Saint Louis, and New Orleans railroad. The long-leaved pine of Mississippi is, however, still i)ractically 

 intact, and these forests are capable of supplying au immense amount of timber as soon as the means of 

 transportation can be furnished for it. A small amount of pine has been cut in the northeastern pine region from 

 along the line of the Memphis and Charleston railroad. 



The hard-wood forests outside of the bottom lands have been largely cleared from many counties in providing 

 for the requirements of agriculture. Such land when abandoned is again covered in the central part of the state 

 with a growth of old-field pine, and in the north, and especially in the northt astern counties, by a vigorous growth 

 of short-leaved pine {Pinus mitis), which seems destined to becpme the most important timber tree of that region. 

 The forests which cover the swamps of the state are still almost intact, although the most accessible cypress, which 

 has long been cut in the Yazoo delta and the valley of the Pearl river to supply the New Orleans market, has 

 become scarce. 



During the census year 222,800 acres of woodland were reported destroyed by fire, with a loss of $78,500. Of 

 these fires the largest number was set by hunters, and by farmers carelessly starting fires in clearing land or to 

 improve pasturage. 



a These flgores differ somewhat from those prepared by Mr. Van Bokkelen. See page 493. C. S. S. 



