632 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



"The vastuess of the timber resources yet contained in the region embraced in the norlhern half of Harrit^on 

 and the whole of Greene and Perry, up to the southern confines of Marion and Jones counties, is astonipliing. As 

 18 the case in Alabama, however, trees furnishing first-class spftrs for masts are difiicult to find; they have been 

 cut by spar-hunters in every part of the forest which could bo reached by teams. 



"Cypress lumber is not manufactured in this region, and the loblolly pine furnishes so small a part of the 

 timber manufactured that it need not be considered. In Jones and Covington counties, about the headwaters of 

 the upper tributaries of the Pascagoula, the country is rolling, intersected by numerous small, swift streams and 

 rivulets. This region is magnificently timbered, and devoid of the barren ridges of almost pure sand so frequently 

 found in the pine belt of Alabama. 



"The low, flat, more or Jess wide pine lands bordering upon the marshes of the coast are sparsely covered with 

 pine, while the trees growing in this wet, boggy soil, devoid of drainage and overlying a subsoil impervious to 

 water, are stunted and of little value. The lower part of Harrison county is covered with these ])ine meadows, 

 which fact accounts for the comparatively small importance of the bay of Saint Louis as a lumber-producing center. 



"At Pearlington, on the Pearl river, is established the large saw-mill of Poitevent & Favre, capable of 

 producing 100,000 feet of lumber a day; at Logton, 2 miles farther up the river, are two mills, and 5 miles above 

 these, at Gainesville, there is another. The largest part of the logs sawed at these mills is cut upon the banks of 

 the Abolochitto creek, in Hancock county, and its tributaries extending into the lower part of Marion county, 

 50 or 00 miles distant. The remainder comes from the banks of the Pearl and the upper and lower Little rivers, 

 which empty into it 10 miles above Columbia. 



" The cypress is nearly exhausted from the lower Pearl river, and the 20,000 or 30,000 feet of this lumber which 

 are sawed annually at Pearlington are derived from the cypress swamps on the upper waters of the ]*earl and 

 Jackson rivers, where there is still a large amount of this timber of good size. 



" The eastern bank of the Pearl river, within the Maritime Pine Belt, is sparsely settled, and forests, the 

 especially in Hancock county and the upper part of Marion county, are unsurpassed in the quality and quantitj' of 

 their pine timber. It is estimated by good judges that these forests will yield an average of 2,000 feet of lumber, 

 board measure, to the acre. Up to the present time a strip of land scarcely 3 miles in width, embracing the banks 

 of the water-courses, has been stripped of its timber growth, and fine spar timber is yet to be found here a few 

 miles back from all the streams. Almost the whole of these rich timber-lands supplying the mills on Pearl river 

 form a part of the public domain. 



" The almost unbroken pine forests covering the upper tier of counties between the Pearl and Pascagoula rivers, 

 toward the northern confines of the pine region, are still practically intact. The wealth of these forests has as yet 

 found no outlet to the markets of the world. Thinly settled, they are still largely the property of the government, 

 but in view of the speedily -increasing demand for lumber and the profits derived from the lumber business, such a 

 condition of affairs must soon come to iiu end. It can be safely asserted that by far the largest part of the timber, 

 felled in the Abolochitto region is taken from government land. There can be no question of this when it is considered 

 how insignificantly small is the area of land which has been legally entered by private persons along that stream. 

 The necessity of adopting proper measures to protect the timber wealth upon the public domain from depredations of 

 such enormous extent forces itself upon the most casual observer, while to one who looks closer at the consequences 

 of the continuance of the existing state of affairs the urgency becomes appallingly apparent. The ever-increasing 

 consumption of timber at the mills upon Pearl river, of which one alone can cut 100,000 feet of lumber a day, will 

 prove a powerful stimulus to a people who, since the development of the lumber business in these regions, have 

 almost completely abandoned their former agricultural and pastoral pursuits and now depend entirely for their 

 support upon cutting pine logs, to supply this enormous demand at the expense of the public property. Already 

 plans have been made to invade this region by tramways and railroads, in order that its timber may be brought to 

 market. This is true, too, of the region between the Pearl and the Amite rivers, down to the marshy lands of 

 eastern Louisiana, a region in which the forests are also particularly good. 



"In the state of Mississippi it is safe to estimate that, after deducting 25 per cent, for areas of swampy and 

 cleared land, 9,000 square miles are still covered by forests of long-leaved pine. The production of this region 

 during the census year amounts to 108,000,000 feet; of this, 60,000,000 finds its outlet at Pascagoula, 30,000,000 by 

 Pearl river, 6,000,000 by bay of Saint Louis, and 12,000,000 by the Chicago, Saint Louis, and New Orleans railroad 

 to northern markets. 



"In the northern part of Harrison county we crossed a tract from which twelve years ago a hurricane swept 

 a belt a quarter of a mile wide of all tree growth. It is interesting to note the growth which has since sprung up 

 among the prostrate charred trunks of the pines still found lying about in large numbers. Black-jack oaks, the 

 largest not over 12 feet in height, are mixed in almost equal numbers with stunted, thin saplings of the long-leaved 

 pine. These plainly exhibit the helplessness of the struggle to which these offspring of the great timber tree are 

 subjected under the influence of repeated conflagrations wherever the oak scrub has sprung up and added fuel, in the 

 abundance of its leaves, to the fires which annually sweep through these woods. 



"The noutheastern counties. After crossing the Sucarnoochee river below Scooba, in Kemper county, the 

 pines which had covered the ridges near the borders of Lauderdale county disappear; scarcely a stray sapling 



