542 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The princip.tl centers of lumber manufacture in Texas are Orange and Beaumont, on the Sabine and Nueces 

 rivers, above SaWiue pa^s. Long leaved pine and cypress arc sawed here and shipped east and west by rail, 

 and in small quantities by schooner to Texan and Mexican ports. Loblolly pine is sawed at a number of small 

 mills upon the line of the International and Great Northern railroad in the counties south of the Trinity river, 

 and a large amount of short-leaved pine is manufactured in the mills upon the line of the Texas Pacific railroad in 

 the northeastern counties, Longview, in Gregg county, being the principal center of this industry. The product of 

 these mills is shipped west by rail to supply settlers upon the prairies of northern Texas with building material. 



The following extracts are derived from the notes upon the forests of Texas made by Dr. Charles Mohr, of 

 Mobile : 



" West of Marshall, upon the Texas Pacific railroad, the surface of the land becomes more broken ; the soil is 

 lighter, more porous, and favorable to the growth of the short-leaved pine, which soon becomes the prevailing forest 

 tree in the woods extending toward the west. Longview, a small town at the junction of the International and Great 

 Northern and Texas Pacific railroads, is situated almost in the center of the short-leaved pine region, and is the 

 seat of an active lumber business. These forests of short-leaved pine, more or less interspersed with oaks, extend 

 to the northern boundary of the state, and southward with an easterly trend to the confines of the region of the 

 long-leaved pine. The short-leaved pine finds its western limits near Mineola. 



At Palestine, in Anderson county, the uplands are covered with a loamy, somewhat sandy, soil underlaid with 

 a heavy clay. Here a more or less open oak forest is common. The black oak abounds, with the Spanish, black- 

 jack, blue-jack, and post oak, the last, however, always the prevailing species. Next to the post oak the black- 

 jack is the species of widest distribution in Texas, the two species being always found associated together from 

 the northern confines of the state to the prairies of the coast, and from the east to tlie treeless regions of western 

 Texas. The bois d'arc {Madura aurantiaca) is common along the banks of the water-courses in eastern Texas, 

 attaining a size large enough to be economically valuable. It is here, however, most probably adventitious from 

 the region in the northwest, where it forms an almost uninterrupted belt of woods from 4 to 10 miles wide, extending 

 from a short distance south of the city of Dallas to the northern frontier of the state, entering the Indian territory 

 between Sherman and Paris. This tree attains a height of from 45 to 50 feet, with a diameter of from 1 foot to 2 

 feet, and is of great value. 



" The timber growth immediately west of the Brazos is stunted and scanty : large areas of grass land intervene 

 between the scrubby woods until all at once ligneous growth disappears, and the seemingly boundless prairie, in 

 gently undulating swells, expands before the view on all sides. Near the center of Milam county a belt of open 

 post-oak woods from 20 to 25 miles in width is entered. It extends from Belton, in Bell county, southward to the 

 upper confines of Gonzales county. Post oaks stand here from 20 to 30 feet apart, with black-jacks and blue-jacks 

 between them, the trees being all of small size. The soil of these oak hills is of poor quality, sandy, gravelly, 

 and more or less broken, arid, and devoid of vegetable mold. Toward the southern limit of this belt, near Bastrop; 

 a tract of loblolly pine is found covering nearly four townships, or about 90,000 acres. During the last twelve 

 years all the useful timber on this isolated tract has been cut down. A second growth of pine, however, has 

 sprung up, and is now growing vigorously under the fostering care of the owners of the laud, and promises in a 

 short time to afford a new supply of timber. A belt of post oak is found intersecting the prairie from the upper 

 part of McLennan county, near Waco, and extending to the northern frontier of the state, where it joins the cross- 

 timbers of the Wichita. It is known as the 'lower cross timbers'. This belt of oak wood is nearly 150 miles long, 

 with its greatest width of about 20 miles between Dallas and Fort W^orth. At a distance of from 20 to 40 miles 

 west of the lower cross-timbers another belt of oak extends from Comanche county to the northern boundary of 

 the state, with a long western spur following the valley of the Brazos as far as the ninety-ninth meridian. This oak 

 forest is known as ' the cross-timbers '. 



" Taken as a whole, the country west of the Brazos river, except the basin of the Colorado, is a poorly-timbered 

 region. The mesquit was first met M'ith on the declivities of the prairie, which verge here upon the valley of the 

 Colorado. The wood of this tree is hard, fine grained, tough, heavy, and of great durability. In th western 

 portions of the state, almost entirely destitute of other timber growth, it serves, according to its size, a variety of 

 purposes in the economy of the stock ranch, and is there invaluable for fencing. Burning with a clear, smokeless 

 flame and possessing great heating powers, it is unsurpassed as fuel by any other Texas wood. It serves, moreover, 

 another important purpose in furnishing an abundance of wholesome and nutritious food to large herds of cattle, 

 at a season of the year when long-continued droughts have destroyed the grass upon the prairie. With the 

 increasing settlement of the treeless-prairie region during the last 15 or 20 years, this tree has spread rapidly east and 

 north. Near San Antonio I saw extensive districts, reported to have been, a few years ago, entirely destitute of even 

 a trace of ligneous growth, and which are now covered with copses of mesquit. Similar growths have sprung np 

 everywhere in the prairies of western Texas. The appearance of this new growth may be traced to the influence 

 of the vast herds of stock which range over the prairies, and which, in voiding the seeds of this tree, assist its 

 wider distribution, and, in keeping down the gr.oss, diminish the quantity of combustible material which feeds the 

 prairie fires, aiid thus check and finally prevent the spread of the frequent conflagrations which swept year after 

 year over these grassy plains. 



