THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 543 



" West of the Colorado river the pecau-uut is an important product, forming one of the staple articles of export. 

 Shipments of this nut from San Antonio average annually 1,250,000 pounds, obtained from the bottom lands of 

 the Nueces, the Rio Frio, Medina, and Eio Concho. A million pounds, obtained from the Colorado, Guadalupe, 

 Eio Blanco, Pierderelis, Sabinal, Llano, and San Saba rivers, are shipped from Austin, and about a quarter of a 

 million more from Indianola, gathered on the lower Guadalupe, San Antonio, Colorado, and other streams flowing 

 into the Gulf. The nuts are worth, on an average, 5 cents a pound to the gatherer. 



'' On the range of low hills extending from San Antonio to Austin, which rise at some points to a height of 

 over 500 feet above the plain, forming the base of the terraces leading to the table land of northern Mexico, the 

 woods are confined to the barrens and the declivities bordering upon them. The open plains on these table-lands are 

 either entirely destitute of ligneous growth, or, when covered with deeper and more fertile soil, support low copses 

 of mesquit. The western juniper is observed here for the first time. It is a tree of low growth, seldom exceeding 

 35 feet in height, or more than a foot in diameter. It branches at a short distance from the base, forming a 

 broad, round head. The wood is of a dingy, reddish color, fine-grained, hard, and heavy, and in density and 

 durability is not inferior to that of the red cedar. It is knotty, however, from near the base, and furnishes no sticks 

 sufBciently Ibng to allow its use in cabinet-making, and can only be employed for rough construction, posts, palings, 

 etc., for which purposes it is invaluable. The home of the western cedar is found on the rugged highlands which 

 surround the channels of the headwaters of the numerous streams which flow from the eastern declivity of these 

 hills. Here it forms open groves, with scarcely any other woody growth among the somewhat scattered trees. 

 These cedar woods are particularly common upon the brows of the steep escarpments from the base of which issue 

 the large springs which form such a striking feature in this part of the state. In the vicinity of the settlements few 

 of the full-grown trees have been left. The improvidence of the first settlers in obtaining their timber supplies 

 and the prairie fires which ran through these cedar woods in former years have caused the destruction of large areas 

 once covered by this valuable tree. According to my observation, the western cedar prefers a calcareous, dry soil. 

 Its range of distribution seems limited to the hilly region bordering upon the upi^er part of the Colorado valley, 

 extending toward the south a short distance below New Braunfels. and westward to the sources of the Nueces and 

 Guadalupe rivers. Well-timbered tracts of this tree are still found west of New Braunfels as far as Boerne, in 

 Kendall county, and on the terraces of the higher ranges in Bandera and Kerr counties." 



INDIAN TEERITOEY. 



The forests of the Indian territory are confined to its eastern portion. West of the ninety-ninth meridian trees 

 are only found along the narrow river bottoms, the intervening ridges being bare of all forest growth. The extreme 

 northeastern part of the territory contains numerous extensive open prairies, south of which a heavy body of forest 

 composed of hard woods, mixed on the high ridges with the short-leaved pine, extends southward into Texas, with 

 a maximum width in the Choctaw nation of GO miles. In the Cherokee nation six considerable bodies of pine, 

 varying from 10 to 30 miles in length and 2 to 4 miles in width, occur on Spavina creek, Illinois river, Salina river. 

 Spring creek, and Bowman's Fork, tributaries of Grand river. A large body of pine occurs also 25 miles west of 

 Eeams, a station upon the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas railroad. Smaller bodies of pine are found, too, east of 

 Beams, and at Stringtown, where lumber is manufactured and shipped southward by rail into northern Texas. 



The bottom lands of all the streams flowing through the eastern portion of the territory are heavily timbered 

 with hard woods, and especially those of the Neosho, Verdigris, Arkansas, and Canadian rivers contain great bodies 

 of the finest black walnut now growing. A particularly fine growth of this timber extends along the Verdigris river 

 for 50 miles above Cofleeville. 



West of the region of heavy forest the country is covered with an open growth of upland oaks, among which 

 the most prominent are the post oak and the black-jack. These forests are interspersed with prairies, often of 

 considerable extent, which gradually occupy the whole country outside the bottom lands. Farther west, between 

 the ninety-seventh and ninety -ninth degrees of west longitude, the " cross-timbers " enter the territory from the 

 south. They are composed, as in Texas, of a stunted growth of post oak and black-jack, and extend northward 

 across the territory in straggling patches into southern Kansas. The main belt of the "cross-timbers", about 70 

 miles wide at the Texas boundary, gradually becomes narrower toward the north aud northwest, disappearing, at 

 about longitude 99 west, upon the ridges south of the Cimarron river. 



No returns of the amount of lumber manufactured in the territory have been received, nor other than the most 

 general information in regard to its forest covering. 



AEKANSAS. 



Heavy fortsts cover the state of Arkansas, with the exception of a few isolated prairies principally confined 

 to Prairie and Arkansas counties, north of the valley of the Arkansas river, and the western borders of the state. 

 North of the Arkansas river the forests are mostly composed of the deciduous trees of the Mississippi basin, through 

 which isolated belts occur, often of considerable extent, in which the short-leaved pine, the only species found in 



