30 TI.MBER PINES OF THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES. 



worth of these stores were exported yearly ; among them were 88,11 1 barrels of crude resiii, valued 

 at sllj-ii.So. F. A. Michaux, iu his travels east of the Alleghany Mountains, spcakinu- of the 

 low country of the Carolinas, says:' "Seven tenths is covered with pine of nnc siKcics, rinus 

 jMhistris, which, as the soil is drier and lighter, grows loftier; these pines, encumhcred with very 

 few branches and which split even, are preferred to other trees for building fences on plantations." 

 In his subsequent work Michaux gives for the lirst time an accurate and detailed account of the 

 products of this tree and their industrial and commercial importance, as well as of its distribution 

 and a description of its specific characters.- 



XoTE. — Iu sketching the topographical features of those regions of the Longleaf Pine forests, which did not 

 come under the personal observation of the writer, the phj-siographical descriptions of the Cotton States on the 

 Atlantic Coast and the Gulf region published in Professor Hilgard's report on cotton production in the fifth and sixth 

 volumes of the Census of 1880 were freely drawn upon, and these reports were also consulted, together with Table VII, 

 in the statistics published in the census report on productions of agriculture in the computation of forest areas. 



In the statements of the amount of Longleaf Pine standing iu the several States in 1880 and of the cut during 

 the same year, the figures given in Prof. Charles S. Sargent's report, Vol. IX of the Tenth Census, were introduced, 

 and for those which relate to Alabama and Mississippi the writer is mostly responsible. No ert'orts have been spared 

 to arrive at a correct estimate of the total amount and value of square timber, lumber, and naval stores produced 

 during the decade ending with the year 1890 and during the business year ISg.'S, in order to place iu a proper light 

 the economic importance of the tree and its bearings upon the industrial and commercial interests of the country, 

 and also to show the rapid increase of the industries depending directly upon the resources of this tree. The state- 

 ments given are, however, of necessity only approximations falling below the limits of truth, as it was impossible to 

 ascertain with any degree of accuracy the quantities entering into home consumption. Thus a factor of no little 

 importance had to be neglected. 



The thanks of the writer are due to the gentlemen who kindly assisted him by their promjit reidies to his 

 inquiries iu search for information, and who in other ways have afforded him aid. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBITION. 



The Longleaf Pine is principally confined to a belt about 125 miles in width in the lower 

 parts of the Southern States which border upon the Atlantic and the Gulf shores. The northern 

 limit of the tree is found on the coast near the southern boundary of Virginia below Xorfolk, 

 north latitude 36° 30'. From here the forests of the Longleaf Pine extend southward along the 

 coast region to Cape Canaveral, across the peninsula of Florida a short distance south of Tampa 

 Bay, westward along the Gulf Coast to the uplands which border upon the alluvial deposits of 

 the Mississippi. West of that river forests of this species continue to the Trinity liiver in Texas; 

 in that State its northern limit is found to reach hardly 32° north latitude, while in Louisiana and 

 ilississippi it extends hardly more than half a degree farther north, and in Alabama tinder .'Uo 30' 

 the tree is found to ascend the extreme southern spurs of the Appalachian chain to an altitude of 

 between 1,500 and 2,000 feet. Thus the area of the distribution of the Longleaf Pine extends from 

 70° to 9G0 we.st longitude and from 20^ 30' to 36^ 30' north latitude. (See PI. III.) 



With reference to the distribution of this species as depending upon geological formation, it 

 may be said that its forests are chiefly confined to the sandy and gravelly deposits designated by 

 Professor Hilgard as the orange sand, or Lafayette strata of Post-Tertiary formation, which of late 

 is regarded as the most recent member of the Tertiary formation. These siliceous sands and pebbles, 

 which to such vast extent cover the lower part of the Southern States and form also more or less 

 the covering of the surface throughout the older Tertiary region, otter the physical conditions most 

 suitable to the growth of this tree. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF DISTRIBUTION IN DIFFERENT REGIONS, 



This great maritime pine belt east of the Mississippi River presents such differences iu 

 topographical features and such diversity of physical and mechanical conditions of the soil as to 

 permit a distinction of three divisions going from the coast to the interior: 



1. The coastal plain, or low pine barrens within the tide water region, extends from the seashore 

 inland for a distance of from 10 to 30 miles and over. The forests of the Longleaf Pine which 



' M^moire sur la naturalisation des arbres forestiers de I'Amerique septentrionale, by F. A. Michaux. Paris, 1805. 

 -F. A. Michaux, Histoire des Arbres forestiers de I'Amer., Sept. Paris, 1810-1813. English translation, Phila- 

 delphia Editiou, 1859, Vol. Ill, p. lOU et seq. 



