34 



TIMBER PINES OF THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES, 



Pine among the Sbortleaf Pine and fine upland oaks, the hitter largely prevailing. On the south 

 and west these hills merge into an elevated plateau with a loose soil of coarse wliite sand. Here 

 the Lougleaf Pine is found in its full i)erfectiou and furnishes timber of excellent quality.' About 

 IL' per cent of these pine-clad table lands are under cultivation, and about 22 per cent of tlie hills, 

 with their generous red soil, are covered with a mixed growth of i)ine and oak: both of these 

 divisions cover an area of not less than 4,000 sijuare niiles.- 



The Longleaf Pine timber standing in South Carolina in the census year ISSO was estiiiiated 

 at 5,310,000,000 feet, board measure,' with an annual cut of 124,000,000 feet. 



In 1S90 forty mills sawing exclusively Longleaf Pine timber have been reported ^ with an 

 aggregate daily capacity of about 510,()()() feet, taken at the lowest figure. This would indicate 

 for that year a cut of 08,000,000 feet, board measure, wliich may also be considered the average 

 annual cut for the last lifteen years. 



The exi)orts of lumber from Charleston, the chief port, have since the year 18S0 steadily 

 increased, the excess in 1S90 over the amount iu 18S0 reaching o\er 4(i0 per cent, as is exhibited 

 in the following statement: 



Stalcineiit of Iiimhvi 



Charleston, 



to foreii/ii tind don 

 of ISO 4. 



hifj of ISSO to the close 



Georgia. — The great pine State of the South, which has given to the Longleaf IMne the name of 

 Georgia Pine, by which this lumber is known the world over, embraces the largest of the Atlantic 

 pine forests. At a rough estimate, these cover over l!),r00 square miles, including the narrow 

 strip of live-oak lauds bordering the seashore. The flat woods and savannas of the coast plain are 

 from 10 to 15 miles wide. They are almost entirely stripped of their growth of Longleaf Pine. 



The upland pine forests, the pine barrens proper, or wire-grass region,^ embrace over 17,000 

 square miles. This region forms a Aast plain, nearly level except on the north, covered exclusively 

 with Longleaf Pine. About 20 x^er cent of these lands have been cleared for cultivation. 



Formerly the principal sites of the lumber industry Mere Darien, Brunswick, and Savannah. 

 The logs were rafted hundreds of miles down the Savannah, the Ogeechee, the Altamaha and its 

 large tributaries, the Oconee and Ocniulgee. A limited quantity is carried down the Flint and 

 Chattahoochee rivers to Ajialaehicola. The railroads, however, supply the nulls now to the 

 largest extent. 



The forests of these pine uplands are in quality, and originally in quantity, of their timber 

 resources equal to any found east of the Mississippi River. The soil is a loose sand, underlaid by 

 a more or less sandy bufl'colored or reddish loam. The almost level or gently undulating jilain 

 becomes slightly broken along the water courses, and the forests of Longleaf Pine are interrupted 

 by wide, swauipy bottoms which inclose the streams and are heavily timbered with the Loblolly 

 Pine, Cuban I'iue, Laurel Oak, Water Oak, Magnolia, White and Red Bay, and Cypress. On 

 the better class of the pine-timber lands the amount of marketable timber found varies between 

 3,000 and 10,000 feet to the acre. The trees yielding lumber and square-sawn timber of the highest 



' Kirk Hammond, Census Report, Vol. VI, Cotton production of South Carolina. 

 -Hammond, 1. c. 



5 Report of Tenth Ceuisus, Vol. IX. 



< Lumber Trade Dirqetory, NortUwesteru Lumberman, Chicago, July, 1890. 

 5 From the so-called wire-grass Aristida strlcta, the most characteristic plant of the dry, sa 

 from western AIal>ama to the Atlantic coast. 



