TIMBER REGIONS — SUPPLY AND PRODUCTION. 



37 



at a little over 40,000 .square miles. It presents no material differences from tlie Atlantic region, 

 of -whicli it is a direct continuation, being similar to it in both soil and climate. 



This ea.stern Gulf region is unsurpassed in the advantages it otters for tlie development of 

 the industries based on the products of the pine forests. Its genial climate throughout the year 

 permits the nuinterrupted exploitation of its abundant resources of resinous products and of timber 

 of the best quality. The fine harbors and safe roadsteads on the Gulf Coast are reached by navi- 

 gable rivers, which, with their tributaries, cross the lower division in every direction, and give 

 ready and cheap transportation to its ports, while great railway lines afibrd easy commuiiicatiou 

 with inland markets. This region thus presents inducements scarcely found elsewhere for the 

 investment of capital and labor in the development of the resources of its forests. 



It is impossible to arrive at anything like an accurate estimate of the amount of timber 

 standing at present, or of the rate of its consumption, since in the returns of the annual lumber 

 product that needed for home consumption has not been included. 



Western Florida. — Placing the eastern limit of that part of Florida to be considered as 

 belonging to the Gulf pine region at the lower course of the Suwanee lUver, the area included 

 comjirises about 7,200 square miles, exclusive of the swamps and marshes of the coast. The 

 forests of Longleaf Pine form a narrow strip along the course of the Suwaiiee Uiver and along 

 tbe coast to the Appalachicola Kiver, covering about 1,280,000 acres. At their northern limit 

 tliey merge into the oak and hickory uplands of middle Florida. Along the coast they are sur- 

 rounded by marshes and swamps, rendering them difficult of access, consequently they have 

 remained untouched. The same may be said of the pine forests between the Appalachicola and 

 the Choctawhatchee rivers. These have been invaded to some extent along the banks of the 

 latter river to supply the small mills situated on the bay of the same name. 



The pine lands of western Florida rise slowly above the coastal plain and form a vast expanse 

 of slightly undulating surface. Those surrounding Perdido, Pensacola, Elackwater, and Mary 

 St. Galvcs Bay, the oldest sites of active lumber industry in the Gulf region, were stripped of 

 their valuable timber more than thirty years ago, and since that time have been cut over again. 



The largest tracts of finely timbered virgin forests of Longleaf Pine are found in the undu- 

 lating uplands from the Perdido and Escambia rivers along the Alabama State line to the banks 

 of the Choctawhatchee River. East of this river, in the same direction, where the younger Ter- 

 tiary strata make their appearance, Longleaf Pine becomes associated with hard woods, with 

 southern Spruce Pine added in the valleys. Since the opening of the Pensacola and Atlantic 

 Bailroad considerable (juantities of sawn scjuare timber find their way to Pensacola from these 

 remoter forests. 



A large portion of the timber supplied to the mills along the coast having been derived from 

 Alabama, it is impossible to arrive at an exact estimate of the products of the forest of western 

 Florida. 



of tJi>ort of he 



■. sawn sf/Hrtrc tituhcr, nnd Inmh 



Fla., from 1S79S0 to 1S9^'- 



(From Hyer & Bro.'s auniial circ 



i</ii and domestic porta from I'ciisacola, 



In tlie shipment of these products in ISS.j, vahied at S2,30.5,.500, there were 471 vessels engaged, 

 of 2yi:,o',t5 tons, of which 370, of 95,922 tons, cleared for foreign ports. 



