20 FOREST RESOURCES OF TEXAS. 



and bayou type and partly to the alluvial bottom type. East of the 

 Trinity they form the chief areas of swamp forest. Along the ridges, 

 however, these tongues are the seaward extension of the mixed loblolly 

 pine and hardwoods forest of the interior of the Coast Plain. In the 

 stream basins the characteristic forests of the alluvial bottoms tend to 

 run back into the loblolly and hardwoods forest, just as the latter 

 follows the sandy ridges out into the prairie; but even in these stream- 

 ways the loblolly gradually enters into the mixture. 



EXTENT AND CHARACTER OF THE FOREST. 



The loblolly pine and hardwoods forest was estimated by Doctor 

 Mohr to cover an area of about 7,000 square miles " lying to the south 

 and west of the longleaf region." The transition to longleaf pine land 

 takes place where the Coast Plain passes into the Lignitic Belt an 

 example of a change in forest type corresponding, not with zones of 

 rainfall, but with a change of geological formations, as the coast 

 Neocene formation meets the Eocene sands of the Lignitic area. This 

 inland half of the Coast Plain, the home of the loblolly, is characterized 

 by a higher level and a more undulating surface than the seaward half. 

 Its altitude is from 50 to 150 feet. Low ridges of sandy, loamy, open- 

 textured soil interrupt the compact clays and silts, with intervening 

 depressions which are more or less swampy in wet times, and broad, 

 shallow streamways, presenting a large area of rich alluvial land. 



Each of these conditions harbors its own peculiar association of 

 species. The sandy ridges are covered normally with pure loblolly. 

 The half -swampy flats grow a jungle of hardwood, with some loblolly, 

 undergrowth, climbing vines, and often palmetto thickets, in which this 

 species attains the unusual height of 10 or 12 feet, with a trunk rising 

 3 feet above the ground. In the alluvial valleys the characteristic hard- 

 woods bottom forest is found, with a sprinkling of loblolly added. 

 Oaks are especially abundant and of excellent growth throughout the 

 area, except upon sandy knolls and ridges, where loblolly makes a 

 pure stand. The forests of the loblolly belt are the densest in Texas, 

 with a very thick undergrowth of shrubs and small shade-loving 

 trees. The "Big Thicket" of Hardin County, famous as an almost 

 impenetrable forest, is of this type. 



The abundant loblolly pine is of greatest commercial value. In 

 the tracts of pure forest a cut of 12,000 or 15,000 feet to the acre is 

 not rare. On the alluvial soils it is of course of much less importance. 



The heavy loblolly timber is being very rapidly marketed, mostly 

 as yellow pine lumber. It is generally called shortleaf ; the term 

 loblolly, so far as the writer knows, is used only to indicate specimens 

 with a large percentage of sapwood, such as occur in the swampy flats 

 or draws in the longleaf belt. These are apparently supposed to be 



