48 FOREST RESOURCES OF TEXAS. 



These hills, stripped of forest cover, become arid and worthless. 

 On the sides and slopes of deep gorges which are heavily wooded there 

 is found a deep accumulation of leafy humus. The cedar brakes also 

 collect and hold large quantities of debris, and thus provide a cover- 

 ing several inches deep over the rocks. After the removal of the 

 timber all this is rapidly washed away, and the restoration of the forest 

 growth becomes impossible. Kept under timber, the land can be made 

 to furnish a vast amount of material for posts, poles, ties, and rough 

 construction purposes, as well as cheap fuel in a region where coal is 

 very expensive. Yet there is little hope that the owners will preserve 

 the forests. Small holdings are cut for the sake of the immediate 

 profit. Large holdings are used chiefly as pasture lands, and the 

 grasses flourish better without the timber. The country is primarily 

 a cattle country, and cattlemen are apt to regard the timber as a nui- 

 sance rather than a benefit. All of the available timber is being cut as 

 rapidly as it can be sold; in consequence, the steeper hillsides have 

 become so denuded that natural reforestation seems impossible. 



Manifestly this area needs a close covering. Fortunately, the forest 

 type native to it is both dense and an energetic ground gainer. Many 

 miles of old, stony pasture are growing up into thickets of live oak, 

 cedar, elm, mountain oak, and shin oak; and on hills in Bell County 

 and elsewhere from which a thick growth of mountain oak lias been 

 cut, an equally thick growth of cedar is taking its place. Timber 

 tracts in the vicinity of Austin which were denuded twenty-five years 

 ago are now heavily forested with cedar, which is again being cut, 

 although immature. (PI. IV.) 



A forest policy which would recognize both the. welfare of the hill 

 country and its economic relation to the Coast Plain could be carried 

 out only by the State. This would involve the purchase and reserva- 

 tion of timber tracts. But the price of the land which ought to be 

 forest reserve is so low, and its value for any other purpose is so small, 

 that the expense of such a measure would not offer serious difficulties 

 in the wa} r of its execution. 



PROTECTIVE FORESTS IN THE LIGNITIC BELT. 



The elevation of the Lignitic Belt, which has permitted erosion, has 

 resulted in a rough, broken country. The soils are loose and sandy, 

 and but for the presence of the shortleaf and post oak forests would 

 be washed in great quantities from the steeper slopes. Such soils 

 have little capacity for retaining moisture. Annual plants of super- 

 ficial root system can not flourish in them without abundant rainfall. 

 A seasonal precipitation which would amply suffice for maturing 

 crops in the compact, waxy soils of the Black Prairie to the west of 

 the Lignitic Belt would in the latter, but for the forests, have the 



