52 FOREST RESOURCES OF TEXAS. 



Railroad, on the forks of the Nueces River, and along the edges of the 

 high plateau of the Staked Plains. In the Chisos Mountains, which it 

 occupies almost exclusively, it becomes a tree with straight trunk 1 foot 

 in diameter, and could be sawn into useful lumber of fair quality. It 

 reaches about the same proportions in the Davis and Organ mountains. 

 Elsewhere it is seldom large enough for anything but fuel and fence 

 rails. 



Range. From Colorado (eastern base Pikes Peak) through New 

 Mexico and to western Texas. 

 Western yellow pine (bull pine) (Pinus ponderosa scopulorum Laws. ). 



The bull pine occurs on the higher slopes and in the upper canyons 

 of the Guadalupe and Davis mountains. It is the prevalent and most 

 valuable pine of these mountains, with a trunk 1 to 2 feet in diameter. 

 The wood is hard, heavy, and durable, making excellent lumber and 

 very good fuel. 



Range. From the interior of British Columbia, south of latitude 

 51, and the Black Hills region of Dakota, southward in the Pacific and 

 Rocky Mountain regions to western Texas and Mexico. 



Loblolly pine, old field pine (Pinus txda Linnaeus). 



In Texas the loblolly pine occurs chiefly on the interior margin of 

 the flat, low coast plain, from the Sabine River to Houston and north- 

 westward. Here, on sandy knolls, it forms dense forests of large 

 growth. On the lower, more compact soils it occurs in mixture with 

 hardwoods. It bears seed in abundance, apparently every year, and 

 is here, as elsewhere, aggressive in occupying old fields or clearings. 

 The wood is light, not strong, brittle, very coarse-grained, and not 

 durable. In color the heartwood is light brown, the very thick sap- 

 wood orange, or often nearly white. In Texas the saw products are 

 sold as yellow pine lumber. 



Range. Froin Delaware to Florida and Texas, generally near the 

 coast, and north to the valley of the Arkansas River. It reaches its 

 best development in eastern North Carolina. 



Shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill. ) . 



Occurs from the eastern border of Texas to Anderson and Madison 

 counties, over an area of some 30,000 square miles. It occupies the 

 higher interior portion of the Lignitic formation north of the long- 

 leaf area. Large tracts of pure forest formerly existed in Marion, 

 Cass, and Bowie counties, but these have been largely cut out. Most 

 of the area now contains pine in mixture with post oak and other 

 upland oaks. It attains dimensions here equal to those in the region 

 of its best development 3 to 4 feet and more in diameter, and 70 to 

 90 feet high. The wood is heavy, hard, strong, and generally coarse- 

 grained, and is orange in color, with nearly white sapwood. As'limi- 

 ber it is inferior only to longleaf pine. 



