1 AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE OF TEXAS. 



Map 1, which accompanies this report, indicates in the shaded area the 

 location of the forty counties examined and should be useful in connec- 

 tion with the reading of the count}^ descriptions. The division into four 

 forest regions conforms to a general division of the State into forest 

 regions or belts (see Bulletin 3, Department of Forestry, College Station, 

 Texas, entitled "General Survey of Texas Woodlands"). The pine re- 

 gions, including the longleaf, shortleaf, and loblolly, have been for many 

 years, and still are, the chief sources of lumber and other forest products 

 in Texas. The southern boundary of the loblolly pine region marks the 

 transition from timberland to the open, grass prairies of the eastern Gulf 

 Coast. The line between the shortleaf pine and the post oak regions shows, 

 for the northern section only, the transition from the heavier pine and 

 hardwood forests of the East Texas Timber Belt to the scrubby, mixed 

 hardwood forests of East-Central Texas. Through all these forest regions 

 there are bottom lands which contain hardwood species of great variety 

 and value, much of which still remains to be cut. The swamps and bayous 

 which overflow throughout the year and contain cypress and tupelo are 

 not of great extent in Texas. They are located mostly in the eastern and 

 southern portions of the loblolly pine region. 



Essentially an agricultural region, the manufacture of forest products 

 in East Texas is so important as to rank third among all manufacturing 

 industries of Texas. Not less than 25,000 persons find employment in 

 the forest industries. Over large portions of the East Texas Timber Belt 

 lumbering has reached its zenith and declined. In other portions it is 

 now at its height and overshadows all other industries. At the present 

 time one-third of the total area consists of culled and cut-over timberlands, 

 nearly one-third is improved agricultural land, while the balance is made 

 up of virgin and second growth forest, pasture, waste, and overflowed 

 lands. 



CLASSIFICATION OF LANDS. 



A summary of the land classifications of the forty counties is as follows : 



Class of land. Acres, Per cent of total area. 



Virgin timber 2,916,000 14.1 



Second growth 1,720,000 8.3 



Culled and cut-over 7,758,000 37.4 



All other lands 8,332,340 40.2 



Total 20,726,340 100.0 



Virgin timber lands represent the areas where logging has not as yet 

 taken place. Records were available only for the larger and more com- 

 pact bodies of such timber. Scattered areas of small size could not be 

 determined. Map 2 shows in a general way the areas within which the 

 larger bodies of virgin timber, mostly yellow pine, are located in the 

 counties examined. 



Second growth lands are intended to represent those which have re- 

 stocked to a more or less merchantable stand, either from old fields or 

 from lands long ago logged, but where the trees in the original stand do 

 not to any great extent constitute the present stand per- acre. 



