196 ECONOMIC BOTANY OF ALABAMA. 



roads and manufacturing towns in proportion to area, 

 but IB is a close second, with 7 and 12 not far behind. 

 Next to the two almost uninhabited regions, 14 and 15, 

 which are not mentioned in the table, 6B, 2B, 13, 2A and 

 6A have the most forest and the sparsest population, ap- 

 proximately in the order named. 



The number of sawmills per square mile is greatest in 

 the three divisions of the central pine belt, 6A to 6C, and 

 least in 7, 2A and 2B. In proportion to amount of wood- 

 land, however, mills are most numerous in 6A, 3 and IB, 

 and least in 2A, 2B and 11. In proportion to population 

 the number of mills is greatest in 6B, 6A and 13 (ex- 

 cluding Mobile), and least in 7, 12 and 2B. The total ca- 

 pacity of sawmills in proportion £o area, amount of wood- 

 land, and population is greatest in 6B, next in 13, third 

 in 6A, and least in 2A. (Region 9 would doubtless figure 

 in most of the sentences of this paragraph as having a 

 well-developed sawmill industry in proportion to popula- 

 tion if it was large enough for any accurate calculations 

 to be made for it.) 



In general the fundamental cause of the difference in 

 degree of development of the lumber industry in differ- 

 ent parts of the state can be traced back pretty directly 

 to geology and soil, although some other more or less in- 

 dependent factors influence the problem to some extent, 

 as already pointed out in some of the regional descrip- 

 tions. 



Although the statistical tables a few pages farther on 

 (Appendix E) give lumber production only for the whole 

 state, a rough approximation to the output for each re- 

 gion may be obtained by multiplying the total quantity 

 or value by the percentages in the last column of the 

 foregoing table, for it is reasonable to assume that in a 

 given area the total production of lumber is proportional 

 to the aggregate capacity of the sawmills. It would 

 hardly be worth while to try to estimate the output of 

 any particular species in each region in this way, though, 

 for the relative abundance of the species varies too much 

 in different regions. 



