204 ECONOMIC BOTANY OF ALABAMA. 



liottii. The production seems to have passed its climax 

 in Alabama, owing largely to the recent rapid destruc- 

 tion of the long-leaf pine forests by farmers, as ex- 

 plained in the foregoing pages, but at the same time it 

 is extending farther inland, into regions where the long- 

 leaf pine is so scattered that its exploitation would not 

 have been profitable a few years ago. Up to the close 

 of the last century turpentine stills in Alabama were 

 chiefly confined to those regions where long-leaf pine 

 constituted more than 25% of the original forests; 

 namely 6b, 12, 13, and parts of no. 10. But they are 

 now in operation as far inland" as Tuscaloosa, Chilton, 

 Coosa and Randolph Counties.* 



Conclusion. — In descriptions of the forest resources of 

 a state or nation it has long been customary to estimate 

 the amount of standing timber, the rate of consumption, 

 and the normal annual growth., and from these data to 

 predict how long the forests will last. The information 

 at hand is not sufl'iciently trustworthy to allow us to 

 make such predictions for Alabama with any degree of 

 accuracy, and even if it was, it would hardly be worth 

 while to do so, on account of changes in economic con- 

 ditions which are continually taking place and upsetting 

 calculations. 



No doubt our forests are being cut at the present time 

 somewhat faster than they are growing; and yet the 

 time set for their exhaustion is continually receding into 

 the future. On page 120 it was pointed out that the end 

 of our great long-leaf pine forests, predicted as imminent 

 a generation ago, is not yet in sight. Mr. Hu Max- 

 well, in his recent article on the timber resources of the 

 South (referred to in a footnote on page 30), which is 



*0n Feb. 4, 1913, I saw a few barrels of rosin at the L. & N. de- 

 pot in Talladega, but did not learn where they originated. 



For additional information about this industry the reader is re- 

 ferred to the following:— Tenth Census U. S. 9:516-518, 529-530, 

 1884; L. W. Robarts, Pop. Sci. Monthly 30:829-831, April 1887; L. 

 J. Vance, same 48:469-480, Feb. 1896; Mohr 5 or 6 (pp. 67-72); 

 and a much more recent paper by Dr. C. H. Herty (the in- 

 ventor of the cup-and-gutter system) on "The past, present and 

 future of the naval stores industry," published in the proceedings 

 of the Eighth International Congress of Applied Chemistry, vol. 

 12, 1912, and in the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific So- 

 ciety for December, 1912 (vol. 28, pp. 117-130). 



