FOREST POLICY. 



pencil cedar, the latter of splendid quality on hummocks and bot- 

 tom land. Palmetto occurs everywhere on moist soil and aban- 

 doned fields as a weed. There is practically no echinata. 



(b) Southern section. The southern section has only one 

 pine, the Cuban pine, to show, which grows on sand dunes in the 

 Everglades. Cypress swamps prevail everywhere. Along the 

 coast and on the "Keys," the northern sentinels of the West 

 Indian tropical flora occur in small specimens. Their occur- 

 rence is commercially unimportant. Amongst them are mahog- 

 any and lance wood (Ocotea catesbyana Sarg.). 



4. Forest ownership: 113 lumber firms own 1,318,000 

 acres; balance of forests belong to State, federal government, 

 farmers and holders of old Spanish land grants. 



5. Use of timber: 368 saw mills of $16,588 average in- 

 vestment. Logs on stump worth $1.22, at mill $6.23. Value of 

 mill output was in 



1880 $ 3,100,000 



1890 5,500,000 



1900 10,800,000 



The cut in 1900 consisted of 



Cypress 110,000,000 feet b. m. 



Yellow pine 712,000,000 feet b. m. 



Hardwoods 2,000,000 feet b. m. 



Red cedar (Virginiana) output is not given by the 12th 

 census. The largest pencil cedar mills of the world exist at 

 Cedar Keys. Cypress is used for door, sash, shingles, fish and 

 syrup barrels; long leaf pine for railroad ties, car sills, trestle 

 bridge timbers, doors, blinds, flooring and general house build- 

 ing purposes, also for shingles. Value f. o. b. steamer, on an 

 average, now $14 per 1,000 feet b. m. (in 1895 only $9). 



Conservative lumbering has been practiced along the Gulf 

 coast by lumbermen for dozens of years, unknowingly, since only 

 prime stnmpage used to be convertible into lumber. Logging 

 was done in former days by canals (which in many cases were 

 20 miles long), dug as connections between trees, swamps and 

 water courses. 



No leather industry, although the mangrove (Rhizophora 

 mangle) forests of the tropical south might yield bark extremely 

 rich in tannin. 



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