With Compliments of 



CHAS. MOHR 





(Jv».V 



THE FORESTS OF ALABAMA, 



A.1&1D THEIR PRODUCTS 



CHARLES MOHR, OF MOBILE, ALABAMA. 





The, fifty thousand square miles which make up the area of 

 this State w^re, originally, a nearly unbroken forest — it may be said 

 up to the end of the first quarter of this century ; with the excep- 

 tion of a comparatively small area of prairie land, and grassy 

 savannas in the southern portion of its centre. According to the 

 latest statistics!, seven-tenths of this forest are still existing, 

 amounting to 20,630,963 acres; some of it culled of its largest 

 timber growth, but the greater part in its virgin state, scarcely 

 touched by the axe. One-half of the lands owned by the farmers 

 are yet wood lands. The heaviest timbered lands are found 

 in the southern part of the State within the great maritime pine 

 belt, where the forest area amounts to 66 per cent.; in the cen- 

 tral counties, situated in the prairie region and embracing the 

 cotton belt, it amounts to 45 per cent.; in the broken mountain- 

 eous part, embracing the mineral region and extending to the 

 waters of the Tennessee river, to nearly 70 per cent.; and in the 

 northern part, with the rich agricultural land in the Tennessee 

 valley, to 60 per cent. 



According to the distribution of the prevailng trees, determined 

 by climatic influences, the nature of the soil, and the topographic 

 features of the country, the forests of this State present 

 three characteristic regions. Distinct as they are by peculiar 

 features, their boundaries cannot be defined by a distinct line — 

 one region passing almost imperceptibly into the other. 



The first, or lower, region is formed by the great pine belt of 

 the Gulf coast— the continuation of the immense pine forest 

 which extends from the eastern bank of the Mississippi to the 

 shores of the Atlantic ocean. It covers the southern part, unin- 

 terruptedly, from east to west, and extends from one hundred to 



