FOREST RESOURCES OF TEXAS 



THE FOREST. 



NATURAL CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE CHARACTER AND DIS- 

 TRIBUTION OF FOREST GROWTH IN TEXAS. 



Within the State of Texas the natural conditions on which depend 

 the range and make-up of the forest are of the most diverse character. 

 In geographical position, its southernmost point lies almost in the edge 

 of the Tropics, while its far northern portions are within the wheat 

 and corn belt of the Middle Western States. Its climate varies from 

 the even warmth of the coast lowlands, tempered by the ameliorating 

 influences of the Gulf, to the rigors and extremes of the mountainous 

 interior, and from the heavy rainfall and moisture-laden air of the 

 east to the arid conditions of the western desert, with its dry, burn- 

 ing winds. In relief, the State rises from the sea level by diversified 

 terraces to high plains 4,000 or 5,000 feet above the Gulf, and then to 

 nigged mountains of the continental axis, which attain an elevation 

 of nearly 10,000 feet. This vast terraced area has been further 

 diversified by extensive erosion, which has carved and transported 

 and built up again. The geological structure has resulted in the 

 formation of soils of such divergent types as the alluvial bottomlands 

 of the Gulf coast, the waxy loams of the prairies, and the wooded 

 highlands and broken masses of the Plateau and Cordilleran Region. 

 Corresponding to these differences in environment, the State presents 

 a variety of forest types which passes from the swamp and bayou for- 

 est of east Texas, essentially the same with that of the States which 

 border the lower Mississippi, through the great timber territory of 

 the longleaf pine on the south, and to the north the no less extensive, 

 though less valuable, region of the post oak, to the chaparral and 

 mesquite of the Rio Grande Plain, and to the stunted bull pine and 

 red fir of the summits and high canyons of the extreme west. 



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