est 
PERCENT OF COUNTY 
LAND AREA 
[Jo - 2 
Ficure 18.—Percent of land in commercial forest in Florida, by county, 1949. 
since the 1934-36 survey. For the State as a whole, 
commercial forest land decreased by 2 percent. In all 
but the central part changes have been less than 2 
percent. Here the 7-percent decrease—almost a half 
million acres—in commercial forest land is partially 
the result of land clearing for citrus, pasture, and 
other agricultural uses. In view of the growing de- 
mand for frozen citrus products, it is reasonable to 
expect a further reduction in forest acreage in Cen- 
tral Florida. The natural and artificial restocking of 
idle land in the Northeast could easily compensate for 
this loss, however, so no significant change in the — 
total commercial forest area of the State is probable 
in the near future. 
Pine Forests Most Abundant 
Florida has many different kinds of forest ]and — 
covered with a wide variety of forest types, but M 
nearly three-fourths of the forest is pine (table 8), 
with longleaf and slash the leading types. Potentially, — 
these pine lands can grow much greater quantities _ 
24 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture — 
