46 



FORESTS, FOREST LANDS AND FOREST PRODUCTS. 



south and Black river on the north-east, extending eastward as far 

 as Lion swamp and west nearly as far as ]^arkersburg. It is about 

 18 miles long and from 4 to 10 miles broad, and has almost 70,000 

 acres of waste land in it. There are on it, however, a few bodies 

 of pine in excellent condition, which either have not been boxed, 

 or if boxed have been carefully protected ; but for the most part 

 it is covered with a scanty growth of sand black-jack, beneath 

 which there is a great deal of densely tufted wire-grass, though in 

 places there are only lichens and moss on the ground, or sometimes 

 stretches of dazzling white sand. Here and there are small long- 

 leaf pines, exhausted by the continued boxing. 



In depressions where the soil is wet there are gallberry " bays in 

 which are a few savanna pines, but there is no loblolly pine except 

 bordering the larger streams. These streams having loblolly pine 

 along their banks are the Black and Cape Fear rivers. Colly swamp, 

 Johns and Turnbull creeks. Colly swamp and Johns creek have 

 in places a rich deep soil, formed of a fine silt largely mixed with 

 organic matter, and could be easily drained. The drainage of Colly 

 swamp for agricultural purposes is now being undertaken and it is 

 probable that most of the swamp land will ultimately be drained, 

 since it is much more fertile than the sand-barren uplands. This 

 will mean, of course, the removal of the swamp timber. Although 

 these streams have loblolly pine along their courses, its seed has 

 never produced a young growth on any of the neighboring high 

 sandy land; so that when the swamp timber is exhausted there will 

 in reality be a dearth of building material throughout this region. 

 The long-leaf pine timber from the tract was largely taken off to 

 supply the mills at Wilmington, though much of it has been 

 destroyed by fires. Even now some long-leaf pine timber, of an 

 inferior quality, is obtained from here. 



The surface of the land is gentl}^ rolling; the soil is nearly pure 

 sand, with a small percentage of other mineral matter in it, and the 

 subsoil, which is a light yellow sandy loam, lies too deep beneath 

 it (from 8 to 15 feet below the surface) to be reached by the roots 

 of trees. Generally, there is no humus, the constant fires burning 

 off the leaves and dead grass soon after they become dry. There 

 are in Bladen county several smaller tracts of waste land, which 

 lie south of the Cape Fear river. 



