CHAPTER II. 



THE WASTE LANDS OF EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA. 



It is a very generally receiyed opinion that the eastern part of 

 North Carolina, especially that part coyered with the long-leaf 

 pine, is so densely wooded that for yery many years at least there 

 will be there not only an abundant supply of timber, but of a tim- 

 ber of the yery finest quality. The long-leaf pine for nearly two 

 hundred years has fully supplied all demands, not showing until 

 yery recently the least sign of failing. During the period between 

 1860 and 1870 the timber of the "pine barrens" was treated in a 

 most reckless manner, and the fires which passed through them 

 left traces which will last for many years to come, burning thou- 

 sands of acres as clean as if they had been placed under cultiya- 

 tion. The timber which sufi'ered most was that on the highest 

 and driest land, where the ground was covered beneath the trees 

 with a thick growth of wire-grass {Aristidd stricta Mx.) and such 

 broom grasses as grow on dry, sandy soil {Andropogon tener Kunt. 

 and A. Elliottii Chap.). 



The 3,100,000,000 feet, of merchantable long-leaf pine still 

 standing might seem to be sufficient to last for building and 

 fence material in districts not readily accessible to large lum- 

 bermen for an indefinite time. But this is not so. The fact 

 that since 1873 the output of turpentine in this State has fallen 

 ofi* oyer one-half, which of itself gives a very vivid idea of the 

 number and extent of the turpentine orchards that have been 

 abandoned, shows that it is now only a question of a few years 

 before the turpentine yield will be reduced ]3ractically to nothing. 

 Tills will mean that all the orchards have been abandoned, and it 

 will be only a short time after their being abandoned before the 

 destruction of the timber takes place, either by fire or by its being 

 blown down, or by the two agencies combined. 



The greater part of the dry upland soils of the pine belt are of 

 two kinds : (1) the sandy loam soils of the level piney lands, and 

 (2) the sandy soil, of nearly pure deep sand, characteristic of the 



