THE PINE-BARREN REGION. 



37 



Sampson county. — The oak lands of Sampson lie in the north- 

 ern part of the county and are covered with a growth of young 

 white and post oaks. There are no large bodies of water or chest- 

 nut oak flats. The cypress and gum swamps lie in narrow strips 

 along Black river and Big and Little Cohary creeks. The unlum- 

 bered cypress lands cover about 3,800 acres, and about an equal 

 area has been cut over to obtain timber for the Wilmington mar- 

 ket. The long-leaf pine lies chiefly in the southern and central 

 parts of the county. The standing pine amounts to about 330,- 

 000,000 feet. The loblolly pine, largely second growth, is scat- 

 tered through all sections of the county and occupies about 35,000 

 acres. This county has for many years furnished a large part of 

 the timber that is carried to Wilmington. 



Richmond county. — The larger portion of this county may be 

 described as being typical sand-hill country, the surface being 

 undulating and even hilly, and the soil sandy; the sand often 

 being many feet deep. In the extreme western part there is along 

 the Pee Dee a narrow strip of alluvial swamp, heavily timbered 

 with red, overcup and chestnut oaks, red maple and hickory. In 

 the eastern part of the county there are white cedar, gums and 

 €ypress of inferior quality along the streams. The long-leaf pine 

 which covers the remainder of the county has, over the larger 

 areas, been removed when adjacent to the railroads. Lumbering- 

 is, however, largely carried on in 'the northern part of the county 

 at the present time, and extensive bodies of timber still remain 

 there and in the eastern section. There remains probably 220,000,- 

 000 feet of standing long-leaf pine. 



Moore county lies north of Richmond and has in the southern 

 part, along the sand hills, a similar soil and topography. This 

 section, embracing the southern two-thirds of the county, is cov- 

 ered with long-leaf pine and is the seat of the largest long-leaf 

 pine industry in the State at the present time. In the middle 

 portion of the county, where the soil is more loamy, there is con- 

 siderable post oak and small hickories mixed in with the pine 

 along the hill-sides and yellow poplars and a few loblolly pines 

 along the lowlands. The northern third of the . county has a 

 loamy soil covered with a growth of hardwoods mixed with long- 



