14 



FORESTS, FOREST LANDS AND FOREST PRODUCTS. 



AREA UNDER CONSIDERATION. 



The area examined embraces thirty-eight eastern counties and 

 the eastern parts of six more, being what is usually termed the 

 long-leaf pine belt in North Carolina. This is the "coastal plain 

 region" of the geologists, which extends inland from the coast a 

 distance of one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles and has 

 in this State an aggregate area approximating 24,000 square miles. 

 Its western border, separating the hill country from the coastal 

 plain region, may be described as an irregular line extending 

 through the western part of Halifax and the south-eastern part of 

 Franklin count}^ passing near Raleigh and Gary to northern Mont- 

 gomery and eastern Anson counties. Its surface is that of a gently 

 undulating plain, of less elevation (ten to twenty feet above 

 tide) and of a more nearly level surface eastward, becoming 

 more elevated (three hundred to five hundred feet) and rolling 

 along its western border. Its soil is generally a sandy loan* or 

 sand, though in limited areas clay predominates. In the more 

 eastern portion of this region are numerous extensive swamps or 

 marsh areas surrounding, in some cases, small lakes and bordering 

 streams. In some of these the soil is mainly an admixture of sand 

 and vegetable mold, while in others it is a fertile loam. The soil 

 of the western portions of this region, north of the Neuse river, 

 varies considerably, but is ordinarily a loam, becoming sandy 

 or gravelly in some places and clayey in others,- while south of 

 Neuse river the sand predominates, and there are numerous ele- 

 vated, dry, sandy ridges on which only the long-leaf pine and the 

 sand black-jack oak flourish. 



KINDS OF GROWTH. 



The timber over the entire section is, on the highlands, largely 

 of two species of pine, one, the loblolly pine {PinusTaeda L.), more 

 confined to the counties north of the Neuse I'iver and to the moister 

 soil ; the other, the long-leaf pine {Pinus palustris Mill.), to those 

 south of this river and to the drier, more sandy soil. Beneath 

 these trees, where the soil is not too dry and sandy, is a lower 



