The total amount of merchantable long-leaf pine now standing in the State is about 3,103,000,000 feet. The estimate of Mr. Kidder, of Wilmington, N. C., prepared for the United States Census Department, fixes the amount of timber, standing, on May 31, 1880, in the counties south of the Neuse river, at 5,229,000,000 feet. This, compared with the amount now standing in the same counties, shows a decrease of 2,000,000,000 feet in the amount of merchantable pine in thirteen and one-half years. At this rate of decrease in less than twenty years the long-leaf forests will be a thing of the past. The rate of decrease is, however, one of constant acceleration, since the yearly output of the mills is increasing and there is a much larger amount of abandoned orchard at the mercy of wind and fire.

At the end of twenty years there may remain scattered bodies of this pine remote from transportation facilities or too small to be profitably sawn, but there will be nothing more. The length of time the long-leaf pine will last can be stated with more certainty than in case of the loblolly pine, because in the case of the former there is no appreciable addition of merchantable timber from second growth woods.

The total amount of merchantable pine of all kinds (loblolly, long-leaf, short-leaf and savanna) in these Eastern North Carolina counties can be placed at about 8,200,000,000 feet, board measure.

The amount of standing swamp timber cannot be estimated with any degree of accuracy, since no average can be arrived at for the cut per acre, and only approximate figures can be gotten for the acreage. Cypress, for instance, will cut from 500 to 5,000 feet to the acre as a general thing, but numerous reports were made by trustworthy lumbermen of cuts running from 15,000 to 20,000 feet to the acre. There is a very wide range given for the amount of white cedar to the acre, but not so wide as that for cypress. The water oak and chestnut oak lands usually have a more uniform growth, and will cut from 1,500 to 3,000 feet to the acre. One of the chief difficulties connected with the handling of this oak, where such has been attempted, is that when green it has a greater specific gravity than water and cannot be floated out unless rafted with lighter woods. The same is true of the elm, hickory and much of the gum.

CHAPTER II.

THE WASTE LANDS OF EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA.

It is a very generally received opinion that the eastern part of North Carolina, especially that part covered with the long-leaf pine, is so densely wooded that for very many years at least there will be there not only an abundant supply of timber, but of a timber of the very finest quality. The long-leaf pine for nearly two hundred years has fully supplied all demands, not showing until very 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 thousands of acres as clean as if they had been placed under cultivation. The timber which suffered most was that on the highest and driest land, where the ground was covered beneath the trees with a thick growth of wire-grass (Aristida 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 lumbermen for an indefinite time. But this is not so. The fact that since 1873 the output of turpentine in this State has fallen off over 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 practically to nothing. This 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

pine barrens of the sand-hill regions. These barrens are dry and frequently form large tracts of rolling or even hilly land.

The first of these soils is not unproductive and is well adapted to agriculture; and as the original growth of long-leaf pine is removed from it the loblolly pine and a small growth of different kinds of oak, mostly the post, Spanish and black oaks, take its place. In the pine barrens, on the other hand, no oaks will flourish except two very small, worthless trees, the sand black-jack and the "barren" willow oak, and no pine except the long-leaf pine. Unless the soil has been previously cultivated the loblolly pine does not take posession of these lands, even when there are numerous trees of this species standing near by in wet places. From this it follows that when these high sandy lands are being stripped of their original growth of long-leaf pine, if its young growth is not allowed to develop, no tree of economic importance will naturally take its place. The sand black-jack oak in twenty years will have matured and begun to decay, while in that time a pine has only fairly begun its life, although its usefulness, even then, will be much greater than that of the more quickly maturing blackjack.

There are few uses to which the black-jack can be put. Its small size excludes it from being employed in construction; in contact with the soil it decays rapidly, and so is unfit for fence posts. It makes a very good fire-wood and is largely used for this purpose in Wilmington, Southport and other towns, and also in the country. Its bark is said to be valuable for tanning, but although the growth of this tree covers a very large area it is doubtful if the yield of bark per acre would be sufficient to make it of any commercial importance. The upland willow oak is even of less importance than the sand black-jack. While the presence of these trees is not pernicious, and is in fact much more beneficial to the land than would be a state of entire denudation of all forest growth, yet their growth is not near so valuable as that of the long-leaf pine, and the advantages arising from their presence are greatly inferior to those derived from a forest of the long-leaf pine of the For this reason every means should be taken to enable the long-leaf pine to regain a firm hold on all high sandy land

same age.

which has now on it no growth at all, or none of greater worth than the two oaks just referred to as growing on these lands.

SCARCITY OF TIMBER IN THE SAND-HILL REGIONS.

The exhaustion of the long-leaf pine forests is not a concern of the distant future alone,-something to be talked about and never to be realized. There are already localities, of limited area, to be sure, where there has never been a lumber mill, and with not onetenth of the land under cultivation, where there is not now sufficient timber to properly fence the fields. The district around White Hall, Bladen county, is such a one, and this place is in the very centre of the long-leaf pine belt. Here good pine for fencing has become so scarce that a "stock law" or "no fence law" has been secured by which all live stock is to be confined to the Cape Fear river bottom, and that alone, fenced in across a bend of the river. There are other localities in Bladen, Sampson and Cumberland counties with about the same proportion of land under cultivation that find it hard each year to secure rails necessary for fence repairs, and obtaining them becomes annually more difficult as the forests from which the material is procured diminish in size. It is usually the case that some tree succeeds this pine as it is gradually cut off or otherwise destroyed, and this tree is usually the sand black-jack, and it forms over the land where the pine has once been a thicket of low, scrubby trees, which in less than twenty years will die and be replaced by a similar growth.

Scattered among these scrubby oaks are frequently stunted, knotty long-leaf pines, with a thin, sickly foliage of yellowish green, which are permitted to stand because they are regarded as useless. There are also large tracts of land on many acres of which there are no pines at all, and others where the black-jack even has not succeeded in getting a foothold, wire-grass and a few bushes being the extent of the vegetation.

THE LARGER TRACTS OF BARREN LAND.

BLADEN COUNTY has its largest tract of this barren land in the northern part of the county, between the Cape Fear river on the

south and Black river on the north-east, extending eastward as far as Lion swamp and west nearly as far as Parkersburg. 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 longleaf 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 gently 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.