Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1857-10-03

The YELLOW PINE FOREST OF THE SoUTH.
The rapid disappearance of the pine forest,
under the axe OF the planter and timber getters
OF the Southern States, known as the yellow pine
among shipbuilders, is beginning to attract the
attention of the public. This belt of forest runs
east and south Of a line drawn from the Chesa-
peake bay through Raleigh, in North Carolina;
Cheraw and Columbia in South Carolina, Au-
gusta, Macon, and Columbus, in Georgia Mont
gomery in Alabama. This line may be sand to
be the base of the Blue Ridge From this base
line stretching to the seaboard, over level or
gently undulatng country, but occasionally in
terspersed with oak and hickory, lies this great
pine belt Its width, save that tongue iutting
into Florida, may be estimated from seyenty-fye
to one hundred and fifty miles, but on-a width
OF from thirty 10 forty miles-the pines are scat
terng and OF stinted growth, and almost worth
less for commerce, save for turpentine; SO that
IL may be safely estimated that that portion of
the pine belt adapted for the cutting of timber
cannot exceed an average of more than seventy
five miles in width and Of this probably near one
half OF the forest, since the first settlement of
the country, has been deadened and the soil put
in cultivation.
1t is well known that the stronger and better
the SOIL the larger, longer and straighter are the
pines, and thousands OF acres of these pine for
ests are annually deadened by the planters for
the purpose of putting fresh land into cultiva-
ton, while the timber getters are culling and
cutting TOR commerce that which is within con-
venient distance for water carriage. Nor will
the planter desist from this wholesale destruction
of these forests until the value of the trees shall
be so enhanced as to make it an object for him
10 hold them for their value as lumber. Thus
will the forest continue rapidly to disappear un-
til it will be found, perhaps too late, that there
is scarcity OF this valuable timber, and which,
if ever replaced, will require centuries.
For more than quarter of a century the Uni
ted States government has been guarding and
projecting the live oaks that grow within a lin
lied distance Of the seaboard, and yet it is we'll
established fact that the live oaks are Of much
more rapid growth than the yellow pine. 1t has
been estimated by the timber-getters that large
pine, sufficient for the spars or beams of first
class ship, requires from two to three hundred
years to grow. The pine forest of Virginia, North
and South Carolina, which is within conven-
lent hauling distance to water carriage, is already
nearly exhausted. In Georgia, that which is on
the principal rivers has been culled for some
miles on either side of the streams, and timber is
now being hauled from ten to fifteen miles to
the Savannah river for shipment.
The French government at the present time
is having its orders for timber filed by trees cut
in Georgia, upon the rivers that flow into the
Gulf Of Mexico, and here the rafting of timber
for miles across the open bays to the points where
the shipping can come TO receive it renders il ex-
reedingly troublesome and expensive, and often
attended with the entire loss Of the RATS
With knowledge Of these facts, and doubt
less startled by the rapid destruction Of these
pine forests, our government has acted wlselyin
Withdrawing from sale (now for the first time)
,er pine lands which lie upon the Suwannee
liver, in Florida, with the view of holding them
or their lumber for the future use of her navy;
and it may now be seen--and perhaps too late
that this wise precaution should have been
taken years ago, by Withdrawing these pine lands
in Florida which arc situated upon The waters
that flow into the Atlantic Washington Union.