The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1888-09-28
FLORIDA'S LUMBER.

ELUhADA>S DEhs
First on the list of State productions
we place lumber, as it holds at present
the first rank among the industries OF
Florida, whether we consider the amount
Of capital involved, the value of the
material produced, or the extent
of the resources from which it is
drawn. 1t can be asserted with conf
dence that over no other State in the
Union is valuable timber so extensively
and uniformly distributed, and ere long
the lumber business of this State will
rival in extent that of any other. Within
the last few years the manufacture Of
lumber has received here an enormous
impetus, consequent upon knowledge
and recognition of the vast timber re-
sources of the State, and now the trade
begins to assume gigantic proportions,
with an almost unlimited power of ex-
pansion. When any one contemplates
in the light of knowledge, the astonish-
ing wealth of the State in timber, the
question at once arises, Why has it re-
NAMED so long almost untouched, and
less favored portions of the country
sought after f0f the supply of lumber?
1t is by no means an exaggerated esti-
mate when we put the heavy pine forest
in the State as covering an area of thirty
sources of the State in this may be said
to be almost inexhaustible, and the quality
of the lumber is attested by the fact that
it commands in market ten per cent more
than that of any other section. The
highly deserved reputation of the pine
lumber furnished by the pine forests of
Florida is attracting the attention of cap
italists in all parts of the country; and
besides those already Established
of the mills being gigantic-other firms
are starting in and going extensively into
this business. Florida has now an i'm
mense home and foreign lumber trade;
her exports in this one branch amounting
to about twenty million dollars per an
mum. The finest pine forests are to be
found in West and Middle Florida.
Santa Rosa, Walton, Washington, Frank
lin, Leon, Wakulla, Gadsden, Jefferson
Talyor, and Holmes counties being COW
cred with a growth of the best yellow pine
timber to be found on the continent.
There are thousands of acres of finely
timbered pine lands still open for pur-
chase in these and other counties of Flor
ida, at from 1925 to IS per acre. These
lands will average about twenty trees to
the acre that are fit for cutting into saw
logs, and each tree will average 500 feet Of
lumber, board measure. This gives TO-
00o feet of lumber per acre, which at only
$12 per thousand feet would amount to
1920. The total cost of cutting logs,
hauling to mill, saving, etc., would not
cost over 50 per thousand feet; but say
we put this at Sc, and we have still net
of $50 from each acre of the land and
shat land then ready for cultivation.
These figures are not unreasonable, but
suppose we divide the net from lumber by
half and we still have $50 from an acre of
land that cost say IS, and after the tim
Der is all cut the land is worth more to
settler who wishes to engage in farm
ing and can be sold to him at handsome
profit. Thus it will be seen what grand
chance for speculation lies open in the
timbered lands of Florida but all these
lands are being rapidly bought up, and
we will not have to look very far into the
dim and misty future before every acre
will be taken up and in the hands of cap
italists and millmen.
Florida also produces excellent spar
timber and various hard woods of high
value. The cedar swamps of Florida are
at the present time supplying most of the
pencil manufactures on this continent,
while the immense quantities of cypress to
be found scattered all over the peninsula
promise to furnish the most desirable rail-
road ties that can be found. Then, for
manufacture of furniture, sashes, blinds,
wagons and woodenware of every descrip-
ton, there is an unlimited supply of red
bay, cherry, white oak, ash, birch, hick-
DRY, gum, elm, and number. of other
equally valuable species of timber. No
State in the Uaion is as we'll timbered as