Texas Almanac, 1945-1946 Page: 147
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Plant Life Resources of Texas
The flora of any region, during its early
development, profoundly influences its eco-
nomic and social development. This has been
especially true of Texas, and, furthermore,
the influence has been peculiarly permanent.
This is because Texas, as part forest and
part plains state, has had the heritage of the
economic benefits and influences of both the
forest and the livestock range.
The forests and woodlands furnished the
early settler materials for his pioneer home,
barns and the fences with which to enclose
his holdings; they furnished fuel and protec-
tion from the elements, and sheltered the
wild animal life on which pioneer white men
partly depended for subsistence. Above all,
the pine and post oak timbers of East Texas
furnished a physical environment that was
homelike to the folk from the Old South, and
thereby stimulated the early settlement of
Texas.
Later the pine forests of East Texas fur-
nished the materials for Texas' first great
manufacturing industry. In the early decades
of Texas' industrial development the lumber-
ing industry was as great, proportionately, as
is the petroleum refining industry today. It
is still one of the big manufacturing indus-
tries of the state, and the rapidly growing
trees of Texas are of vast potential signifi-
cance in the coming era of chemical industry.
Economic Value of Grasses.
As great as has been the influence of the
forests, that of the grasses has been greater.
The nutritious grasses that covered the
boundless prairies made cattle raising so
simple a matter that an early newcomer
wrote back home that "it costs in Texas to
raise a cow about what it does a chicken."
From these grassy plains millions of cattle
went up the long trails to slaughter in north-
ern packing plants and to stock the vast
ranges of the Northwest. Today Texas' na-
tive grasses in the form of beef, milk, butter,
mutton, wool, mohair and other livestock
products bring a large part of the Texas
come.
In many other ways the native plant life
has contributed directly to Texas' economic
well-being-through the pecan crop which
comes largely from native trees, the wild
hays cut for market, wild flowers and shrubs
such as the huajillo and catclaw which help
give Texas its reputation for fine honey.
In addition to the direct contribution of
Texas' native plant life to the state's income,
is its possibly greater indirect contribution as
conserver of soils, regulator of stream flow
and provider of cover for wild life, and scenic
beauty for the establishment of parks and
the enjoyment of mankind generally.
The variety of soils and physical and clima-
tological conditions has resulted logically in
a plant life characterized by great variety
and interesting contrasts. Testimony to the
truth of this statement is found in the large
number of eminent scientists who were drawn
to Texas at an early date by the reputation
of both its flora and its fauna. There was
at least one scientific collecting expedition
into Texas prior to the coming of Austin's
colonists. A few years later Jean Louis Ber-
landier and Thomas Drummond, Swiss and
Scot, respectively, braved the rigors of the
Texas frontier to send back thousands of
specimens of Texas plant life even before the
first gun of the Texas Revolution was fired.
Since that time hundreds of nationally and
internationally known scientists have studied
the flora of Texas. Today some of the world's
greatest museums of plant and animal life
prize their Texas collections.
Plant Life Regions.
The native plant-life belts of Texas are
shown by map and described briefly on
page 146. These belts are defined according
to their soil and climate characteristics which
in some instances produce a single dominantform of plant life, as in the Pine Belt of
East Texas. In others, natural conditions are
such that a zone or belt is defined by the
character of the variety of plant life that it
produces. According to a somewhat different
standard of classification, the plant life of
Texas can be divided into three parts: first,
forests and woodlands, second, the brush-
lands, and, third, the grasslands. Texas is
unique among the states in the large percent-
age of its surface that is in the intermediate
brush vegetation. (See G, H. and I, and also
last two paragraphs on p. 146.)
Forests and Woodlands.
The principal forest and woodland belts of
Texas that can be defined fairly definitely
are as follows.
1. The Pine Belt of East Texas. (D on
map.)
2. The Post Oak Belt lying immediately
west of the pine belt with Its extension along
the Red River and thence southward in the
East Cross Timbers. (E on map.)
3. The West Cross Timbers, a secondary
post oak belt. (J on map.)
4. The Cedar Brakes. (Southeastern and
eastern portions of the area marked I on
map, and with an extension northward into
Coryell, Bosque, Somervell and Hood Coun-
ties.)
5. The Trans-Pecos Mountain Timbers, in-
cluding the mountain sides and high valleys
of the Chisos, Davis, Guadalupe and other
mountains producing pine, oak, fir and juni-
per, principally. (N on map )
6. The Mesquite Belt extending from the
Rio Grande plain northward across the Ed-
wards Plateau into North Central Texas and
eastward into the Blackland Prairies in a few
places. (H, G, I and southeast part of K.)
East Texas Pine Belt.
The pine and hardwood forests (the "Piney
Woods") of East Texas constitute by far the
most important of the timber areas. Cover-
ing all or large part of thirty-six counties.
the area includes about 22,000,000 acres, of
which about one half is now timberlands, the
remainder having been converted to agricul-
ture and other commercial and industrial
purposes. (See "Pines" in list beginning on
p. 154.)
East Texas Forest Types and Conditions.
The main forest types found within the
East Texas pine and hardwood belt have been
classified as follows, according to the recently
completed forest survey figures released by
* the Southern Forest Experiment Station
Pct. of
Type- Acres Total
Longleaf pine ................. 931.000 9
Shortleaf-loblolly pine........... 6,326.000 60
Upland hardwoods ............. 1.422.000 13
Bottom-land hardwoods......... 1,874,000 18
Total all types ............. 10,553,000 100
These forests are characterized by second-
growth timber, which, although they do not
have the high quality of the original old-
rowth stands, are of sufficiently good qual-
ty to supply most market needs. Their con-
dition as determined by the forest survey,
above mentioned, follows'
Condition and Acreage.
Reproduc-
*Old Second tion and
Growth Growth Clear Cut
Type-- (Acres). (Acres). (Acres).
Longleaf pine ... 128,000 513,000 290,000
Shortleaf-loblolly
pine . 375,000 5,825,000 126,000
Upland hardwoods 259.000 1,051,000 112,000
Bottom-land hard-
woods .......... 698,000 1,138,000 38,000
Total .........1,460,000 8,527,000 566,000
Pet. of total 14 81 5
*Old growth includes remaining areas of virgin
timber and areas cut over lightly in the past but
which now have essential characteristics of virgin
47stands.
17
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Texas Almanac, 1945-1946, book, 1945; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117166/m1/149/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.