The Southern Forest. A Chronicle. 1991. 4 maps. 2 tabls. numerous black&white photos. IX, 322 p. gr8vo. Hardcover.

When the first European explorers reached the southern shores of NorthAmerica in the early seventeenth century, they faced a solid forest thatstretched all the way from the Atlantic coast to eastern Texas andOklahoma. In chapters on the explorers, pioneers, lumbermen,boatbuilders and foresters, Laurence Walker chronicles the constantdemands that people have made on forest resources in the South. He showshow the land's very abundance became its greatest liability, as peopleoverhunted the animals, clearcut the forests, and wore out the soil withunwise farming practices - all in a mistaken belief that the forest'sbounty (including new ground to be broken) was inexhaustible.