110 A STUDY OF FOREST CONDITIONS 



usually badly injured by fire and often blown down, so 

 turpentining is most profitable when it can be started 

 three or four years before logging begins. 



The Femwood Lumber Company turpentines its hold- 

 ings about Tylertown, Pike County. There are also stills 

 located in the northern part of the county and in Amite 

 County. The largest operations in southwestern Mis- 

 sissippi are located in this region. The cup and gutter 

 system is used extensively, though operators complain 

 that the metal cups and gutters corrode and cause a dis- 

 coloration of the resin, which reduces its grade. Malicious 

 persons, and cattle, frequently knock off the cups. Much 

 less injury, however, is done to the trees when the metal 

 cups and gutters are used. 



While the injury to lumber, which often results in low- 

 ering the grade of certain boards, and sometimes in butting 

 off the first logs, is considerable, the profits from turpen- 

 tine orcharding, in conjunction with lumbering operations, 

 greatly overbalances the loss in lumber. 



Tie Production. — Tie production is an important in- 

 dustry in southwestern Mississippi. In the longleaf belt, 

 heart pine ties have been cut and used for many years, and 

 many railroads use no other ties. But with the increase 

 in the value of longleaf timber and the successful treatment 

 of old field pine with creosote, the tie industry in the State 

 is taking possession of the old field areas in the western 

 counties, where the hauls to the railroad do not exceed 

 four or five miles. 



Loblolly and shortleaf pines are the principal trees 

 used for ties in this section, though occasionally hardwoods 

 of nearly every species are cut also. Timber for this pur- 

 pose is largely second growth, since old growth is, for the 

 most part, too far from the railroad to be cut into ties, and 

 where close, it is usually too valuable for lumber. In good 

 bodies of old field pine 250 ties per acre can be obtained, but 

 from the immature stands, such as are usually cut, a yield 

 of 50 to 100 ties per acre is more common. Probably 

 more ties are now being sawed than hewed, and the pro- 

 portion of sawed ties will no doubt increase owing to the 



