204 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



is generally the establishment of a stand dense enough to work at a 

 profit. A far more important limiting factor is the average size of 

 the timber. 



The available old-growth stands and the larger trees in the oldest 

 second-growth stands have been or are now being worked for turpen- 

 tine. As to future crops of naval-stores timber, almost all that is 

 known of the approximately 35 million acres of second growth is that 

 it includes stands generally varying in age from 1 to 30 years, and in 

 degree of stocking from 1/10 up. Little data are available, as to the 

 exact proportion of the various size classes of young growth, upon 

 which to base any reliable prediction of the supply of timber for 

 future operations. In many sections of the naval-stores belt there 

 seems to be a shortage in the 4-inch to 6-inch diameter classes, upon 

 which the gum industry must depend largely for its new cupping 

 material in the near future. It is generally believed that there may 

 be a lack of timber of turpentine size for a short while ahead, probably 

 the next decade. However, there is now growing in the naval-stores 

 belt a sufficiently large number of young trees in the 2-inch to 4-inch 

 diameter classes to maintain, when it has grown to workable size, an 

 industry of the present size. 



Thus, so far as permanence of timber supply is concerned, the 

 future of the gum naval stores industry seems assured, provided 

 that a sane policy of forest protection and management is followed. 

 There is sufficient land and there will be ample regrowth of the tim- 

 ber if nature is not handicapped by wholesale uncontrolled burning 

 in regeneration areas. Moreover, under improved methods of opera- 

 tion and timber management already known to the industry, the 

 timber when grown to workable size can be made to produce more 

 gum at smaller cost and with less loss of the residual lumber value 

 than under current methods. 



The possible shortage of timber suitable for cupping in the near 

 future is not a serious check to the industry as a whole, nor is it likely 

 to result in any material shortage of naval Stores products, even 

 temporarily. In the first place, a large surplus or accumulation of 

 stocks is already on hand and must be absorbed during the next few 

 years; in the second, the wood naval-stores industry may be capable 

 of increasing its output sufficiently to bridge whatever shortage may 

 develop in gum naval-stores production. The amount of pine stumps 

 and retort wood from which wood naval stores are derived appears to 

 be ample to meet the demands of this branch of the industry for years 

 to come. 



Character of ownership has had a very profound effect upon the 

 conduct of the industry. One of the great difficulties under which 

 the industry labors, in common with other natural-resource industries, 

 has been overproduction. The capital required to establish a tur- 

 pentine still is relatively small, and even a slight rise in the price of 

 naval stores has encouraged new stills to start operation. Studies by 

 the Southern Forest Experiment Station and other branches of the 

 Forest Service have thoroughly established the fact that the smaller 

 trees in a stand are turpentined at a loss. But it is almost impossible 

 to persuade a large number of small landowners that they will profit 

 by leaving their small timber un turpentined. If the timber were more 

 strongly held, the small trees would be kept off the market, and the 

 entire industry would profit in the long run. The factors who finance 



