294 



Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



vides an excellent opportunity for 

 equipment research to develop a me- 

 chanical hack. Although there is always 

 room for improving the equipment 

 used in bark chipping and acid treat- 

 ment, the major drawback to use of 

 the new techniques by untrained labor- 

 ers is the shortage of men to show them 

 how. Leaders of the industry are re- 

 ceptive, but the solitary chipper in the 

 turpentine woods is the man who must 

 be trained in the new methods of work. 



RESEARCH ON THE EQUIPMENT and 

 mechanization has been started in re- 

 sponse to a plea from industry. The 

 mechanization of competing industries, 

 such as the harvesting of pulpwood and 

 of pine stumps for wood naval stores, 

 has left the gum naval stores industry 

 behind. Except for the introduction of 

 bark chipping and acid treatment, the 

 hand methods used in producing crude 

 gum have been unchanged for decades. 



The first step in the research was 

 to meet the rather rigorous needs for 

 a shatterproof, acidproof, one-hand 

 spray device for applying sulfuric acid. 

 This need appears to have been met 

 for the present by the introduction of 

 a sprayer having a bottle made of rub- 

 berlike plastic. A simple squeeze on the 

 bottle delivers a spray with a minimum 

 of manipulation. Research has been 

 started on a combined chipping and 

 spraying device that will add further 

 to the simplicity of acid treatment of 

 the faces. 



The development of strains of pine 

 of superior gum-yielding capacity, 

 grown in adequately stocked planta- 

 tions, is expected to bring the greatest 

 improvement in the long run in effi- 

 ciency of gum harvesting. The parallel 

 between the possibilities of such planta- 

 tions of southern pines and existing 

 plantations of superior strains of rub- 

 ber and fruit trees is evident. 



Research on the selection, vegetative 

 propagation, and selective breeding of 

 high-yielding naval stores pines was 

 started several years ago. Select strains 

 thus far isolated promise to provide at 

 least two times the present yield per 



tree; they could be grown in planta- 

 tions containing 200 or more workable 

 trees to the acre in place of the present 

 average of 20 or 30 faces to the acre in 

 wild stands. Improvements in growth 

 rate and other tree characteristics can 

 also be expected from research in this 

 field. 



In respect to the timber supplies and 

 methods of processing and marketing, 

 the industry is now in a favorable posi- 

 tion to progress. The chief problems 

 in the production phase are to raise 

 the efficiency of gum harvesting by 

 improvements of techniques, to grow 

 adequately stocked forests, and to fit 

 turpentining into its proper place in 

 good forest management. 



PROGRESS IN TIMBER MANAGEMENT 

 has been spotty. By far the largest part 

 of the original 58 million acres in the 

 naval stores belt was covered with 

 stands of longleaf pine, intermingled 

 with slash pine in the ponds and low 

 places. After the exploitation of the old 

 growth, new stands in the eastern part 

 of the belt had a great deal more slash 

 pine and will have more and more as 

 fire protection is extended. On the 

 driest soils, where longleaf pine oc- 

 curred with low-quality oaks, the oaks 

 are now taking over. The longleaf pine 

 was culled out of these stands, and 

 often did not reproduce itself. On the 

 better soils in the western part, longleaf 

 pine is most at home and will continue 

 to be the major crop. 



The first logging, in the northeastern 

 part of the belt, was not very close, and 

 enough seed trees were usually left to 

 provide for restocking. The western 

 and southern parts were logged later 

 with large equipment. They were cut 

 much closer, were often burned, and 

 vast areas did not reseed. They still 

 present a tremendous planting job. 



However, it is the wise management 

 of the crop of second growth that is 

 the major topic of this discussion. 



Where fires are controlled and a seed 

 source is present, slash pine seeds in at 

 a surprisingly rapid rate. A dense young 

 stand of slash pine usually benefits 



