FOREST RESOURCES OF NORTHEASTERN FLORIDA 



Naval Stores Aspects 



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THE gum naval stores industry obtains over 

 three-fourths of the United States production 

 of turpentine and rosin from the gum of long- 

 leaf and slash pines. The remainder is produced 

 by the wood naval stores industry through extrac- 

 tion from pine stumps and lightwood and as a by- 

 product of paper manufacture. During the latter 

 half of the Nineteenth century the gum naval stores 

 industry migrated south from the nearly exhausted 

 turpentine orchards of the Carolinas and estab- 

 lished its financial and export center at Savannah, 

 Ga. Later, in 1905, Florida assumed the lead in 

 production and maintained it for 18 years, devel- 

 oping the port of Jacksonville as its marketing 

 center. In 1923 Georgia regained the lead in pro- 

 duction and still retains it. Research for the naval 

 stores industry is conducted by the Southern Forest 

 Experiment Station, which maintains a branch at 

 Lake City specializing in gum naval stores prob- 

 lems, and by the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, 

 which has a naval stores experiment station at 

 Olustee, Fla. 



Gum Naval Stores Industry 



In 1934 more than 90 percent of the turpentine 

 and approximately 80 percent of the rosin produced 

 in northeastern Florida was produced by the gum 

 naval stores industry. This industry has been 

 responsible for much of the physical development 

 which has taken place. In 1933 gum naval stores, 

 with a value of more than $3,000,000, ranked second 

 among the products of the area. In number of 

 wage earners (almost 7,500) the industry ranked 

 first, and the total wages paid turpentine workers 

 exceeded all but those paid in the lumber industry. 

 In 1934 the industry required approximately 

 1,400,000 10-hour man-days of labor in the 



woods and nearly 80,000 man-days at the stills. 



Owing to the long periods over which loans are 

 required and the risk involved, banks hesitate to 

 serve the industry. As a result, the factorage sys- 

 tem has developed, which in 1934 served 85 percent 

 of the industry. Three factorage houses in Jack- 

 sonville serve practically all of the producers in 

 this section — lending money, furnishing commis- 

 sary supplies and equipment, and acting as com- 

 mission merchants in the disposal of the turpentine 

 and rosin to dealers. Since 1934 there has been 

 an extensive development of central stilling, includ- 

 ing the recently developed method known as "proc- 

 essed oleoresin," throughout the southeastern por- 

 tion of the naval stores belt. Farmers with a few 

 thousand trees of turpentine size need not now 

 lease them to an operator with a still, for they can 

 themselves produce gum and sell it to one of the 

 central stills or processed oleoresin plants. The 

 processing plant at Jacksonville is already drawing 

 heavily on northeastern Florida for the gum it re- 

 quires. This development tends to reduce the con- 

 trol of factors and may result in several radical 

 changes in the make-up of the gum naval stores 

 industry. 



In 1934 the 174 active stills in northeastern Flor- 

 ida made up 1 5 percent of the total number in the 

 South, but the 30 gum producers without stills 

 constituted less than 0.5 percent of their group. 1 

 All gum producers combined — less than 2 percent 

 of the total in the South — worked 2,240 crops (1 



1 The data in this paragraph and following are from a 

 still-to-still canvass made during 1934, part of the results of 

 which were issued informally in the following: Southern 

 Forest Experiment Station, statistics of gum naval 

 stores production. South. Forest Expt. Sta. Release 17. 

 December 31, 1935. 



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