growth have been completely worked out and the 

 exhausted timber removed. Longleaf and slash 

 pines are equally represented in the round timber. 

 In addition to about 17y 2 million round trees of 

 turpentine species 9 inches and larger in diameter 

 in the round-timber area (table 7), there are 11 0% 

 million in the sizes between 1 and 9 inches, more 

 than 15 million of which have already reached 7 

 inches. All of these round trees constitute the re- 

 serve growing stock, a large proportion of which 

 should with good forest management reach a suit- 

 able size for turpentining. Under current chipping 

 practices some trees under 9 inches are chipped. 

 Tt is believed, however, that the best general prac- 

 tice would be to refrain from chipping trees smaller 

 than 9 or 10 inches. 



Table 7. — Round turpentine pines 9 inches or larger in diameter 

 and turpentined pines in different conditions on the various areas 



Turpentining 

 history 



Round 

 trees 



Work- 

 ing 

 trees 



Rest- 

 ing 

 trees 



Work- 

 ed-out 

 trees 



All conditions 



Round-timber area . 



Working area: 



Front-faced 



Back-faced 



Resting and work- 

 ed-out areas 



Mtrees 

 17, 431 



801 

 1,028 



5,840 



M trees 



7,897 

 13,507 



M trees 

 432 



375 

 1,867 



13. 090 



Mtrees 

 176 



234 

 3,586 



8,547 



Mtrees 



18, 039 



9,307 



19, 988 



28.077 



Percent 

 23.9 



12.3 

 26.5 



37.3 



f 



25, 100 



21, 404 



16, 364 



12, 543 



75. 41 1 





TotaI-__ \ 



Percent 

 33.3 



Percent 

 28.4 



Percent 

 21.7 



Percevt 

 16.6 





100. 



WORKING TURPENTINE AREA 



The working turpentine area of nearly 1 ){ million 

 acres is well distributed. It is least concentrated in 

 the developed agricultural areas, where only scat- 

 tered blocks of timber remain. Several large opera- 

 tions are confined to old-growth timber in the Gulf 

 Coast counties for 3 or 4 years prior to logging, but 

 the bulk of production already comes from second 

 growth. Relatively few stands of old growth re- 

 main, and it will not be long before all turpentine 

 operations will be in second growth. 



On the working area, in addition to more than 20 

 million working trees at the beginning of the 1934- 

 35 season, more than 2 million were resting, and 

 nearly 4 million worked out. There were also more 

 than 1 % million round trees 9 inches in diameter or 

 larger, over 12^ million 7 and 8 inches, and 88^ 

 million between 1 and 7 inches, all of which form 



the nucleus for future operations in this area. More 

 than a third of the working trees were in front-faced 

 tracts, where they average 1 6 trees per acre as com- 

 pared with 15 per acre in the back-faced tracts. As 

 is to be expected, most of the resting (83 percent) 

 and of the worked-out trees (94 percent) were in 

 back-faced tracts (table 7). 



The number of cups hung on virgin or first-year 

 faces each year reflects (1) the replacement of faces 

 worked out in the previous season, and (2) the ex- 

 pectations of producers as to the demands of con- 

 sumers for the ensuing few years. After an area has 

 been worked for two or more periods of 6 years each, 

 the average number of potential faces per acre is 

 greatly reduced. Only operators with little over- 

 head, or small gum producers who handle only a 

 few thousand cups, can work these areas profitably. 



Large producers are willing to pay the higher 

 leasing costs necessary to operate in round timber, 

 because of its higher productivity per acre and con- 

 sequently lower unit cost of operation. The ac- 

 tivities of these larger producers are reflected in 

 the front-faced operations which are more sensitive 

 to changes in market conditions, actual or antici- 

 pated, than are back-faced operations. At the be- 

 ginning of the 1932-33 season, only 65 crops were 

 hung in front-faced areas as compared with nearly 

 211 crops for the 1934-35 season (table 8). The 

 former figure probably reflects anticipation of a 

 poor market; the latter figure was undoubtedly 

 influenced by the proposed program under the 

 Agricultural Adjustment Administration, adopted 

 in 1934, which resulted in limiting naval stores 

 production to certain-sized trees for the purpose of 

 promoting economic use and conservation of land 

 and diminution of unscientific use of soil resources. 



Altogether, about 22)4 million cups, over 60 per- 

 cent of which were on front faces, were worked 

 during the season of 1934-35. The proportion of 

 front faces ranged from 94 percent in front-faced 

 operations to only 40 percent in back-faced oper- 

 tions. In spite of the fact that a 9-inch or larger 

 diameter limit has been advocated for several 

 years, 24 percent of the working trees were below 

 this size. At the beginning of the 1934-35 season, 

 cups were hung on 26 percent of the 7- and 8-inch 

 round trees in the area converted into first-year 

 crops; and on 83 percent of the 9- and 10-inch, 96 

 percent of the 11- and 12-inch, and 100 percent of 



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