OUTLOOK IN TIMBER PRODUCTION 



47 



Figure 48. — The timber supply outlook Jor slack cooperage depends on how well producers can compete with lumbermen and other hardwood users 



of the same kind of timber. 



erage manufacture, but cooperage producers will have 

 to outbid lumbermen and other hardwood users for 

 raw material (fig. 48). Slack cooperage users are in 

 direct competition with other hardwood timber users 

 for much of their timber, both in regard to tree size 

 and tree quality. 



The outlook for tight cooperage is less favorable. 

 Some 1,200 million board feet of sawlog volume occurs 

 in species of the white oak group in trees 18 inches 

 d. b. h. and larger, but no more than 300 million feet is 

 in species and quality acceptable for tight cooperage 

 under present standards of utilization. In 1946, drain 

 of all oak (mostly white oak) for tight cooperage was 

 50 million board feet, or about a sixth of the currently 

 usable resource. Since other products also make in- 

 roads on the usable resource, there is a strong indica- 

 tion of short supply. 



Naval Stores 



The tremendous cut-back which occurred in Missis- 

 sippi's gum naval stores industry with the cutting out 



of the virgin longleaf and slash pine in the 1920's may 

 prove to be permanent. Despite technological im- 

 provements in naval stores operations in recent years, 

 not much longleaf and slash pine is chipped within the 

 State. The primary reason is that stands are not con- 

 sidered economical to operate under present conditions, 

 although there are other reasons such as the shortage 

 of skilled naval stores labor and the absence of a well- 

 developed market in the area. 



In regard to the wood naval stores industry based 

 on the use of stumps of old-growth longleaf and slash 

 pines, it is difllicult to see how this can be other than 

 a diminishing industry. The resource is estimated to 

 be roughly 6 million tons, which is a 10- or 15-year 

 supply at the present rate of use (fig. 49). Naval 

 stores produced from waste liquors as a byproduct of 

 pulp manufacture is another matter. As long as pulp 

 mills manufacture pulp products, there is little ques- 

 tion about their raw-material supply for a correspond- 

 ing output of naval stores byproducts. 



