48 



MISSISSIPPIS FOREST RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES 



Figure 49. — At the present rate oj use, the important wood naval stores industry can look forward to only a 10- to 15-year supply oj old-growth 



pine stumps. 



Other Products 



Producers of minor products with exacting timber 

 requirements — such as handle stock, ski stock, and 

 shuttle blocks — may have some difficulty in obtaining 

 adequate timber supplies. Their ability to get needed 

 timber may depend more on new growth in the par- 

 ticular species and quality required than on their 

 ability to compete with other users of timber. 



Fuel wood and minor timber items with unexact- 

 ing species and quality requirements do not face a 

 prospect of further decline on the basis of timber 

 supply. In fact, the forests of Mississippi are over- 

 supplied with those species, sizes, and grades not in 

 demand for major products. 



What Is the Outlook Under Improved 

 Management? 



The outlook for Mississippi's output of timber 

 products can be improved by more intensive timber 

 management. 



A moderate level of management can be visual- 

 ized — such as State-wide fire protection which would 

 hold average annual burn to one percent; cutting 

 practices which would build up and maintain the full 

 capacity of the land to produce timber on a fourth 

 of Mississippi's forest land (nearly a fourth of the 

 forest is held by forest-products fiiins and public agen- 

 cies alone) ; cutting practices which would impro\e 

 current productivity of the rest of the forest; and 

 planting on poorly stocked forest land. Such measures 

 would reverse the trend in Mississippi's forests. E\ cn- 

 tually, such manageinent as this might be enough to 

 raise the current annual growth of 1.8 billion board 

 feet by two-thirds and the current growth of 529 

 million cubic feet by one-half. 



If this level of management should be achieved, 

 it would result in much more income and employ- 

 ment in timber-products industries than Mississippi 

 now enjoys. Moreover, it would permit the State to 

 contribute its share toward meeting the long-range 



