In 1962, the timberland area in the South reached a 
postwar peak of 197 million acres. Since then, the area of 
timberland has once again declined. Nevertheless, in 1985 
timberland still comprised about 182.2 million acres, or 55 
percent of the total land area of the South (app. table 1.1). 
The major causes of the recent decline in timberland areas 
have been new clearings for cropland and pasture and con- 
tinuing expansion of urban and other nontimber uses. 
32 
Commercial Uses of the Southern Forest 
The commercial utilization of the southern forest has a long 
history, beginning in the colonial era. Early settlers soon 
discovered the profitability of gum naval: stores extracted 
from pines near the coast of the Carolinas. The industry 
also received a boost in 1705, when England offered 
bounties to colonial producers to increase naval stores 
production and free the British Navy from its dependence 
on supplies from Baltic countries. Like most extractive 
industries, naval-stores producers performed little proces- 
sing and mainly exported gum rather than rosin and 
turpentine. The industry grew slowly until the 1840’s, 
when new producers began operations in Georgia, Florida, 
and the Gulf States. 
Extracting gum or pitch is hard on tapped trees. Until the 
early 1900’s, workers cut deep boxes in young trees to 
gather the gum that dripped down, but the process almost 
always destroyed the tapped tree by admitting disease and 
insects and by reducing resistance to windstorms. Custom- 
ary annual burnings to ‘‘green up the grass’’ frequently de- 
stroyed the “‘turpentine orchards’’ as well as other forests. 
In 1901, the destructive methods of tapping and the deple- 
tion of resources prompted a young chemist, Charles Herty, 
to adapt to the southern forests a French method of gather- 
ing gum. Using two galvanized iron gutters and a clay cup, 
Herty demonstrated that boxing was not necessary and that 
The production of pine gum for naval 
stores—turpentine and rosin—was one of the 
early and important uses of pine forests in 
the South. This continued for a long time, 
but since 1930, gum production has 
declined steadily. The southern pulp industry 
is now the primary source of turpentine and 
rosin. 
