All the pulp-mill companies own some forest land, but 

 outside contractors furnish a large part of the pulpwood. 

 The wood is ordinarily assembled at rail side or delivered to 

 the mill by truck. Because pulp mills can use small 

 timber, they create a market for the smaller trees in over- 

 crowded stands and for malformed or defective trees unfit 

 for lumber. 



The pulp industry has become an important factor in 

 the economic life of Louisiana. Its leaders can add a 

 great deal to the economic significance of forestry in the 

 State if they continue to put into effect a far-sighted 

 policy of forest management, not only on their own lands 

 but also on the lands of those from whom they purchase 

 wood. The large acreages owned by the pulp companies 

 can serve well as demonstration forests, and if well man- 

 aged will provide encouraging examples for the many 

 thousands of woodland owners — particularly for those in 

 the north pine unit, where pulpwood cutting is mainly 

 concentrated and where small holdings are more preva- 

 lent than in other parts of the State. 



The production of rosin, turpentine, and pine oils by 

 wood distillation came into prominence in Louisiana after 

 cutting of the old-growth longleaf pine left large areas of 

 richly stocked and easily accessible stump land. In 1937 

 there were 4 wood-distillation plants in the State, of which 

 3 were in operation. These consumed about 121,000 tons 

 of pine distillation wood (including a small amount from 

 Mississippi), of which about four-fifths was stump wood 

 and the remainder top wood. During that year these 3 

 plants extracted more than 7 times as much turpentine as 

 was produced in the State from gum and provided nearly 

 211,000 man-days of employment — the equivalent of 200 

 days' work for about 1,055 people. 



Since very little old-growth longleaf pine remains, and 

 since stumps from second-growth stands are not at present 

 acceptable to the industry, hardly any additions to the 

 present supply of distillation wood can be expected. The 

 wood naval stores industry, therefore, is operating largely 

 on a "mining" basis; nevertheless, because the supply of 

 available stumps is very large, there is room for expansion 

 (table 21, Appendix). Indeed, expansion is necessary if 

 all the existing stump wood is to be utilized before fire and 

 rot render it worthless. The immediate war outlook for 

 naval stores might justify an expansion of the wood naval 

 stores industry, if equipment were available. In the post- 

 war period, however, overproduction of gum rosin and 

 turpentine can be expected. Furthermore, a growing 

 production of sulfate turpentine by pulp mills is also likely. 



Spanish Moss Ginning 



Harvesting, curing, and marketing Spanish moss {Den- 

 dropogon usenoides) has been a profitable industry in 



Louisiana forests for more than half a century. In the 

 Census of 1880 (Sargent's Report on the Forests of North 

 America) it was reported that for the year ending August 

 31, 1881, New Orleans alone received about 10 million 

 pounds of rough moss, valued at $315,000, and shipments 

 to other markets brought the total value of the moss output 

 in the State to about $550,000. 



Spanish moss is a true epiphyte (air plant) and grows in 

 quantities upon cypress, oaks, and other trees in the bottom 

 lands, especially in the hardwood and cypress swamps in 

 the southern part of the State. There are no estimates of 

 the quantity of moss in the State, but it reproduces very 

 rapidly and no evidence has been noted of a decrease in the 

 supply. Some local residents report that, as the virgin 

 timber has been cut and replaced by more open second- 

 growth stands, the quantity of moss has increased. 



Its tough fibrous tissue makes Spanish moss commer- 

 cially important for upholstery, mattresses, and similar 

 products. The moss is gathered by inhabitants of the 

 swamp as a part-time activity associated with fishing, 

 trapping, subsistence farming, etc. In some cases moss- 

 gathering rights on tracts of timber are purchased, but 

 most moss harvesting is done without obtaining definite 

 permission from the landowner. After the moss is gathered 

 and air cured, it is sold to a moss gin for processing and 

 resale to manufacturers. In 1937 more than 30 moss gins 

 were operating in the State, and the total value of the prod- 

 ucts sold in that year is estimated at more than 1 million 

 dollars. About a quarter of a million man-days of labor 

 was required to gather and gin the moss. 



Selective Cutting and Integrated Use 



Since most of the saw timber can be manufactured into 

 the more valuable commodities, such as lumber and veneer, 

 production of such low-grade products as fuel, fence post, 

 and pulpwood should be confined wherever possible to 

 inferior species, cull trees, upper stems of sawlog trees, 

 and small trees that should be removed as thinnings. If 

 all or a large part of the volume in cull trees could be re- 

 moved, it would improve the character of the forest ma- 

 terially and enhance the rate of growth of the remaining 

 trees. Likewise, many young timber stands are in need of 

 thinning operations that would remove some of the smaller 

 trees and leave the high-quality and most rapid growing 

 trees for later removal as sawlogs. An enlarged market 

 for small poles is needed so that thinnings can be sold at 

 higher prices than they bring as fuel or pulpwood. Forest- 

 land owners must understand how much more profit they 

 will gain from marketing the high-quality material as saw- 

 logs, veneer logs, etc., and from cutting the low-quality 

 material into fuel, pulpwood, and like products. 



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