26 BULLETIN" 1061, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
PRODUCTION OF TURPENTINE AND ROSIN 
The bulk of the turpentine and rosin produced in this country 
has been obtained from longleaf pine. 3 The average yearly pro- 
duction for the six years ending in 1919 has been estimated to range 
between 23,000,000 and 25,000,000 gallons of spirits of turpentine 
and between 700,000,000 and 820,000,000 pounds of rosin. The center 
of production has changed, gradually following the timber supplies 
from the Carolinas to Florida. The industry is extensive in Florida 
and is developing in Louisiana. Second-growth pine now furnishes 
most of the yield from South Carolina and Georgia, and smaller 
amounts from Florida and Alabama. 
YIELD OF SECOND-GROWTH STANDS 
Young longleaf pine has been for many years worked for turpen- 
tine, and this is often its greatest and sometimes its only value.. 
In this respect extensive abuse of young pine has come to be very 
general. As long ago as 1900 a considerable amount of the tur- 
pentine produced in South Carolina and coastal Georgia was de- 
rived from young stands of longleaf and slash pine. Since the 
common practice has been to work young stands heavily, let them 
burn freely, and make very little further use of them, the destruc- 
tion of young longleaf has taken place on an extensive scale. 
Obviously this in part explains the prevailing absence of second 
growth. 
Only a few preliminary studies have thus far been made in the 
amount of naval stores produced by second-growth longleaf pine. 
There is much need for accurate information in regard to the 
amount of gum yielded by trees of different sizes and ages and by 
entire stands of various ages and tree densities. 
Table 12 gives a rough approximation of the yields per crop and 
per acre of crude gum, turpentine, and rosin from the first year's 
working of second-growth, well-stocked longleaf pine stands. 
Caution is necessary, however, in using the table, since it should be 
regarded as based upon insufficient data to make it final, but it is 
probably the best of its kind available. It is not based upon actual 
yields from whole stands, but has been computed from two sets 
of independent measurements, one relating to the sizes and numbers 
of trees per acre of growing longleaf stands (Table 1), and the 
other relating to the flow of gum from a limited number of trees 
of specified sizes (see Table 13). On the basis of this information 
secured by the Forest Service, United States Department of Agri- 
culture, the table was compiled jointly by the State Department of 
Conservation, New Orleans, La., and the Forest Service. It is 
included here with the hope that it may be the means of stimulating 
the collection of further measurements and the acquisition of more 
complete information. The yield of gum per crop is exceedingly 
variable, as is well known among operators, depending upon the 
locality and region (extending from North Carolina to Texas), the 
season, class of labor, and indirectly the market conditions. Hence, 
any figures of yield should be used with discretion. 
3 The remainder has come from, working slash pine, a close associate of long-leaf. (See 
Farmers' Bulletin 1256, Slash Pine.) 
