diameter of 10 inches, but most of them ranged from 5 to 8 inches, with a height of 40 to 50 feet. On an average, 104 trees an acre were boxed, which is an out-of-date and wasteful method of turpentining.

For the turpentine rights for a 3-year lease the owner in 1916 received 10 cents a tree or box, or a total of $10.40 an acre. At the present price of 20 cents a box, the privilege would have brought the owner $20.80 an acre.

The trees when tapped contained 500 fence posts suitable for preservative treatment, and at the end of the three years' lease, allowing for reduced rate of growth, should have contained not less than 640

FIG. 20.-Thirteen-year-old slash pine stand being worked for turpentine. Unfortunately the injurious "boxing" instead of cupping method was used. There are 628 trees an acre, of which 104 trees an acre are being turpentined, bringing the owner $10.40 an acre and leaving 524 trees an acre for later workings. This is a profitable way of thinning and making young timber profitable. It should be understood that this stand represents probably the maximum average growth and yield.

posts worth at least 14 cents each in the tree, or $9.60 an acre. The value of these posts and the gum, at the 1920 rates, gives a total gross return of $30.40 for a period of 16 years (13 plus 3 years), or an average of $1.90 a year. With no cost for establishing the forest stand or caring for it afterward and with very low taxes on the poor, sandy flatland, the annual net revenue, figured as low as $1.50 to allow for compound interest on the land and taxes, represents an annual return of 15 per cent on land worth $10 an acre-a very high figure for this kind of land.

After the boxed trees are removed, a stand of 396 trees an acre will remain. By this opening up of the formerly overcrowded stand

the trees will be stimulated to faster growth than is shown in Table 2, and, in the course of 4 to 9 years after first working, good turpentine trees, 20 to 25 years old, will be developed as large in diameter as those first worked, or larger. Calculation, based on the average past rate of growth, shows that at the age of 22 years, or six years after the end of the first working, there will be ready for the second working about 172 trees measuring 7 to 9 inches in diameter, and 152 trees 10 inches and over, a total (after deducting 10 per cent to cover possible losses) of 292 trees an acre. Working these trees with one face per tree to high faces and assuming a price of 30 cents for each cup, the stand will bring in a second revenue of $87.60 an acre, or a yearly average for the period of 12 years of $7.30 an acre. The boxed timber will still be on hand, and, when sold, would add an appreciable amount to the yearly return.

TWENTY-YEAR-OLD STAND.

Reproduction of slash pine on a tract of low flatland of muck and sand soil near the town of Starke, Fla., is typical of conditions result- · ing from fire protection near many southern towns. The trees on this tract are mostly 21 years old, and it is reported that the ground has not been burned over in several years. The tract contains a total of 384 trees an acre of all sizes, of which 252 trees measured as much as 7 inches in diameter and over, and 55 to 65 feet in height. There are 192 trees an acre measuring 7 to 10 inches inclusive, 56 an acre with diameters of 11 to 14 inches inclusive, and 4 trees an acre 15 inches and over in diameter. If turpentined according to prevailing methods,10 they would yield 316 cups per acre.

The present cordwood yield is about a maximum. The stand measured 45 cords an acre, or an average for the 21 years of about 2 cords an acre yearly. This is the equivalent of an annual yield of 300 to 600 board feet of lumber, depending on the utilization. The satisfactory growth is doubtless due to the absence of fire from the stand, for other fully stocked stands on similar situations and without fire protection at the same age, as a rule, show somewhat less production. An unburned stand as old as 20 years is rare in the South.

The value of the stand in 1920 may be taken at $63.20 for turpentine at 20 cents a cup, and $22 for cordwood, making a total of $85.20 an acre. This is an average yearly return of $3 for turpentine and $1 for wood, or a total gross yearly return on the land of $4 an acre,

• Six years after the close of the first working plus six years of working, at the rate of 20 cents for the first face and 10 cents for the high face.

10 One cup each for trees 7 to 10 inches inclusive, 2 cups on trees 11 to 14 inches, and 3 cups on trees 15 inches and over. This, of course, represents destructive practice.

of which ordinarily four-fifths, or $3.20 an acre, may be considered as clear profit.

TWENTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD STAND.

An overcrowded stand of slash pine 24 years old, containing 366 trees of all sizes an acre, is now being turpentined for the third year. The trees are mostly from 50 to 60 feet tall and slow-tapering. The dominant trees range in diameter at breastheight mostly from 7 to 10 inches, with about 20 trees an acre of a size from 11 to 12 inches in diameter. This stand came up on land formerly covered by a shallow pond in Bradford County, northern Florida, and the forest growth has been repeatedly run over by light fires.

About 256 cups an acre are found on trees measuring 7 inches and over in diameter. Two cups are hung on trees 11 inches and over, and sometimes on 10-inch trees. A number of the 7 and 8 inch trees, after three years of working, have become so weakened along the gutter line by deep chipping that they have broken off. This condition, in case of a heavy fire, would result in the destruction of the faces and the killing or consuming of many trees.

The money return on this natural second-growth forest at 10 cents a cup, the price received by the owner, averaged $25.60 an acre for turpentine. At a rate of 20 to 25 cents a cup, the revenue would amount to from $51 to $64 an acre for crude gum. This stand contains 126 trees an acre, 8 inches and over in diameter, large enough for common lumber. If carefully sawed, these trees would yield about 5,000 board feet of lumber, or, if cut into ties, would yield about 90 standard No. 3 size an acre. The stand now contains 30 cords of firewood or 22 cords of pulpwood (bark removed). At 50 cents a cord for firewood the timber is worth $15 an acre standing. A fair stumpage price, or value in the tree, would be 10 cents each for ties or $1 a cord for pulpwood. This would make the standing trees, after turpentining, worth to the owner from $9 for tie timber to $22 for pulpwood. The two sources of revenue-from gum (at 10 cents a cup) and ties-give the owner a gross return of $34.60 an acre at the old price for turpentine. At a price of 20 cents a cup the two revenues would amount to over $60 an acre. This is an approximate yearly average for 24 years of $2.50 per acre. With taxes on this land so low as to be almost negligible, and with no cost of growing the crop, the net return may safely be placed at not less than $2 an acre yearly.

TWENTY-SIX-YEAR-OLD STAND.

A stand of 26-year-old slash pine consisted of a total of 754 trees an acre, of which 366 measured 7 inches and over in diameter, the

customary turpentine size. Only a small number of the larger trees, from 60 to 65 feet in height, measured 10 inches in diameter on account of the crowded condition of the stand (fig. 21). This stand now contains 64 cords of wood an acre, and, if it were turpentined according to the prevailing very close method of one face on trees 7 to 10 inches in diameter and of two faces on larger trees, would yield annually 366 cups an acre. If cut clean at the end of the third year of working, it would yield 67 cords of wood. These products, at the current price (1920) of 20 cents a cup and 50 cents a cord, give a stumpage value an acre of $73.20 for turpentine and $33.50 for cord wood. This total of $106.70 for a period of 29 years" represents an average gross income of $3.68 yearly.

FIG. 21. Crowded 26-year-old stand of slash pine with 366 trees an acre measuring from 7 inches to 10 inches in diameter. Maximum production of wood-64 cords of slash pine an acre or an average growth of about 2 cords an acre yearly. This is equiva lent to over 1,000 board feet. If turpentined now with only one face per tree, at 20 cents a cup the stand would yield $73.20 an acre, and there may be expected 70 cords of wood an acre at the end of the 3-year period.

RELATED PUBLICATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

Some of these related publications, marked with an asterisk (*), are no longer available for free distribution, but the prices at which they may be purchased are indicated. Application for free publications should be made to the Division of Publications, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., and for all others to the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. Inclosures of the amount of the purchase should be made in coin or money order.

*Mechanical Properties of Wood Grown in the United States. 1917. (Department Bulletin 556.) Price 10 cents.

*Relation of Light Chipping to the Commercial Yield of Naval Stores. 1911. (Forest Service Bulletin 90.) Price 10 cents.

*Turpentine: Its Sources, Properties, Uses, Transportation, and Marketing. 1920. (Department Bulletin 898.) Price 15 cents.

Oleoresin Production: A Microscopic Study of the Effects Produced on the Woody Tissues of Southern Pines by Different Methods of Turpentining. 1922. (Department Bulletin 1064.)

Tests of the Absorption and Penetration of Coal Tar and Creosote in Longleaf Pine. 1918. (Department Bulletin 607.)

The Southern Pine Beetle. 1921. (Farmers' Bulletin 1188.)

How Lumber is Graded. 1920. (Department Circular 64.)

Waste in Logging Southern Yellow Pine. 1905. (Yearbook Separate 398.) Making Woodlands Profitable in the Southern States. 1920. (Farmers' Bulletin 1071.)

Production of Lumber, Lath, and Shingles in 1918. 1920. (Department Bulle tin 845.)

*Timber Depletion, Lumber Prices, Lumber Exports, and Concentration of Timber Ownership. 1920. (Report on Senate Resolution 311.) Price 25 cents. The Cut-over Pine Lands of the South for Beef-cattle Production. 1921. (Department Bulletin 827.)

*Small Sawmills. 1918. (Department Bulletin 718.) Price 10 cents.

Longleaf Pine. 1922. (Department Bulletin 1061.)

Application should be made to the various State foresters for needed information, since their publications usually apply to local conditions and are therefore very useful.

SUMMARY.

Because slash pine grows rapidly and the lumber market is fast taking lumber of smaller sizes and poorer grades, the day is rapidly approaching when good stumpage prices can be obtained for young and second-growth timber.

Slash pine grows rapidly in dense stands and, at 15 to 25 years of age, yields large amounts of crude turpentine. Concrete examples of well-stocked stands of young growth, after making liberal deductions for taxes and fire-protection costs during the period, show profits of 8 to 12 per cent compound interest on an investment of $5 an acre. Open-grown slash pine, on average situations, may be expected to produce in 40 years a merchantable log 40 feet long, measuring 10 inches at the top by 18 inches at the butt, and containing 270 board feet of lumber.

Land of average quality in slash pine may be expected to yield continuously a net revenue from crude turpentine or gum of 50 cents to $1.25 an acre and an equal amount from the timber growth, or a combined yearly net return of $1 to $2.50 an acre.

The picture on the back cover shows a slash-pine mother seed tree, left in logging in southeastern Louisiana about 17 years before, and its 15-year-old offspring.