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Pine Industry

Know Florida

Circa 1937

Yellow Pine in volume produced and in variety of uses is foremost in Florida. For a great variety of forest products, from excelsior (shredded wood) to poles and piling (where most of the tree is used intact), pine is of prime importance.

Large and small sawmills, with their buzzing activity, are found in nearly every county of the State. Employment in the woods and at the mill pays millions in wages annually. From the mill to the whole-saler and then to the retailer provide additional wages and more employment. Then, in home building and other construction, additional thousands are gainfully employed in using yellow pine in most parts of the nation. Considerable volume goes into export for structural timbers, battleship decking, and other construction requiring strong, dense, termite-resisting materials. Nearly 450 sawmills, cutting largely pine, produce about 750,000,000 board feet annually. Only 10 per cent of this production is used in Florida, the majority going to other States and about one quarter of that shipped out of Florida going into the export trade.

The days of big sawmills are numbered, with only a few million acres of original growth timber left. Small and medium sized mills, using efficient methods of manufacture, are coming in. Portable and semi-portable sawmills are gradually taking over the cutting of scattered remnant stands. With the awakened interest in forest fire control, tree planting, and selective cutting, the pine sawmill industry faces a future reduction in volume but not a timber famine in Florida.

Source:
Excerpt from "Florida's Yellow Pine Industry" Know Florida, Issued by the State Department of Agriculture, Tallahassee, Circa 1937, pg 4.

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