Abstract Active interest in timber growing in the South as a result of the expansion of pulp and paper manufacture has emphasized the need for greater technical knowledge of the characteristics of the southern pines. Studies at the Forest Products Laboratory show that the weight or density ofany of the four most important species of southern pine—slash, longleaf, loblolly, and shortleaf pine—may vary over an exceedingly wide range. Sometimes certain pieces of wood have double the density of other pieces of the same species. Such variations in density have a direct bearing uponthe strength, workability, shrinkage, ability to hold paint, and other properties as well as upon the quality and yield of pulp from these species.
Benson H. Paul (Thu,) studied this question.