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Soperton...A
Changing Economy
The naval stores industry
has existed in Georgia throughout its history, the
term "naval stores" referring to the extraction
of pine rosin for caulking the seams of wooden vessels
and to preserve the ship's rigging. The changing times
found varied uses for the pine by-product and by 1850,
naval stores were the South's third largest export
behind cotton and tobacco. In fact, the pine tree
itself has come to give Treutlen County its identity,
largely due to the historic efforts of a citizen named
James Fowler.
In 1926, during the
great agricultural depression of the 1920's, farmers
like Fowler were struggling with the collapse of the
cotton economy. He decided to put his land to some
use other than agriculture, so he planted 10 acres
of slash pine seedlings, knowing them to be fast growers
and good producers in naval stores.
Fowler's efforts drew
much attention on the state and national level from
those interested in forestry and reforestation. Furthermore,
a Savannah scientist, Dr. Charles H. Herty, became
interested in Fowler¹s activities because they coincided
with his research on creating newsprint from the slash
pine. Fowler provided the trees that Herty first used
to demonstrate his technique. On March 31, 1933, an
issue of The Soperton News was published on
the first paper made from Fowler's trees. Visitors
to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington will find
a copy of this issue on display.
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