Abstract
The pulping and bleaching properties of earlywood and latewood of a fast‐growing loblolly pine were studied. Under the same pulping condition, the kappa number of the latewood kraft pulp was higher than that of the earlywood. At around the same kappa number, the yield of the latewood was higher than that of the earlywood. The bleaching results showed that the latewood kraft pulp had lower bleachability than the earlywood kraft pulp, due to its thicker cell wall and slower leaching rate.