Lucrative ‘brown gold’ needles fall from pine trees in North Carolina The dropped needles of the longleaf pine are in such demand that a lucrative business has grown up around raking, baling and selling them to landscapers and homeowners as mulch. By Todd C. FrankelThe Washington Post Share A worker loads pine needles into a baler at Mike Wilson's farm in West End, N.C. Photo for The Washington Post by Jeremy M. Lange WEST END, N.C. — There is a saying among some farmers in the Carolina Sandhills: “A man would have to be a fool to cut down a longleaf pine.”