A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 191 



for saw logs, in mixture with badly defective trees or those of less 

 desirable species. In short, these stands have progressively deteri- 

 orated. In the main, they can supply little but common lumber, 

 and a considerable proportion cannot be cut at a profit. 



SOUTH REGION 



The saw-timber stands of the South, which aggregate some 200 

 billion board feet, are in general more accessible and of better quality 

 than those of the other four eastern forest regions. The large lumber 

 cut of the region alone would indicate this. The South until recently 

 has produced from 15 to 17 billion board feet of lumber annually, or 

 not far from half of the softwood and of the hardwood lumber pro- 

 duction of the entire country. 



Much of the 121 billion board feet of softwood in the South is 

 found in the coastal plain from Virginia to Texas, with the bulk of 

 the remainder either on the bluffs and uplands east of the Mississippi 

 River or on the rocky hills of central Alabama, west central Arkansas, 

 and southeastern Oklahoma. The flat coastal plain is uniformly one 

 of the cheapest in the United States for logging operations. Except 

 for limited areas in the mountains and swamps the entire South 

 presents few difficulties in logging. 



Less than one third of the softwood saw timber, however, is old 

 growth. The bulk of the original forests has been cut since 1890. 

 Largely because of uncontrolled fires and the absence of seed trees, 

 large areas were slow to restock. Cutting and destructive turpen- 

 tining have further tended to limit the size and quality of the second- 

 growth saw timber. Not only is much of the second growth compara- 

 tively young and therefore barely of saw-log proportions, but it is 

 frequently found on small, scattered areas. Young second growth, 

 of course, will not, as a rule, yield the strong and durable structural 

 timber, fine-grained and wide finish, or the other better grades of 

 lumber that are now cut from large, mature trees. Nevertheless, a 

 large lumber cut is now coming from small, low-grade second growth. 

 Although cutting of this small second growth for lumber is thought 

 to be unwise, because the trees are not financially mature, it may be 

 said, from the standpoint of accessibility only, that substantially all 

 of the second-growth softwood saw timber of the South can be classed 

 as available supplies. 



The hardwoods in the South aggregate nearly 80 billion board feet, 

 as compared with the annual cut in that region of 1% billion. Old- 

 growth accounts for only 33 billion feet. A substantial proportion 

 of the hardwood stands cannot at present be utilized profitably for 

 lumber, veneer, and similar products. Some of the stands, for ex- 

 ample, are far distant from transportation facilities or considerably 

 isolated by cut-over areas. Others contain large numbers of small, 

 inferior, or defective trees. 



Some 35 billion feet of hardwoods is located in that portion of the 

 southern Appalachians within the region, the piedmont plateau, and 

 the uplands of Arkansas, Mississippi, eastern Texas, and Oklahoma. 

 The situation in the southern Appalachians and piedmont plateau is 

 fairly typical of the upland forests. After many years of cutting, the 

 once heavy original forests are nearing the end. Declining supplies, 

 together with changing market conditions, have brought about 

 repeated and progressively heavier cullings of the remaining stands. 



