20 



TIMBER DEPLETION, PRICES, EXPORTS, AND OWNERSHIP. 



To-day the area of virgin yellow-pine forests is about 23J 

 million acres, or a little less than one-fifth of the original 

 acreage. (See Table 1.) The stand of virgin timber is about 

 139 billion board feet, or a little over one-fifth of the original 

 stand. 



TABLE 1. Southern yellow-pine region Classification of pine 

 land by character of groicth. 



Four-fifths of the original yellow-pine forests has been cut 

 since 1870. 



Out of the more than 100 million acres of yellow-pine land 

 that has been cut over about 29 million acres now supports 

 second growth of merchantable sizes and nearly 31 million 

 acres cut over recently second growth not merchantable. About 

 31 million acres of cut-over land has not come back to pine, 

 although much of it is more suitable for timber growth than 

 for agriculture. As the nonrestocking areas do not produce 

 any new growth and growth in virgin timber is offset by de- 

 terioration, the total area on which yellow pine is now grow- 

 ing is about 60 million acres. 



The largest areas of old timber are chiefly in the Gulf States 

 Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Areas 

 of second growth are most extensive in the older South Atlantic 

 States Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. 



Total merchantable stand. The total stand of merchantable 

 yellow pine, both virgin and second growth, has recently been 

 estimated at about 258 billion feet, of which 139 billion, or 

 54 per cent, is old timber, and 119 billion feet, or 46 per cent, 

 is second growth. 



By States the merchantable pine stand is distributed as 

 follows : 



M feet. 

 North Carolina 15,300,800 



Virginia 8, 698, 000 



Oklahoma 4, 791, 400 



Missouri 364, 700 



Total (lum- 

 ber scale) _ 257, 691, 000 



M feet. 



Louisiana 47, 348, 400 



Mississippi 40, 476, 200 



Florida 36, 429, 300 



Texas 27, 524, 700 



Alabama 25, 316, 400 



Georgia 21, 807, 600 



Arkansas 15, 743, 700 



South Carolina..- 13,889,800 



The present stand is about equally divided between longleaf 

 and shortleaf pine, with probably a slight preponderance of 

 shortleaf pine over longleaf, the shortleaf pine being more 

 abundant in the South Atlantic States and the longleaf in the 

 Gulf States. 



ANNUAL DRAIN UPON THE FORESTS. 



The cut of yellow-pine lumber in 1918 an abnormally low 

 year was in the neighborhood of 10 billion feet. Lumbermen 

 estimate a cut for 1919 in excess of 15 billion feet. The aver- 

 age cut for the five-year period before the war, 1911-1915, was 

 about 14J billion feet, to which must be added at least 1J bil- 

 lion feet of hewn ties, poles, and posts, in all a cut of about 



16 billion feet of saw timber. There is also being cut in the 

 pine area of the South about 12,250,000 cords of fuel wood. 



In addition to the cut there is every year a considerable loss 

 of mature saw timber due to windfall, turpentining, insects, 

 fires, and diseases. This loss may be conservatively placed at 

 from one-fourth to one-half of 1 per cent of the entire merchant- 

 able stand, or at present from 650,000,000 to 1,300,000,000 board 

 feet per year. In all, the annual drain upon the forests is 

 nearly 4J billion cubic feet of wood. 



THE ANNUAL GROWTH. 



The annual growth is estimated at about 3 billion feet board 

 measure on the merchantable second-growth areas and 1 billion 

 cubic feet 9 on the area of unmerchantable second growth, or 

 in all in the neighborhood of 1,660 million cubic feet 10 a year, 

 or nearly 30 cubic feet per acre for the entire growing area. 

 (See Table 2.) 



TABLE 2. Southern yellow-pine region Annual growth of saiv 

 timber and cordicood by States. 



CUT AND GROWTH CONTRASTED. 



The amount of yellow pine that is cut is thus about three 

 times the annual growth. In saw timber the disparity is -even 

 greater. The annual growth upon the areas of merchantable 

 timber is in the neighborhood of 3 billion feet, while the cut of 

 saw timber is 16 billion feet. In other words, the present cut 

 of saw timber is more than five times the present annual pro- 

 duction. 



If the present merchantable second growth were not cut into 

 for the next 10 or 15 years, but were allowed to grow at its 

 present rate, and the unmerchantable second growth were 

 allowed to reach merchantable size without being prematurely 

 turpentined, the annual growth of saw timber would be con- 

 siderably increased. This merchantable second growth, how- 

 ever, is now also being cut and its area decreased at a rate of 

 not less than li million acres a year. About a quarter of the 

 present yellow pine cut comes from second growth. Within the 

 next 20 or 25 years the entire area of the present merchantable 

 second growth may be completely cut over, and large areas will 

 not come back to pine unless there is a decided change in the 

 present procedure in regard to protecting the cut-over land 

 from fire and hogs. 



DETERIORATION OF THE FOREST. 



It is doubtful if the South will ever again grow timber to 

 the sizes which we find in the virgin stands. The second 

 growth now cut for saw timber is inferior in quality to the 

 old stands. While trees in the virgin longleaf-pine stands yield 

 on an average from three to four logs which run six or seven 

 logs to a thousand feet, trees in the second-growth stands 



Equivalent to about 2 billion board feet. 

 10 Equivalent to about 5 billion board feet. 



