TIMBER DEPLETION, PRICES, EXPORTS, AND OWNERSHIP. 



25 



Local demands will also increase, but not in proportion to the 

 cut. Large additional amounts will he available for the eastern 

 markets. A gradual rise in logging costs is inevitable as the 

 more accessible stands are cut out and it becomes more and 

 mure necessary to extend operat inns to the rougher mountainous 

 logging chances, with lighter and more broken stands and 

 larger percentages of the less desirable species. The timber 

 resources of the Pacific Coast States are very large, but it 

 would be very unwise to overestimate them, for much less than 

 the lotal siand is readily available. Existing transportation 

 facilities to the East are already overburdened with present 

 Irallie, and they will have to be very materially increased to 

 meet the probable reduction in the eastern and southern lumber 

 cut during the next 10 years. 



THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN HARDWOODS. 



GROWTH AND DECLINE OF LUMBERING. 



For the purpose of this report the .southern Appalachian 

 hnrdwood region includes the hardwood forests of Maryland, 

 West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, 

 Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee. 



Large-scale logging operations shifted to this territory from 

 Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. Operations in West Vir- 

 ginia on a large scale did not begin until after the Civil War. 

 Before 1900 central Kentucky and Tennessee were well cut 

 over. The cut for the entire region was at about the maximum 

 in 1009, with an output in hardwood lumber of approximately 

 -t billion board feet. Following this there was a pronounced 

 decline, and in 1918 the cut had decreased to 1,700,000,000 feet. 

 While this heavy falling oft' in cut was, of course, very largely 

 due to war conditions, there has been a decrease in proportion 

 (o the total hardwood cut of the country, for which the deple- 

 tion of supplies appears primarily responsible. The proportion 

 of the aggregate hardwood lumber production which was sup- 

 plied by the Appalachian States had risen gradually from 32 

 per cent in 1899 to 41 per cent in 1914, but by 1918 it had 

 fallen to 34 per cent. West Virginia, which held the lead In 

 hardwood production from 1910 to 1917, lost it to Arkansas in 

 1918; while North Carolina, which cut approximately 400 

 million feet in 1909, dropped to less than 200 million in 1918. 



The cut has declined in quality as well as quantity, and this 

 Is perhaps the more serious aspect. The early lumbering con- 

 sisled of cullings in which only such trees as walnut, cherry, 

 and the finest of oak and yellow poplar situated along the driv- 

 able streams were removed. The introduction of logging 

 railroads extended operations into nearly all parts of the re- 

 gion, until now there is comparatively little virgin timber left, 

 most of it remote and difficult to log. The present logging 

 operations are largely working over previously-culled stands, 

 removing practically every saw log and a large part of the 

 smaller material. The quality of the lumber produced is con- 

 sequently much poorer than formerly. 



THE ORIGINAL FOREST. 



The virgin forests which once covered practically the entire 

 land area of this region contained a wealth of hardwood tim- 

 ber unsurpassed in the Northern Hemisphere. Oak, chestnut, 

 and yellow poplar of large size and high quality filled the 

 coves and valleys, mixed with walnut, cherry, hickory, bass- 

 wood, cucumber, and other valuable hardwoods, and softwoods 

 such as white pine and hemlock. Over an area exceeding 60 

 million acres the original hardwood stand may be estimated at 

 more than 325 billion feet. 



THE REMAINING STAND. 



Lumbering and settlement gradually restricted the area of 

 commercial timber to the mountains. This part of the region, 

 about 35 million acres, now contains practically all of the re- 

 maining tracts of old-growth hardwood timber, and the extent 



of these has been reduced to about one-third of the total area, 

 the remaining two-thirds being either in recently cut-over land, 

 usually badly burned, or in farmers' woodlands. So far as can 

 be learned from the available sources, the stand is in the 

 neighborhood of 80 billion board feet, of which 60 billion is 

 old-growth timber occupying about 12 million acres. Most of 

 (his has been culled of Its best trees, and the virgin tract* 

 which remain are few, relatively small, and remote. About 12 

 per cent of the stand is spruce, hemlock, and various pines. 

 The oaks are the principal hardwoods and probably comprise 

 about 35 per cent of the stand, while chestnut Is the most 

 abundant single species and is estimated at 25 per cent. 



For all the States within which the southern Appalachian 

 Mountains lie, the total stand of hardwoods is estimated at 

 147 billion board feet, about 58 per cent of the total stand of 

 both softwoods and hardwoods. Outside of the mountain re- 

 gion the stand is practically all second growth in farm wood- 

 lands. The total area bearing hardwood stands is about 55 mil- 

 lion acres. 



LUMBER CUT AND TOTAL CUT. 



During the two years preceding our entrance into the war 

 the annual hardwood lumber cut of the southern Appalachian 

 States fell from about 3i to about 2i billion board feet. In 

 1918 there was n further reduction to less than 2 billion board 

 feet. Under normal conditions it is likely that the cut of lum- 

 ber would still be proceeding at close to 3 billion board feet per 

 year. The lumber cut, however, Is probably only about 35 per 

 cent of the total drain upon the -forests. An immense amount 

 of material is taken out in the form of tanning-extract wood 

 and bark, poles, ties, cooperage stock, fuel, and other products. 

 Expressed in terms of cubic volume, the " normal " annual lum- 

 ber cut Is the equivalent of 657 million cubic feet of standing 

 timber, while other products consume an additional 1,220 mil- 

 lion cubic feet, making a total annual production of about 1,877 

 million cubic feet. Much of this output Is, of course, from 

 second-growth timber. Of the lumber output, however, fully 75 

 per cent is from the remaining old-growth stands. After the 

 exhaustion of the old growth the entire supply of lumber must 

 come from the second growth, and since very little of this will 

 yield lumber of a better quality than No. 1 common, the effect 

 upon the furniture and other Industries largely dependent 

 upon high-grade lumber will be very serious. 



DETERIORATION OF THE FOREST. 



The chestnut blight has entered the mountain region, and in 

 the opinion of pathologists Is almost certain to sweep through 

 the hardwood forests, eliminating chestnut. Besides depriving 

 the tanning and other industries of one of their chief sources of 

 supply, this disease will throw the burden of the lumber cut 

 upon other species, thus hastening the process of depletion. It 

 Is impossible to forecast the rate of this depletion. 



A further loss which can not be measured satisfactorily In 

 amount of material or money value is that from forest fires. 

 Much of the mountain forest has been repeatedly burned, and 

 while not much timber has been actually killed the fires are 

 responsible for a great deal of deterioration in the timber. 



THE DURATION OF THE CUT OF OLD GROWTH. 



Much uncertainty exists in the minds of even the best-In- 

 formed men in the lumber industry as to the duration of the 

 cut in the remaining old-growth stands. In West Virginia, 

 which has been one of the leading hardwood producing States, 

 the statement was made by one of the best-informed men in the 

 industry that the length of cut on a large scale would not ex- 

 ceed five years. The manager of one large company reports 

 that most of the mills of the State will cut out within five to 

 eight years. A responsible official In another company states 

 that very few concerns In his section of the State have over 



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