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DEC 2 8 1914 



Division of Forestry 

 University of California 



WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES OF VIRGINIA. 



PREFACE 



Virginia, the oldest State in the Union, is probably the oldest 

 lumbering region. Since colonial days the forests have been meeting 

 a large demand in lumber and logs for export to European and West 

 Indian ports, besides supplying the home needs of a well-populated 

 and a rapidly growing State. With the early commercial development 

 of the nation, bcause the Virginia forests were closer than those of 

 any other yellow-pine States to the large consuming centers and lumber 

 markets of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, they 

 naturally were among the first to be exploited; since then they have 

 been sending forth increasing annual supplies. This exportation was 

 made possible before the advent of railroads by the easy navigation 

 ot the large rivers, with their many branches which traverse the State, 

 and by the excellent deep harbors with which the coast is indented. 



For more than sixty years lumbering has been actively carried 

 on in Virginia, and for the past twenty-five years on an extensive scale. 

 It could hardly be expected, therefore, that forests which have been for 

 so long a time subject to an increasing drain, would still be able to 

 compete in production with those States in which lumbering started 

 many years afterward. The statistics of the Bureau of the Census 

 for 1909 showed, however, that only five other States exceeded the 

 lumber cut of Virginia. Four of these were yellow-pine States, the 

 other was Washington, holding the lead through its Douglas fir, while 

 the other Eastern, New England, and Ohio Valley States whose cut 

 m the late years, according to statistics, has been showing a gradual 

 decrease, this oldest lumber State has been constantly moving upward 

 in its maximum yield and in 1909 produced over two billion feet. This 

 was 119 per cent, more than the quantity of lumber cut ten years before, 

 and no other yellow pine State, except Louisiana, showed so large 

 a relative gain. The increase from 1890 to 1900 was a little more than 

 200 per cent, while the gain from 1880 to 1890 was approximately 76 

 per cent. 



Owing to the diversified soil and surface conditions of Virginia 

 in the gradual transition from the tidewater section to the high moun- 

 tain ranges in the western part of the State, the forested area is com- 

 posed of many kinds of merchantable timber. It is natural, therefore, 

 that Virginia should take a prominent stand, not only in the supply of 



