12 WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES 



greater prosperity than that which the Virginia sawmills and the wood- 

 using industries at this time are responsible for. The State, there- 

 fore, should promptly recognize, not only the great value of its forests, 

 but enact legislation to establish an adequate forest policy. Such a 

 policy should include: 



(1) The establishment of a non-partisan forest department whose 

 majority membership will include such officials as the State Geologist, 

 the Commissioner of Agriculture, the Director of the Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, and the President of the State University; 



(2) The appointment of a technically trained forester to take 

 charge of all forest work in the State subject to the supervision of the 

 Department ; 



(3) A fire protective system having adequate funds at its dis- 

 posal, which would bring Virginia under the provisions of Section 2 

 of the Weeks Law and provide Federal aid in protecting from fire 

 the forested watersheds of its navigable streams. 



SPECIES. 



Varying quantities from fifty-two species made up the 894,000,- 

 ooo feet of lumber used by the Virginia wood users. These species 

 are listed in Table I, which gives the common English name as well 

 as the proper 'botanacal name, according to the Check List of the For- 

 est Service. 



An earnest effort was made to differentiate all the separate 

 species, because this enables one more easily to study uses according 

 to inherent properties. It is of far greater value to know the exact 

 woods as loblolly pine and Cuban or "slash" pine, white oak or yellow 

 oak, red cedar or white cedar, than to have merely the generic name 

 as pine, oak or cedar. This effort was only partially successful, since 

 the task was very difficult for several reasons: First, from the con- 

 fusion of the vernacular or common names of woods; a manufac- 

 turer in Virginia orders pitch pine, meaning longleaf ; the mill man in 

 Florida fills the order by sending Cuban or "slash" pine, as this pine 

 is sometimes called pitch pine in Florida. In some localities Vir- 

 ginia pine means shortleaf pine; in others loblolly pine; but on the 

 market it may include both shortleaf and loblolly; whitewood in New 

 Hampshire is yellow popular but tulip-tree wood in Virginia, and 

 similar confusions exist with very many other woods. Second, it is 

 difficult for tihe layman to always correctly identify wood in the form 

 of lumber. While timbermen can differentiate trees in the field, when 

 the tree is cut into lumber and sent to the manufacturer it is a different 

 matter. White oak, chestnut or "rock" oak, and bur oak are sold 



