4 BULLETIN 152, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



AMOUNT OF STANDING TIMBER. 



Reliable estimates of the amount of standing hemlock are very 

 difficult to obtain, because of the widely varying proportion which 

 the tree forms of the mixed forests in which is usually grows. For 

 this reason past estimates have been greatly at variance with one 

 another. Thus the total stand was estimated to be 20,165 million 

 board feet in 1880 by C. S. Sargent; 56,571 million board feet in 

 1903 by R. A. Long; 100 billion board feet in 1905 by the American 

 Lumberman; and 75 billion in 1909 by R, S. Kellogg. In 1880 

 Sargent estimated the amounts of standing hemlock in Pennsylvania, 

 New York, and New Hampshire to be 4^ billion, 3 billion, and 165 

 million board feet, respectively. The stand in Pennsylvania was 

 estimated to be 5 billion board feet in 1896 by Dr. B. E. Fernow, and 

 10 billion board feet in 1907 by J. E. Defebaugh. 



By far the most careful estimates are those for the Lake States pre- 

 pared by the Bureau of Corporations in 1910. 1 According to these 

 the amount of standing hemlock in the Lake States is 26.6 billion 

 board feet, of which Michigan has 15 billion and Wisconsin 11.6 

 billion. Hemlock comprises 34.6 per cent of all the standing timber 

 in both States — 31.5 per cent of that in Michigan, and 39.7 per cent of 

 that in Wisconsin. Compared with these estimates the production 

 of hemlock lumber in Michigan and Wisconsin during 1909 repre- 

 sented 4.1 per cent and 6.1 per cent, respectively, of the total stand. 

 For all species combined this relation was 4 per cent and 6.9 per cent, 

 respectively, which makes it evident that the cutting of hemlock pro- 

 ceeds at a rate very close to the average for all species — more rapid 

 than for hardwoods and much slower than for pine. 



Hemlock may form a very small or a very large proportion of the 

 forest, while between these extremes are all gradations. One of the 

 largest remaining stands of hemlock in the^ Lake States is on the 

 Menominee Indian Reservation. The total stand of all species was 

 estimated about 1910 to contain 1,750,000,000 board feet, ru nning 

 15,000 per acre, of which more than 40 per cent, or 6,000 per acre, 

 was hemlock, the timber varying in size from 6 to 33 logs to the thou- 

 sand board feet. 



In 1905 and 1906 the Forest Service 2 secured from local timber 

 operators estimates of the amount of standing timber in each county 

 of the Southern Appalachian region. The estimate of standing 

 hemlock was as follows : 



Board feet. Board feet. 



Tennessee 1, 387, 000, 000 



Virginia.. 505,000,000 



West Virginia. 3, 550, 000, 000 



Georgia 205,000,000 



Kentucky 452, 000, 000 



Maryland 60, 000, 000 



North Carolina 668, 000, 000 



South Carolina 93, 000, 000 | TotaL " \ 6,920,000,000 



i Report on the Lumber Industry, Part I: Standing Timber. Washington, Government Printing 

 Office, 1913. 

 2 Study of Forest Conditions of the Southern Appalachians, under the direction of Walter Mulford. 



