FOREST CONSERVATION IN SOIJTHEEN PINE REGION. 3 



has made studies of their forest conditions and reports have been 

 prepared and, in most cases, published either by the State or by the 

 Service.^ 



WHAT THE LUMBER INDUSTRY MEANS TO THE SOUTHERN PINE 



• STATES. 



The manufacture of lumber and other timber products ranks first 

 among the industries of Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Vir- 

 ginia. It ranks second among the industries of Florida, Georgia, 

 Louisiana, and South Carolina, third among those of North Carolina 

 and Texas, and sixth among those of Missouri. Something like 

 16,000 sawmills operate in these States, and a large number of addi- 

 tional establishments manufacture cooperage stock, veneers, and 

 other forest products. These plants employ some 330,000 persons, 

 or about one-third of all the workers engaged in the various indus- 

 tries. The average annual lumber cut in the region amounts to 

 about 19,500,000,000 board feet, of which approximately three- 

 fourths is yellow pine. Assuming an average value for the lumber 

 of $14 per thousand feet, the total value of the annual cut would 

 amount to nearly $275,000,000. About a quarter of this sum repre- 

 sents the value of the stumpage from which the lumber is manu- 

 factured; the greater part of the remainder is paid out in the form 

 of wages to residents of the region. 



The amount of standing timber in the southern pine region has 

 been estimated by the Bureau of Corporations and the Forest Serv- 

 ice as 675,000,000,000 board feet, of which 385,000,000,000 feet is 

 yellow pine, 40,000,000,000 feet cypress, and the remainder prin- 

 cipally^ hardwoods. At the present rate of cutting this amount will 

 last scai'cely more than 35 years. Should there remain no commer- 

 cial bodies of yellow pine or prospect of any, after the present stands 

 are exhausted, the resultant loss to the people of the Southern States 

 in business and wages will be very seriously felt. 



The naval-stores industry, which is one of the most important in 

 the South and which depends upon yellow pine as a source of supply 



1 " Forest Conditions in Virginia and Proposed Measures for Forest Protection," by W. 

 W. Ashe, House Doc. No. V, Communication from the Governor, 1910 ; 



" Forest Conditions in Western North Carolina," by J. S. Holmes, Bull. No. 23, N. C. 

 Geol. and Econ. Surv., 1911 ; 



" Forest Conditions in South Carolina," by W. M. Moore, Bull. No. 1, State" Dept. of 

 Agric, Com. and Ind., 1910 ; 



" Condition of Cut-over Longleaf Pine Lands in Mississippi," by J. S. Holmes and 

 J. H. Foster, Circ. 149, U. S. Dept. Agric, For. Ser., 1908 ; 



" Forest Conditions of Southwestern Mississippi," by .1. S. Holmes and J. H. Foster, 

 Bull. No. 5, Miss. State Geol. Surv., 1908 ; 



" Forest Conditions of Mississippi," by C. B. Dunston, Bull. No. 7, Miss. State Geol. 

 Surv., 1910; 



" Forest Conditions in Louisiana," by J. H. Foster, Bull. No. 114, U. S. Dept. Agric, 

 For. Ser., 1912 ; 



" Forest Resources of Texas," by William L. Bray, Bull. No. 4T, U. S. Dept. Agric, 

 Bur. For., 1904 ; 

 v"A Forest Policy for Texas," by J. G. Peters, San Antonio Express, .Tan. 17, 1915 ; 



" The Forest Resources of Arkansas," by Samuel J. Record, Circular of State Land 

 Commissioner, 1910; „ ^^ 



" Forest Conditions of the Ozark Region of Missouri," by Samuel J, Record, Bull. No. 

 89, University of Missouri, Agric. Exp. Sta., 1910. 



