SHOKTLEAF PINE : IMPORTANCE AND MANAGEMENT. 15 



cost of finished lumber as $13.66. At current selling prices (April, 

 May, 1913) of $15.75, this yielded a net profit of $2.09 per thousand 

 feet, or total annual net earnings of $7,315. This represents clear 

 profits of 21 to 24 per cent, or an average of 22 per cent, for the 

 five companies. 



WASTE. 



The degree of utilization in the logging, manufacture, and general 

 use of shortleaf pine varies widely. On the whole, the utilization 

 is comparatively close throughout its range. In the uplands of the 

 coastal Atlantic and Gulf States practically all of the product finds a 

 ready market. The poorer class of timber is used locally, and the 

 day of clearing off lands by destructive fires ceased in this region long 

 ago. Almost paradoxical, however, is the waste in one particular 

 feature of logging in some of the more progressive regions. As an 

 illustration, in Pickens County, in the upper Piedmont of South 

 Carolina, stumps of mature shortleaf pine were cut from 20 to 34 

 inches in height (March, 1913) , where everything of the smaller sizes 

 down to 2 inches in diameter was being corded and shipped by rail 

 for fuel. Thus, clear and high-priced timber was being left where 

 there was a paying market demand for even the small topwood. The 

 cause for this condition was given by the operator as the impossibility 

 of changing the old-time habits of the negro labor of cutting high 

 stumps. Two stumps, 28 and 30 inches high, shown in Plate III 

 scaled a total of 38 board feet (Doyle log rule) above a stump height 

 of 12 inches, and were worth $0.19 at a stumpage rate of $5 per thou- 

 sand feet. 1 Measurements on an average acre gave 30 stumps con- 

 taining an average of 9 board feet each above a maximum stump 

 height of 12 inches, or a value of $1.35 per acre. This represents 

 practically a clear loss due to careless logging of not less than $270 

 on the tract of 200 acres. 



In contrast, the operators of the Mississippi Valley region are cut- 

 ting to a maximum stump height of 12 inches, and small trees up to 

 15 inches in diameter are taken mostly at 8 to 10 inches. On the other 

 hand, in very many cases they do not take the log or logs in the crown 

 above about the second limb. Top diameters of 12 to 16 inches were 

 common in representative mature cuttings in Pike County, Ark., in 

 the fall of 1912. In a well-stocked stand, 150 years old, 380 logs were 

 taken and 100 logs left per acre in the tops because of the lower grade 

 of timber. The top logs taken ranged from 16 down to 9 inches and 

 averaged 11.6 inches in diameter at the small end. The diameters of 

 the top logs Nf't in the woods averaged 9.8 inches and ranged from 13 

 down to 8 indies. The number of logs taken and left per acre, and 



'A '-,,!, iTvativi: i>ri'-<- for clear materia] in hull Iorh. 



