result that the growing stock is being rapidly 

 reduced. The majority of the larger pine mills 

 report that their supply of original-growth timber 

 will be practically cut out within 10 years. Since 

 nearly all the pine mills in the section, however, 

 have for some years been cutting second growth 

 as well as old growth, the exhaustion of the old- 

 growth supply does not necessarily imply a closing 

 down of mills or a reduction in the cut of the unit. 

 The annual increment in second-growth pine 



n 



OLD SECOND ALL OTHER 



GROWTH GROWTH CONDITIONS 



SAWL0G SIZE 



PINES 



ESS. FTX . 



FOREST INCREMENT 



OLD SECOND ALL OTHER 



GROWTH GROWTH CONDITIONS 



SAWLOG SIZE 



HARDWOODS 



UTILIZATION DRAIN 



Figure 1 2. — Comparison of forest increment and commodity drain 

 in 1935 in various forest conditions 



stands is sufficiently large to compensate for the 

 drain on old-growth stands. It will not, however, 

 be equal in quality to the increment on old-growth 

 timber. Eventually there will be a reduction in the 

 output of export timbers, dense-grain flooring, and 

 similar products that are necessarily produced 

 from high-quality old-growth stands. In hardwood 

 stands, the supply of old growth plus its increment 

 will meet the drain against it longer than in old- 

 growth pine stands, but the present increment of 

 high-quality material in second-growth hardwood 

 stands does not compensate for the drain on the old 

 growth. 



In 1935, the net increment of good trees was 303 

 million cubic feet (table 18), exceeding the com- 

 modity drain by 153 million. Twenty-nine million 

 feet of this increment was in upper stems of sawlog- 

 size pines and, owing to its inferior quality, will 

 probably be little used by the forest industries; fuel 

 wood, which caused a drain of 24 million cubic feet 

 against the good-tree inventory, would be a suitable 

 use for this class of material. The remaining 274 

 million cubic feet represents the increase in volume 

 of the under-sawlog-size trees and the saw-timber 

 portion of sawlog-size trees. Approximately 80 

 percent of this volume increase was in saw-timber 

 stands averaging 2,680 board feet (Doyle) per acre. 



Table 18. — Balance between increment and drain in cubic feet 



Item 



Pine 



Hardwood 



Total 



Net growing stock, Jan. 1, 1935 ___ 



Forest increment, 1935 



Commodity drain, 1935. ______ 



Mcubicfeet 



3, 403, 510 



228, 170 



111,310 



3. 520, 370 



M cubic feet 



2, 232, 370 



75, 070 



38. 440 



2, 269, 000 



Mcubicfeet 



5, 635, 880 



303, 240 



149, 750 



Net growing stock, Jan. 1, 1936 



5, 789, 370 



Net increase in growing 

 stock, 1935 



116,860 



36, 630 



153, 490 



In addition to the sound volume in good trees 

 there is a considerable volume of sound material 

 in both sound and rotten cull trees. It is estimated 

 that the sound volume in cull pine trees increased 

 by half a million cubic feet during 1935, and that 

 similar material in the hardwoods increased by 

 10 million cubic feet. 



It should be realized that this sound volume in 

 cull trees can be utilized only for products in 

 which quality is not essential. Fuel wood, which 

 now takes about 12 million cubic feet of good 

 pines each year, is undoubtedly its best use. 

 As more of the higher quality wood is reserved for 

 use by the wood-using industries, it seems possible 

 and desirable that the use of this sound volume for 

 fuel wood should materially increase, and should 

 take the whole half million feet of increment in 

 cull pines. During 1935 about 8 million cubic 

 feet of cull hardwoods were used for fuel wood — - 

 an amount equal to 80 percent of the annual 

 increment of this cull volume. 



2J 



