that can support little industry. A recent study 
indicated that two-thirds of the trees 5 inches and 
larger in diameter were defective. 
Throughout the South from Virginia to Texas 
the story is much the same, though the details vary. 
In the Appalachian Mountains the lumber indus- 
try has concentrated on yellow-poplar and the 
better oaks. Removal of such timber from the 
coves in many instances reduced the remaining 
forest to an unmerchantable condition from which 
it has been slow to recover. Longleaf pine has 
been succeeded by scrub oak on over 2 million 
acres, mostly in Florida. The inferior hackberry- 
elm-ash type has replaced more valuable oak and 
sweetgum in from 10 to 15 percent of the delta and 
bottom land of the Mississippi. 
In mixed pine-hardwood stands of the South, 
heavy cutting, which took pine to a much smaller 
diameter than hardwood, has allowed hardwoods 
of increasingly inferior quality to take over. For 
example, entire counties in the Piedmont of North 
Carolina are now covered with small or low-grade 
hardwood, because the mills have virtually ex- 
hausted the pine timber and better hardwoods. 
The total cubic-foot volume of softwood timber in 
the Southeast and West Gulf regions decreased 4 
percent from the early thirties until 1945, whereas 
the hardwood volume increased 5 percent (fig. 7). 
In this case the combined cubic-foot volume re- 
mained practically unchanged, yet the forest was 
by no means holding its own. Hardwood saw tim- 
ber declined almost as fast as the pine. 
In the North Rocky Mountain region, particu- 
larly in the panhandle of Idaho, western white 
pine has been the mainstay of the lumber industry. 
The western hemlock and white fir with which the 
pine is associated have been largely without a 
market. Commonly defective, these species left 
after high-grading for white pine often preclude 
the reestablishment of a satisfactory pine forest. 
In other Rocky Mountain types ponderosa pine 
has been cut, while Douglas-fir (of secondary 
value in the interior regions) has been left. 
Similarly the lumber industry in California has 
been built around redwood, sugar pine, and pon- 
derosa pine. These species make up less than half 
the stand, but supply more than 70 percent of the 
region’s cut. Removal of these species, especially 
in the mixed type of the west side of the Sierras, 
often leaves a forest in which the less desirable 
white fir and incense-cedar predominate. 
806034°—49—3 
Forests and National Prosperity 
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FicureE 7.—Southern pine volume declines while hardwoods 
gain. Data refer to total volume of all trees 5 inches and 
larger in 32 survey units containing 82 percent of all timber 
in the West Gulf and Southeast regions. 
Some of the Timber Is Not Operable 
Although much timber not now merchantable 
may find a market as forest depletion and timber 
shortage become more acute, we cannot count on 
using all the timber included in the inventory. 
There will always be some timber beyond the 
economic pale. The volume may be less in periods 
of especially strong demand; and it may be more 
in periods of depression. It will not always be the 
same trees, or in the same stands. 
Some inoperable timber lies in localities that 
have already been reached by commercial opera- 
tions. This is inoperable in a more permanent 
sense than the timber in parts of the West that 
have not yet been opened up. Some of it is inop- 
erable because it is so defective, scattered, in such 
small blocks, or in such difficult locations that it 
may never be economically feasible to get it out. 
For instance, 100 billion board feet of saw timber 
occurs in stands too light to justify commercial 
operation. The poor quality of some of the virgin 
stands has already been mentioned. Small size and 
25 
