see 
(Ge ee ee 
4 SLO g 
CLIT SLA AA AILIDILIL 
GLEE se 
CLEPTSELLIEILLCLILEGLILISLIL 
All public 
YAU 
AllSpriviatemesys |! esress| eae eee et a i 
600 400 200 
CLE 
“99 VMOLLLYSD MOA LEE 
QLELLILLLIEE GOLTUDA TA TALTLILLIDE, 
SOCLTI ISL ILEL 
er, 
ts445 Ws 
NORTH AND SOUTH 
WA o 
North 
RX South 
EN C«;W;&;&;&§;(,VV«v 
O 200 ; 400 600 
CATET 7 
CCIEELL LLL 
BILLION BOARD FEET 
FIGURE 6.—Ownership of saw timber in the United States, 1945. 
Growth Classes Not Well Balanced 
It is not enough to appraise forest growing stock 
in terms of its volume. ‘The distribution of age 
classes and the quality are also important. Al- 
though age or growth classes should be balanced 
locally, it is only possible here to bring out major 
features of the situation for the North, South, and 
West (table 7).12 
In the North almost half the commercial forest 
land bears only seedlings and saplings !” or is de- 
nuded. Another one-fourth is in pole timber too 
small for sawlogs. Only 28 percent of the land 
bears stands of saw-timber size. A survey in New 
England showed that in 69 out of 118 mills, cutting 
primarily softwoods, the average log size was 10 
inches or less. One may drive for miles through 
forest land in some parts of the North without see- 
ing any merchantable saw timber. é 
In the South more than half the commercial 
forest land has been classified as saw timber; how- 
ever, stands with only 600 board feet per acre 
qualified as saw timber, in contrast with 2,000 
board feet in most other eastern regions. Large 
“Tor acreage by regions, see table 17 of reference given 
in footnote 8, p. 19. 
“Trees up to 4 inches in diameter breast high. 
no 
no 
saw timber is scarce in the South; stands with more 
than half the saw-timber trees over 18 inches in 
diameter occupy only 1 percent of the forest land. 
In the West Gulf and Southeast regions the average 
pine saw-timber tree is about 20 percent smaller 
than 10 years ago. An increasing number of mills 
are cutting 6-inch trees and it is not uncommon to 
see a logging truck carrying 50 or more logs. Obvi- 
ously, mills operate on such small logs only because 
the supply of larger timber is scarce. In the Missis- 
sippi Delta many hardwood mills are operating 
on logs one-half or one-third as large as formerly 
TABLE 7.—Distribution of growth classes, in percent 
of commercial forest acreage, 1945 
Class of area North South West United 
States 
Saw-timber: Percent Percent Percent Percent 
Virginie tao 0.5 
Second growth. 27.0 53.2 16.0 34.8 
Total ewes 28.3 Ee 54.5 Aas 
Pole-timber .............. 24.3 16.0 22.6 20.6 
Seedling and 
saplingyee cee ee 29.0 12.5 12.4 18.6 
Poorly stocked seed- 
ling and sapling, 
and denuded........ 18.4 17.8 10.5 16.3 
All areas....... 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 
Miscellaneous Publication 668, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
