Table 1 7. — Net cordwood volume in sterns of sound tress by species group and tree-diameter class, 1938 1 



species group 



6-8 



inches 



10-12 

 inches 



14-18 

 inches 



20+ 

 inches 



XI cords 



M cords 



18,840 



5 



966 



5.947 





971 



2,175 





211 



1,157 





330 



876 





22 



415 





321 



263 





691 



117 





28 



35 





11 



407 





59 



1.037 





827 



5 inches and larger 



Softwoods: 



Loblolly pine 



Shortleaf pine 



Pond pine 



Longleaf pine 



Virginia pine 



White pine 



Hemlock 



Red spruce 



Red cedar 



White-cedar 



Cypress 



Total 



Hardwoods: 



S weetgum 



Black and water tupelos 

 Yellow poplar 



Red oaks 



White oaks 



Chestnut 



Hickory 



Other hardwoods___ 



Total 



All species '. 



M cords 



11. 307 



10. 425 



2.024 



1.103 



2. 532 



408 



S3 



90 



225 



439 



613 



M cords 



20,409 

 12, 491 



3.064 



1.288 



2,255 



377 



125 



95 



77 



553 



41,427 



2,567 

 3,148 

 1,688 

 3,152 



3,719 



772 



1,230 



5,754 



56, 522 



29.834 



7,474 



3,878 



5.685 



1,521 



1,162 



330 



348 



1,458 



3,170 



Percent 



14.' 



3.; 



Li 

 2.1 



31, 269 



3,097 

 4,972 

 2.185 

 3.936 

 4,598 | 

 1.403 

 1,644 j 

 5,371 



3.913 

 4.593 

 2,303 

 3,853 

 3.383 

 858 

 1.167 

 4.133 



22.030 



27,206 



24. 203 



9,437 



111, 382 



1.6 



2,021 

 2,746 

 1,234 

 2.752 

 2,565 

 1. 751 

 421 

 1, 793 



11, 598 

 15. 459 

 7. U0 

 13, 693 

 14,265 

 4,784 

 4, 462 

 17, 051 



15,283 



7" 



Percent 

 25.6 



6-.. 633 



Percent 

 34.3 



55, 472 

 Percent 



24. 720 



Percent 

 12.4 



200,104 



3.7 

 6.9 

 7. 1 

 2.4 

 2. 2 

 S. 5 



100.0 



i For detailed data by physiographic regions, see table 40, appendix, p. 74. 



The volume of sound under-sawlog-size trees amounts to 

 one-third of the total hardwood stand. In the mountains 

 particularly, most of these young hardwoods, as the future 

 source of saw timber, should be retained in the growing 

 stock and managed for that use. On the pine lands they 

 are often less desirable because they tend to replace the 

 faster growing and more easily marketed pine. The 

 coastal swamps contain a great quantity of immature black 

 and water tupelos which will become valuable for pulp, 

 lumber, and veneer (fig. 30). Cull hardwoods, aggregat- 

 ing a large volume, are present on nearly all the forest 

 land. To devise methods of removing these hard-to-use 

 trees at a profit is a major problem of forest management 

 and economics. The mountain forests will never produce 

 satisfactory yields of timber as long as one-third of the 

 hardwood volume is in cull trees. 



Volume by Diameter Class 



Of the total volume in stems of sound trees 5 inches d. b. 

 h. and larger, the high proportion contained in small trees 

 (table 17) indicates the young, immature character of the 

 forest. Almost two-thirds of the softwood volume and 

 well over one-half of the hardwood is in trees less than 13 

 inches d. b. h. Among the common softwoods shortleaf 

 pine (77 percent) and Virginia pine (84 percent) have an 



outstanding part of their volume in small trees. These 

 species are most prevalent in the piedmont, where more 

 than 1,500 sawmills compete for the larger saw timber. 

 The proportion of hardwood volume in small trees — espe- 

 cially of sweetgum, white oak, and hickory — is also great- 

 est in the piedmont. 



Volume per Acre 



The average of 11.4 cords per acre for all forest land 

 (table 18) includes all sound trees 5 inches d. b. h. and 

 larger, but not the sound material in cull trees or upper 

 stems and limbs of hardwoods. Saw-timber stands aver- 

 age 18 cords per acre, varying from 9.7 cords in the pond 

 pine type to 22.9 cords in the bottom-land hardwoods type. 

 Sawlog-size loblolly pine, occupying over 3 million acres, 

 averages 19.3 cords per acre. The 1.7 million acres of saw- 

 log-size upland hardwoods, by contrast, average only 14.5 

 cords. Under-sawlog-size stands of all types, which oc- 

 cupy 47 percent of the forest land, have an average volume 

 of only 4 cords per acre. It is evident that action is needed 

 to increase the volume of growing stock in many of these 

 younger stands, so that in time they may approach the 

 yield of old-growth uncut stands, averaging over 28 cords 

 per acre. 



34 



