Table 25. — Lumber production and value at mill, by species group, 1938 



Species eroup 



Yellow pine ' 



Mixed oak... 



Chestnut 



"Cypress" 



Yellow poplar 



Black and water tupelo 



S weetgum 



Hard and soft maple 



White pine 



Hemlock 



Ash 



Red cedar and white-cedar. 



Bass wood 



Hickory.. 



Birch 



Beech 



Sycamore 



Walnut 



Undetermined 



Total 



Production 



Value 



Thousand 



board feci 



1,054,500 



122, 500 



37, 300 



30, 500 



30, 400 



26, 000 



23, 800 



12, 100 



11,400 



5. 500 



3, 600 



3. 600 



3, 200 



1,900 



1,500 



800 



300 



300 



69, 800 



1.439.000 



Dollar! 



18, 000, 000 



2, 674, 900 



672,500 



795, 700 



720, 200 



4 15, 800 



434. 900 



349, 200 



2«, 400 



104, 200 



103, 100 



155, 300 



102. 500 



37, 600 



45, 600 



17. 100 



5,800 



23,500 



1, 267, 700 



26, 239, 000 



1 Mainly loblolly and shortleaf, with some longleaf pine and minor amounts 

 of other species. 



Value of Lumber 



The total investment in logging equipment and sawmills 

 is approximately $10,000,000 or about $7 per M board 

 feet annually cut. With this relatively small capital 

 investment the industry in 1938 manufactured lumber 

 with a value at the mill of over $26,000,000 (table 25). 

 Yellow pine lumber, chiefly loblolly and shortleat, ac- 

 counted for two-thirds of the total value and o?k for a 

 tenth. 



Distribution of Lumber 



The tact that a large number of the sawmills produce 

 rough lumber and sell it to local concentration yards for 

 planing and grading makes an accurate determination of 

 the lumber distribution difficult. Sawmill records make 

 it appear that a high proportion of the lumber is consumed 

 locally, whereas actually the concentration yards, after 

 assembling it, distribute much of it outside the State. 

 Data obtained in 1938 by the Bureau of the Census in 

 cooperation with the Forest Service indicated that 374 

 million board feet was sold in other States and foreign 

 countries — probably a conservative estimate and yet 

 equal to one-fourth of the total cut. About 32 million 

 feet was shipped outside the United States and the rest 

 was distributed, as shown in figure 37, among the States 

 east ol the Mississippi River. Pennsylvania, New York, 

 Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey are the principal 

 markets. Proximity to these centers ot consumption 

 gives North Carolina a great advantage over timber- 



Figure 37. — Reported distribution of lumber from North Carolina in 

 millions of board feet, J 938 



producing areas on the Pacific coast and in the deep 

 South. The rail rate per M feet of 2,500 pounds was 

 recently $6.75 from Raleigh, N. C, to Philadelphia, Pa., 

 and $8 to New York. To ship lumber from the Douglas- 

 fir region to the Atlantic coast normally costs about $20 

 per M feet by rail and about $12 by water. 



Other Forest- Products Industries 



The following discussion of individual industries and 

 statistics of plant operations, production, and raw- 

 material consumption attempts to give a picture of the 

 nonlumber forest industries as of 1938. The locations of 

 plants in that year are given in figure jiS. 



Veneer 



The veneer industry has grown steadily in North 

 Carolina since 1905 to a total of 57 plants, operating at 

 about 85 percent capacity, and using 110 million board 

 feet of logs. The value of the veneer, before its conversion 

 into plywood or containers, was about $5,000,000. Only 

 in Washington and Florida is the industry on a larger scale. 



43 



