wood was pine and hemlock, 27 percent was chestnut, and 



7 percent was mixed hardwoods. Three of the plants use 

 5-foot wood measured in 160-cubic-foot units; one plant 

 buys 128-cubic-foot standard cords. Most wood within a 

 40-mile radius of the plants is hauled by truck; railroads 

 are used for distances up to 200 miles. The plant at Plym- 

 outh obtains some wood by barge haul. Wood is usually 

 procured by the contract system, whereby the company 

 contracts with several individuals who agree to deliver stat- 

 ed amounts of wood at the contract price. The contractors 

 assume the responsibility for locating, buying, cutting, and 

 delivering the wood to the plant. This system relieves the 

 company of many details of bargaining, supervision, and 

 transportation, but experience has shown that some con- 

 tractors have caused considerable forest devastation and 

 have frequently paid the landowner less than a reasonable 

 price for the standing timber. The progressive pulp and 

 paper companies in North Carolina and elsewhere in the 

 South have recognized the trend of public opinion and the 

 urgency of assuring a permanent supply of raw material, 

 and they are accordingly taking steps to improve timber- 

 procurement practices. 



Tanning Extract 



In the mountain region chestnut wood and chestnut 

 oak and hemlock bark are used by an active tanning- 

 extract industry. Of the 10 plants making extract in 1938, 

 two of the largest producers, the pulp and paper mills at 

 Canton and Sylva, produced it as a by-product. Accord- 

 ing to the Bureau of the Census, the total extract output in 

 1935 had a value of $2,600,000, more than one-half that of 

 all chestnut and oak extract made in the United States. In 

 1938 the 10 plants used 168,600 cords of chestnut wood 

 and 17,500 cords of hemlock and chestnut oak bark. This 

 includes the chestnut used by the 2 mills making both ex- 

 tract and pulp, and to that extent duplicates the pulpwood 

 consumption estimate. The wood requirements for capac- 

 ity operation of the 10 plants are about 292,000 cords of 

 chestnut and 25,000 cords of bark. 



Dimension Stock 



Small dimension stock consists of billets or blanks sawed 

 or split to specified widths and thicknesses and to specified 

 lengths less than the ordinary commercial minimum of 



8 feet. In 1938 there were 34 small mills manufacturing 

 dimension stock for sale to local furniture factories. They 

 were distributed throughout the State (fig. 38) but were 

 most numerous in the piedmont. Their total consumption 

 in 1938 was about 11 million board feet, or an average per 

 plant of only 3 M boand feet per day. At capacity opera- 



tion for 275 days a year the mills could consume about 30 

 million feet. Those in the Coastal Plain used black tupelo 

 almost exclusively; those in the piedmont and mountain 

 divisions used white oak, hickory, yellow poplar, maple, 

 ash, birch, and beech. Most of the logs were bought de- 

 livered at the mill, and at least three-fourths of them were 

 cut from second-growth timber. The value of the furniture 

 squares produced in 1938 was about $565,000. 



Fuel Wood 



As indicated in table 22, more wood is used each year 

 for fuel than for any other purpose. The 5% million cords 

 consumed in 1938 was three-fifths pine and two-fifths 

 hardwood. Home-grown wood used on the farms makes 

 up the greater part of the total, but the cutting and distri- 

 bution of fuel wood as a commercial enterprise is of con- 

 siderable importance. The previously mentioned survey 

 in cooperation with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics 

 indicated that in 1937 farmers sold fuel wood from their 

 farms worth 1.3 million dollars while other farmers paid 

 $680,000 for wood, chiefly for curing tobacco. The con- 

 sumption was distributed as follows, according to Forest 

 Survey data: 



Percent 



Farm homes 63 



Curing tobacco 16 



Rural nonfarm homes 14 



Schools, small commercial estaDlishments, city ho mes. . 7 



Total 100 



The average farm family used 12.2 cords of wood per year 

 for cooking and heating, rural nonfarm families averaged 

 4.8 cords, and city families 2 cords. Tobacco curing re- 

 quired on the average 1.9 cords per 1,000 pounds of tobacco 

 and the total volume used was 900,000 cords. Approxi- 

 mately half of all the fuel wood was obtained in 1938 from 

 sawmill slabs, cull trees, and tops, limiting the fuel-wood 

 drain upon the sound-tree growing stock to just under 3 

 million cords. 



Minor Products 



Of the 10 cooperage plants operating in the State in 1938 — 

 at about 85 percent capacity — 5 in the Coastal Plain were 

 making heading and slack cooperage out of pine, 2 in the 

 piedmont were turning out pine staves for tobacco hogs- 

 heads, and 3 upland plants were making tight cooperage 

 from white oak. The value of staves and heading pro- 

 duced was about 1 percent of the value of all cooperage 

 produced in the United States. 



The 32 shingle mills, which are small and migratory and 

 consequently difficult to assay accurately, manufactured 



46 



