^^?""~^*T 



Figure 40. — Untreated cross ties at a preserving plant, Wilmington, N. C. 



in 1938 approximately 50,000 squares in all. Mills in the 

 Coastal Plain utilized white-cedar and baldcypress, and 

 sold chiefly to wholesalers, jobbers, and retail lumber deal- 

 ers; those in the piedmont made pine shingles on a custom 

 basis for local use. The typical mill made about 10,000 

 shingles per 8-hour day. 



About 612,500 hewn cross ties were sold to public-carrier 

 railroads in 1938 (fig. 40). Of these, 516,000 were red and 

 white oak, 67,500 were baldcypress, and only 29,000 were 

 pine. The purchasers included nearly 40 railroads. The 

 additional 96,200 ties were purchased by logging radroads 

 in the State. 



Treating plants in Portsmouth and Norfolk, Va., and 

 Wilmington, N. C, purchased nearly all of the 151,000 

 poles and piles produced during 1938. All but 3 percent 

 of these were pine. About 8,000 black locust fence posts 

 were cut in the mountain region for railroad use and some 

 400 white-cedar posts were cut in the coastal swamps. 



Some of the hickory timber in the piedmont goes into 

 the manufacture of handles. In 1937 six handle plants 

 were operating, but in 1938 only the four largest plants 

 reported. One plant, using yellow poplar, maple, oak, and 

 ash, made broom and mop handles; the rest made all types 

 of tool handles from hickory stock. In 1938 about 3,600 

 cords were used. 



Shuttle blocks for the manufacture of shuttles were made 

 at nine small specialized mills and one hardwood dimension 

 plant. Dogwood was used in all plants but one, which 

 used beech, birch, and maple. The total consumption of 



wood was about 1,500 cords, purchased from local farmers. 

 This yielded approximately 600,000 rough blocks, of which 

 a large proportion were shipped to Greenville, S. C, and 

 Charlotte, N. C, for remanufacture. 



Tobacco baskets are large, shallow baskets made ol hand- 

 riven oak splits and a rim of sawn lumber. Three plants, 

 all in Yadkin County, assembled about 250,000 of these 

 baskets in 1937 from 5 million splits made by farmers of 

 the surrounding counties, who received about $45,000 lor 

 their timber and their work. About 1.5 million board feet 

 of red and white oak logs were used. The same consump- 

 tion was assumed for 1938. 



Four excelsior plants used about 5,000 cords of second- 

 growth pine and yellow poplar in 1938 and made excelsior 

 valued at $120,000. The wood, about 15 percent yellow 

 poplar, is purchased by the cord delivered at the mill yard. 

 The average daily capacity is 5 cords, which works up into 

 about 5 tons of excelsior. 



A few hundred cords of oak were used by a plant mak- 

 ing insulator pins, and other hardwood consumption in- 

 cluded 20,000 cords shipped to distillation plants outside 

 the State, and 181,000 cords used for fence posts and other 

 farm maintenance. The value of all these products was 

 about $1,150,000. 



Summary 



In 1938 about 11 million cords of wood, including saw 

 timber and fuel wood, was consumed by the primary forest 



47 



