products industries in North Carolina, but because of the 

 use of cull material for fuel this volume is about 3 million 

 cords more than the actual drain upon the sound-tree-grow- 

 ing stock. Half of this volume was used commercially and 

 the rest for fuel wood. Of the $55,000,000 valuation given 

 in table 22, lumber, pulp, veneer, tanning extract, and other 

 primary products accounted for $43,000,000; and fuel 

 wood and rough farm-construction material for $12,000,000. 

 Commercial-wood consumption was only 43 percent of 

 capacity requirements, estimated to be approximately 

 12 million cords for the plants operating in 1938. 



Employment 



About two-thirds of the 23,000 people employed in the 

 forest-industrial plants (table 26) were in sawmills, and 

 nearly one-half in sawmills cutting less than 10 M board 

 feet per day. Many of the small mills operate only between 

 crop seasons or when lumber prices are high, the employ- 

 ment they provide being irregular and in many cases under- 

 paid. Paying 30 cents or less per hour, such small mills 

 produced rough lumber for a labor cost of about $6.25 per 

 M feet, including woods work. At 38 of the larger mills, 

 according to the North Carolina Department of Labor, 

 the average hourly earnings in March 1941 was 36 cents. 

 At this rate the labor cost for woods and mill work was 

 about $12 per M board feet tor graded lumber. 



Table 26. — Employment in the primary forest industries, 1038 



Product 



Plant em 



ployees 



(number) 



Lumber. _._ 



Veneer 



Cooperage 



Dimension stock 



Shingles 



Hewn cross ties 



Poles and piles 



Pulp - 



Tanning extract 



Fuel wood 



Miscellaneous manufactures. 

 Miscellaneous farm use 



Total. 



14. 560 



4.020 



100 



270 



70 



2.800 

 760 



230 



22. 810 



Employment — in thousands 

 of 8-hour man-days 



At the 

 plant 



2.311 



816 



27 



38 



33 



In the 

 woods 



840 

 226 



48 



2.148 



299 



45 



25 



13 



109 



47 



475 



262 



7,417 



47 



230 



Total 



4. 459 



1.115 



72 



63 



46 



109 



47 



1.315 



488 



7.417 



95 



230 



11.117 



15. 456 



Labor requirements in the 57 veneer plants operating 

 in 1938 were relatively high, approximately 22 man-hours 



per M board feet of bolts made into veneer, or 60 man- 

 hours for complete fabrication into plywood or containers. 

 Expenditures for labor were therefore $20 to $25 for each 

 1,000 feet utilized. The plant employees received a total 

 of nearly $3,000,000 in wages. 



The four pulp mills provide more man-hours of work 

 per unit volume of wood than any other major forest in- 

 dustry, and a high proportion of the workers are skilled. 

 In March 1941, the average earnings of the pulpmill work- 

 ers were 72.6 cents per hour, the weekly rate of $31.58 

 being the highest in manufacturing industries reported to 

 the North Carolina Department of Labor. In 1938 the 

 wage scale was lower, and the total pay roll was about 

 $3,000,000. 



The remaining forest-industrial plants gave employment 

 to approximately 1,400 people. At 30 cents per hour the 

 wage income was $858,500 or $600 per worker per year. 



Seventy-two percent of the total forest employment was 

 woods work, which included felling, sawing into merchant- 

 able lenghts, and transporting the timber to the place of 

 consumption. Of the 1 1 million man-days of labor required 

 to harvest the wood consumed during 1938, 7.6 million 

 were expended in the production of fuel wood and other 

 material for farm use. Nearly 3% million man-days went 

 into the production of sawlogs, veneer bolts, cross ties, 

 poles, pulpwood, and other industrial products, or the 

 equivalent of 260 days per year for 13,500 men. The 

 actual number of persons employed in woods work is un- 

 known, but at least 14,750 were engaged in logging for 

 sawmills. 



The amount of employment provided by the forest- 

 products industries in North Carolina is generally under- 

 estimated because a majority of the plants are small and 

 much of the woods work is a part-time activity of farmers 

 and other rural residents. The 15.5 million 8-hour man- 

 days required in 1938 to cut, haul, and manufacture the 

 raw material obtained from the forests would have been 

 sufficient to employ 59,000 workers for a work year of 260 

 days. If, however, the labor expended in the procurement 

 of noncommercial fuel wood and other farm needs is ex- 

 cluded, the strictly commercial activities in the woods and 

 mills would have required 30,000 full-time employees. 

 Many more people, in reality, obtained part or all of their 

 income through woods and mill employment. If hourly 

 wages averaged 25 cents in 1938, the total forest-industrv 

 pay roll was about $14,000,000. 



48 



