buttons, dowels, shade and map rollers, boot and shoe 

 findings, and novelties are possibilities. The recently 

 reestablished pipe-block industry, which uses laurel and 

 rhododendron burls for raw material and has an annual 

 pay roll of about $150,000, exemplifies the type of develop- 

 ment that should be expanded, although this particular 

 industry may be halted when trade is resumed with the 

 Mediterranean countries. 



Integrated Industries 



In all three of the major forest regions of the State 

 there is room for more centralized plants manufacturing 

 a variety of wood products. They offer economies in 

 timber procurement and manufacturing costs, better 

 utilization of grades and species, and a chance for great 

 refinement of the product. They are particularly desirable 

 in hardwood territory where forest management is difficult 

 because of a lack ol market for some species. More plants 

 should be equipped to manufacture or fabricate core 

 stock, flooring, dimension stock, cabinets, window and 

 door frames, sash, blinds, screens, mantels, and doors, 

 in order to keep up the attendant employment, pay rolls, 

 and income for local benefit. 



Portable Sawmills 



Over two-thirds of the annual production of lumber 

 in North Carolina is cut by small portable mills. In a 

 normal year over 2,500 mills operate in about 10,000 

 different tracts of timber, few of them owned in fee simple 

 by the operators. Commonly these small mills cut the 

 young timber before it is financially mature and frequently 

 leave the cut-over stand in poor condition for further 

 growth. Furthermore, much of the lumber produced 

 is so poorly manufactured and carelessly handled that 

 waste and degrade are high. Granting due credit to 

 those operators who are cutting conservatively, the 

 influence of the small mills in general constitutes a serious 

 obstacle to efficient forest production and utilization. 



On the other hand, small portable sawmills have certain 

 advantages which should not be overlooked. Many are 

 custom mills, producing low-cost building material from 

 home-grown timber. These small mills move from farm 

 to farm, sawing as little as 10 to 15 M feet at a set-up. 

 Because of this flexibility they can serve, if properly 

 controlled, as useful tools of forest management. Both 

 custom and commercial portables can utilize scattered 

 mature trees or small areas of mature timber. Stands 

 containing a high proportion of low-grade material are 

 often operable only bv these mills. In the mountain 

 forests, particularly, these small mills can be a constructive 

 force in improving the growing stock. Moreover, they 



provide considerable employment, distributed throughout 

 every county of the State. 



So far, no adequate plan for improving small-sawmill 

 practices has been developed. Good forest practice and 

 operating deficits are incompatible, and the history of 

 many mills is one of rapidly changing ownership because 

 of unprofitable operation. To be satisfactory such a plan 

 must provide ways to check destruction of the forest 

 resource and at the same time promote economic security 

 for mill operators and landowners. Public control of 

 cutting practices alone would not do this. Both the 

 manufacturing and business phases of small-mill operation 

 must be improved, so that operators can establish them- 

 selves on a sound financial basis. 



Low-Grade Pine for Pulp 



With suitable safeguards the piedmont region would 

 benefit through the establishment of one or more pulp 

 and paper mills. A large part of the second-growth pine 

 is of old-field origin and of rather poor quality. Many of 

 the stands need thinning, and more improvement cuttings 

 should be made to raise the quality of the growing stock. 

 With a pulpwood market it would be possible to manage 

 more forest land for the integrated production of pulp- 

 wood, saw timber, poles, veneer bolts, and other forest 

 products, thus increasing the revenue from the land and 

 developing the forest growing stock to a higher degree of 

 productivity. Many of the progressive pulp and paper 

 companies recently established in the South are practicing 

 integrated management on their own lands and some, even 

 at their own expense, mark timber for integrated utiliza- 

 tion when they buy pulpwood from other landowners. 

 Similar practices put into effect in the piedmont would be 

 a great improvement over those now followed by small 

 sawmills. 



High-®ua!ity Timber for Special Products 



With the available markets in North Carolina there is 

 a chance to produce more high-quality timber. Veneer 

 bolts, first-quality sawlogs, long poles and piles, are a few 

 of the possible products. The veneer plants of the State 

 use over 100 million board feet of veneer bolts each year 

 and there is a market for a few million feet annually in 

 Virginia. In normal times high-grade bolts bring $25 to 

 $35 per thousand board feet, log scale, delivered at the 

 mill, and stumpage sells for $8 to $10 per thousand. 



Although actual prices vary slightly between mills, the 

 relationship is fairly constant, and sample quotations from 

 lumber company price lists typify the differences between 

 high-grade and low-grade logs. These indicate that No 1 



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