36 .MISC. PUBLICATION 217, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Of the total commercial forest land of 495,000,000 acres in area, 

 about 189,000,000 acres are bearing timber of saw-timber sizes, of 

 which about 99,000,000 acres are in virgin timber and 90,000,000 in 

 second-growth timber; 121,000,000 acres in smaller timber suitable 

 for ties, pulpwood, or fuel wood; 102,000,000 acres of young growth, 

 and 83,000,000 acres with inadequate stands of young trees. In 

 addition, there are some 100,000,000 acres of noncommercial forest 

 land of low grade, chiefly bearing scrubby growth. Or to picture the 

 present condition in a slightly different way: Of every 100 acres of 

 the original forest land with virgin timber only about 20 acres still 

 remain; 80 acres have been cut or destroyed by fire. Out of every 

 100 acres of present forest land (of all classes), 38 have trees of saw- 

 log sizes, 24 have only small timber of cordwood sizes (pulpwood, 

 fuel wood, etc.), 21 acres are restocking fairly well with young 

 growth, and 17 acres have little or no forest growth of any kind. 



TIMBER CONTENTS OF FORESTS 



A brief consideration of the amount of the standing timber re- 

 sources of the United States may be of interest. The total wood 

 supplies of all kinds found in our forests, including that suitable for 

 saw timber, pulpwood, crossties, poles, piling, posts, and fuel wood, 

 is estimated at 487 billion cubic feet. Of this, 229 billion cubic feet, 

 is saw- timber material and the remainder cordwood material. This 

 may not mean much, but a billion cubic feet of wood makes a solid 

 stack 100 feet high, 100 feet wide, and 19 miles long. The bulk of 

 our timber consists of softwoods (pines, spruces, firs, etc.), with only 

 about 27 percent, or 129 billion cubic feet, of hardwoods. 14 



SAW TIMBER 



The present forest, it is estimated, has one-third as much saw 

 timber as was contained in the original or virgin forest of the United 

 States. Much of this represents new growth on lands formerly cut 

 over in lumbering. The estimates show a stand of 1,346 billion 

 board feet of old-growth or virgin saw timber and 322 billion feet of 

 second growth. Of these amounts, 1,486 billion board feet are soft- 

 woods, such as pines, spruces and firs, and 182 billion board feet 

 hardwoods. The saw timber is very irregularly distributed over the 

 country. For its area, New England has considerable saw timber. 

 The southeastern portion of the United States has approximately 

 one-half the total second-growth saw timber. The bulk of the re- 

 maining old-growth timber is in the Western States. 



Four-fifths of the present total stand of saw timber lies west of the 

 Great Plains, leaving only one-fifth for the eastern half of the United 

 States. The bulk of the western timber consists of Douglas fir, 

 ponderosa (western yellow) pine, lowland white, noble and silver firs, 

 western hemlock, western red cedar, Sitka and Engelmann spruces, 

 redwood and sugar pine. The eastern saw- timber stand (354 billion 

 board feet) consists largely of the southern yellow pines, northern 

 spruces, and balsam fir, southern cypress, oaks (over a dozen species), 

 birches, beech, and maples, gums, yellow (or tulip) poplar, ashes, and 

 hickories. 



The national forests contain about one-third of the standing saw 

 timber and the lumbermen own nearly one-half of the total. Farmers 



: < United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. See footnote 13. 



