The Forest Industries 



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-$?<- 



EXCEPT IN the pulp and paper industry, inost of 

 the wood-using mills in New Hampshire are 

 small. Of some 700 firms that reported em- 

 ployment and payrolls in 1949, only 4 percent had 100 

 or more employees (14). About 90 percent of them 

 had fewer than 50 employees, and 40 percent operated 

 with 3 or less. 



More than 500 sawmills operate in New Hamp- 

 shire. They are concentrated in the southern part of 

 the State (fig. 4) ; however, the northern mills are 

 generally larger. The three pulp mills in New Hamp- 

 shire are all located in the northern part of the State. 



The Lumber Industry 



Lumber production in New Hampshire reached its 

 peak — 750 million board-feet — in 1907. Then it fell 

 to a low point of 130 million board-feet in 1932. 

 Since then production has risen steadily, and in the 

 years 1946 through 1952 it averaged nearly 350 mil- 

 lion board-feet annually. More than half of the cubic 



volume of timber harvested in the State in 1952 went 

 to sawmills to be cut into lumber. (Fig. 5.) Much 

 of this lumber in turn became material for various 

 other wood-using industries. 



The sawmills have always drawn heavily on the soft- 

 wood growing stock. The forest survey showed that 

 lumber production breaks down by species this way: 



Lumber 



production 



(percent) 



White pine 73 



Hemlock 12 



Spruce, fir, and others 4 



All softwoods 89 



Yellow birch . 4 



Sugar maple 3 



Red oak 2 



Beech 1 



Other hardwoods 1 



All hardwoods 11 



• VENEER MILLS 



■k TURNINGS AND 

 SQUARES 



SAWMILLS 



MISCELLANEOUS 



■ PULP AND PAPER 



MILLS 

 ▲ SHINGLE AND 



EXCELSIOR MILLS 



Figure 4. — The general distribution of primary wood-using industries in New Hampshire. The sawmills are clustered in the 



southern part of the State. 



Forest Resources of New Hampshire 5 



302642—54 2 



