a total cut of 46^2 million cubic feet of growing stock 

 (fig. 23). This volume includes the material that 

 actually went into finished products plus the material 

 of merchantable quality that ^vas cut but unused in 

 logging. It does not include about 20 percent of the 

 wood used in 1949 that came from saplings, dead and 

 cull trees, and scattered trees in fence rows and 

 pastures. 



COMMODITY 



VOLUME 



SAWLOGS 

 FUELWOOO 

 FENCE POSTS 

 VENEER BOLTS 

 OTHER 



-till 



t 



1 1 







1 



n 







i ■] 







5 10 15 20 

 MILLION CUBIC FEET 



Figure 23. — Eighty percent of the timber cut in Indiana is from saw- 

 timber, 20 percent from poletirrtber mostly Jor fuelwood and JerKe 

 posts. 



The sawtimber cut in 1952 amounted to 269 million 

 board-feet, an increase of 15 million over the 1949 

 cut. The cut for lumber, veneer, cooperage, etc., has 

 not changed much lately, but recent studies indicate 

 a marked decline in the use of fuelwood. 



Sawlogs for lumber accounted for 75 percent or 191 

 million board-feet (fig. 24) of the sawtimber cut; 14 

 percent was cut for fuelwood, 5 percent for veneer 

 logs, and the remaining 6 percent for miscellaneous 

 uses. About 32 million board-feet was left in the 

 woods as logging residue. This volume would have 

 been larger except that some timber owners cut part 

 of the logging residue for fuelwood. 



Practically all the sawtimber cut was hardwoods; 

 inore than one-third was oak. Beech was second in 

 volume cut, followed by maple, yellow-poplar, elm, 

 hickory, sycamore, Cottonwood, and black walnut. 



At least 40 percent of the volume cut from sawtimber 

 was in high-quality logs (grades 1 and 2). Eighty 

 percent of the high-quality timber was cut for lumber, 

 the remainder for veneer, cooperage, and handle 

 stock. In this class of material, the cut is one-third 

 greater than the growth. 



About 13 percent of the volume cut \vas from trees in 

 the 12- and 14-inch diameter classes, although 34 per- 

 cent of the stand volume is in these classes. The 

 percentage of volume cut from 16- and 18-inch trees 



COMMODITY 



VOLUME 



SAWLOGS 

 FUELWOOO 

 VENEER BOLTS 

 OTHER 





, , .-' - • /■ ;— -| 





1 



1 









u 



50 100 150 

 MILLION BOARD-FEET 



Figure 24. — Most of Indiana's annual sawtimber harvest is sawed 

 into lumber and related products such as timbers, railroad ties, and 

 car blocking. 



was about the same as the occurrence in the stands, 

 but nearly 60 percent of the cut was from 20-inch and 

 larger trees, although only 35 percent of the stand 

 volume is in this class. 



Poletimber was cut mostly for fuelwood and fence 

 posts. Forty-five percent of the fence posts cut from 

 poletimber was black locust. There is little if any 

 waste from cutting poletimber. Most of it is utilized 

 in round or split form and does not require milling. 

 Saplings as sinall as 3 inches in diameter are often 

 utilized for fence posts, and even smaller material is 

 used for fuelwood. Thus when poles are cut for 

 these products, they are often utilized beyond the 

 merchantability standards used by the Forest Survey. 



Trends ifi Timber Volume 



■ \ 



The 1949 sawtimber growth (551 million board- 

 feet) exceeded the cut by 297 million board-feet. 

 This increase raised the sawtimber inventory by 2.7 

 percent, or an average of about 73 board-feet per acre. 

 Because wood-using industries are concentrated in 

 southern Indiana, the cut is heavier in this region and 

 the per-acre increase was not as great as in northern 

 Indiana. 



AH species except beech are growing faster than 

 they are being cut (fig. 25). More beech is being cut 

 than is growing; this overcutting is a result of its slow 

 growth rate plus a good demand in recent years for 

 beech small-dimension stock. Much of the beech 

 sawtimber is overmature, and there are few pole 

 timber trees coming along to grow into sawtimber. 

 Species such as elm and hickory, which are not in 

 great demand, are increasing very rapidly. The 

 \-olume of pine is also increasing rapidly because so 

 much of it is in young plantations and is just reaching 

 poletimber size, where it will be included as growing ^ 



i 



18 



Forest Resource Report No. 10, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



