THE PRESENT FORESTS 



17 



12-inch trees and 15 percent In trees above 18 inches. 

 Hardwood sawlog trees are usually larger than soft- 

 wood; about a third of the hardwood total is in tree 

 sizes above 18 inches. 



Sawlog volume is concentrated enough to make saw- 

 timber stands (stands containing at least 1,500 board 

 feet per acre) on 36 percent of the forest land. Cord- 

 wood stands comprise 39 percent of the forest; seed- 

 ling and sapling stands, 14 percent. Restocking or 

 denuded areas make up the remaining 11 percent. 



BILLION 

 CUBIC FEET 

 4t 



CENTRAL 



NORTH 





SOFTWOOD 



DELTA 



'.■.". -.■.v.' 



y/y/--'- 



HARDWOOD 



Figure 15. — Total growing stock by Survey region, 1946—48. 



Saw-timber stands are found on nearly half the forest 

 land in the central and Delta regions; cordwood stands 

 predominate in north Mississippi; and the smallest 

 stand sizes show up most commonly in south Missis- 

 sippi. 



Tree and Stand Quality 



A third of Mississippi's hardwood sawlog volume is 

 in good quality logs (grades 1 and 2). Nearly half 

 of the volume is in grade 3A logs (fig. 17) — the small 

 logs and knotty large logs whose defects limit their 

 yield of No. 1 common and better grades of lumber 

 to less than 40 percent of their net volume. Most of 

 the grade 3A timber is barely merchantable for saw- 



ALL TREES 



SAWLOG TREES 



CORDWOOD TREES 



2 4 6 



BILLION CUBIC FEET 



SOFTWOOD 



\.y.yy.:y.->i 



HARDWOOD 



Figure 16. — Total growing stock in cordwood and sawlog 

 trees, 1946^8. 



logs. In fact^ the 17 percent of hardwood sawlog 

 volume which is in grade 3A logs occurring in poor 

 stands (stands in which no grade 1 or 2 timber occurs) 

 is frequently considered uneconomic to harvest for 

 standard lumber logs, cooperage bolts, and other hard- 

 wood industrial products. As for the considerable 

 volume of grade 3A in small trees, it is true that many 

 trees, if permitted to grow to larger sizes, will develop 

 into higher grade timber; but the general trend is 



BILLION 

 BD FT 



BILLION 

 BD. FT 

 81 



_P 



I 2 3 



SOFTWOOD TREE GRADE 



I 2 3A 38 



HARDWOOD LOG GRADE 



Figure 17. — Sawlog volume by softwood tree grade and 

 hardwood log grade, 1946—48. 



