132 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 



red oaks" and "other white oaks" are often difficult 

 to market. For many purposes, consumers prefer 

 sweetgum to tupelo and blackgum; sugar maple to 

 soft maple; yellow birch to beech; black walnut, 

 ash, and yellow-poplar to hickory, cottonwood, 

 and aspen. For certain special uses there are 

 long-standing species preferences: white hickory 

 handles, paper birch turning squares, white oak 

 staves, birdseye maple veneers, and so on. While 

 one softwood species can be substituted for another 

 in many cases, without much effect on costs, the 

 substitution of one hardwood for another is fre- 

 quently more expensive and less satisfactory be- 

 cause of the wide variation in wood character- 

 istics and the specialized nature of so many hard- 

 wood uses. Thus, in gaging the hardwood saw- 

 timber supply, an important factor is consumers' 

 preference for particular species. 



Growing stock is the net volume of sound wood 

 in all trees 5.0 inches in diameter or larger that 

 are now or prospectively suitable for conversion 

 into merchantable saw logs. Of the total growing 

 stock, softwood species account for 69 percent, 

 and 31 percent is hardwood. Douglas-fir, oak, 

 and southern yellow pine are the most abundant 



Table 78. — Net volume oj live sawtimher, by species 

 group, North, January 1, 1953 



Table 79. — Net volume of live sawtimher, hy species 

 groups, South, January 1, 1953 



Species 



Volume 



Softwoods : 



Spruce and balsam fir 



Billion 



bd.-ft. 

 19 

 16 

 11 

 13 



Percent 

 7 



White and red pine 



6 



Hemlock 



4 



Other softwoods ' 



5 







Total softwoods 



59 



22 







Hardwoods: 

 Oak: 



Red oak 2 



24 

 20 

 20 

 11 



9 



White oak ' 



8 



Other red oak 



7 



Other white oak 



4 







Total 



75 



22 



13 



12 



10 



9 



8 



7 



51 



28 



Sugar maple 



8 



Beech 



5 



Yellow birch- - 



5 



Soft maples 



4 



Hickory 



3 



Cottonwood and aspen 



3 



Yellow-poplar - _ _ _ 



3 



Other hardwoods 



19 







Total hardwoods 



207 



78 



Total all species 



266 



100 







Species 



Volume 



Softwoods : 



Southern yellow pine: 



Shortleaf and loblolly pine 



Longleaf and slash p'ine 



Other southern yellow pine 



Billion 

 bd.-ft. 

 121 

 37 

 10 



Percent 

 34 

 10 

 3 



Total _ . 



168 



12 



3 



47 



Cypress 



3 



Other softwoods 



1 







Total softwoods . _ 



183 



51 







Hardwoods: 

 Oak: 



White oak ^ 



15 



7 



33 



16 



J 



Red oak 2 



2 



Other red oak 



9 



Other white oak 



5 







Total 



71 

 24 

 23 

 15 

 9 

 32 



20 



Sweetgum 





Tupelo and blackgum 



6 



Hickory 



4 



Yellow-poplar 



3 



Other eastern hardwoods 



9 



Total hardwoods 



174 



49 







Total, all species 



357 



100 







' Including 294 million board-feet of ponderosa pine in 

 the Plains Region. 



2 Quercus alba and Q. prinus. 



3 Quercus borealis, Q. falcata yar. pagodaefolia, and Q. 

 shumardii. 



1 Ouercus alba and 0. prinus. 



2 Quercus borealis, Q. falcata var. pagodaefolia, and Q. 

 shumardii. 



species, but, as with sawtimher, the species com- 

 position of the growing stock shows great varia- 

 tion. In the West, and in Coastal Alaska, soft- 

 woods make up almost all of the growing stock, 

 but in the East two-thirds is hardwood. 



Nearly 10 Percent of All Timber 

 Volume Is in Cull Trees 



Of the 605 billion cubic feet of timber of all 

 species in the United States and Coastal Alaska, 

 cull trees, salvable dead trees, and hardwood 

 limbs account for nearly 15 percent, none of it 

 growing stock. In hardwoods, the proportion is 

 even higher, amounting to 28 percent of the total 

 cubic volume of hardwood timber. A little of this 

 material is finding its way into markets and in 

 the East, for example, some cull trees are now 

 used for pulpwood. In the West, salvable dead 

 trees, including windthrown, fire- and insect-killed 

 trees, are logged for lumber, veneer, and pulp- 

 wood. Thus in the Douglas-fir region nearly 

 half of the dead timber on the Tillamook Burn has 

 been salvaged. 



In all, there are 88 billion cubic feet of soimd 

 wood in dead and cull trees and in hardwood 

 limbs: cull trees contain about 60 percent of this 



