Forest Industries and Their Wood Needs 



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Where the Timber Goes 



1\RGE QUANTITIES OF TIMBER are cut 

 J each year for use in Minnesota processing plants. 

 Some additional volume is shipped to mills in adjacent 

 States. Large amounts are cut and used for fuelwood, 

 posts, and other round timber items. Finally, a 

 limited quantity is left in the woods or along routes 

 of transport in the form of residues. 



Many Mills in State 



Almost 2.000 primary wood-using plants operated 

 in Minnesota in 1953. Nearly all were small saw- 

 mills and other small-scale enterprises; less than one 

 percent were large industrial plants. More than 

 one-half of the plants were in the northeastern 

 division (table 22). 



Table 22. — .\ umber of primary wood-using fdauls Iiy geogra/diic 

 division. Minnesota, 1953 





Total 



Division 



Kind of mill 



North- 

 eastern 



South- 

 eastern 



Western 



Sawmills. 

 Large * 



3 



93 



1,719 



3 



70 



963 







19 



456 









4 



Small'-.. 



300 







Total __. 



Pulp mills _ . . 



Veneer plants: 



High-grade _ _ _ _ 



Container 



1,815 



9 



I 

 8 

 1 



1 



1 



25 



1,036 



6 



I 

 

 



1 

 1 



21 



475 

 3 







7 



I 





 

 4 



304 









 1 



Cooperage 







Miscellaneous: 

 Match 



n 



Clothespin 



n 



Lath-shingle., _ 







Total... 



1,861 



1,066 



490 



305 







' Annual production 5 million bd.-ft. or more. 

 'Annual production 500,000 to 4,999,000 bd.-ft. 

 ' Annual production less than 500.000 bd.-ft. 



Sawmills Are Small 



Only 3 sawinills were classified in 1953 as large 

 mills (producing 5 million board-feet or more). 

 Typical of these is the Red Lake Indian Mills at 

 Redby, Minn. (fig. 25). The medium and small 

 mills are mostly circular-saw mills, gas or diesel 

 operated, with output ranging from 1,000 to 25,000 

 board-feet per day. Only 1 mill in 5 has an edger 

 or surfacing unit. Many of the small mills are moved 

 once to several times a year. These mills operate on 

 a seasonal schedule from late fall to late spring. They 

 use from 5 to 25 men, the number depending on 

 whether the service is strictly one of milling or a 

 combination of logging and manufacture. During a 

 normal year only about 75 percent of the mills are 

 activ^ely engaged in sawing; the remaining 25 percent 

 are idle for one reason or another (fig. 26). 



A recent survey showed that more than one-third 

 of the sawmill operators sawed prirriarily for their 

 own use; about one-third operated on a custom or 

 contract basis processing logs for their neighbors; 

 fewer than one-third sawed for commercial distri- 

 bution or factory use. 



Sawmills turned out an estimated 191,250,000 

 board-feet of lumber during 1953. This required 

 removing only 150,248,000 board-feet of standing 

 sawtimber (including logging residues) inasmuch as a 

 large volume was sawed from material classified by 

 inventory standards as poletimber (i. e., smaller 

 than normal saw-log size). About 1^2 percent was 

 sawed from dead trees, cull trees, and other salvage 

 materia] . 



The 1953 cut of saw logs removed 36,374,000 cubic 

 feet of growing stock (sawtimber and poletimber trees 

 combined). This was 24 percent of the cut for all 

 products. Half the volume removed was softwoods; 

 half was aspen and other hardwoods. 



The largest share — about 75 percent — of the lumber 

 produced in 1953 was sawed in the nortlieastern 

 division (fig. 27). 



Minnesota's Forest Resources 



25 



