MILLION 

 BOARD-FEET 

 1,2 OOr 



1,000 



800 



600 



400 



200 



1905 



1910 



1915 



1920 



1925 



1930 



1935 



1940 



1945 



Figure 22. — Lumber production in Tennessee, 1904—49. 



saw, carriage, feed works, and power unit) ; the lumber 

 is generally edged on the headsaw. Most of them can 

 turn out only a low-quality product, yet they provide 

 cheap local supplies of lumber and furnish employ- 

 ment for rural workers between crop periods. 



The 532 mills cutting from one-half to 3 million 

 board-feet annually are the keystone of Tennessee's 

 lumber industry. The group included 19 percent of 

 the active mills and accounted for 52 percent of the 

 total lumber cut. Not only is their production more 

 sustained than that of the smaller mills, but they are 

 generally better equipped and more efficiently oper- 

 ated, and hence produce better lumber. The larger 

 mills in this class are of the permanent type, and logs 

 are commonly hauled to the mill by truck. 



Mills cutting more than 3 million board-feet an- 

 nually numbered 19 and produced 11 percent of the 

 total lumber manufactured in the State (fig. 25). 

 The heaviest concentration of these large mills, 

 chiefly band mills, is in the Memphis area. Unlike 

 the smaller mills — which draw some three-fourths of 

 their wood from within the county in which they are 

 located — these mills reach out to neighboring States 

 for about half of their sawlogs. The west Tennessee 

 mills draw their imports largely from the Delta of 

 Mississippi and Arkansas; while those in the eastern 



Table 4. — Lumber production of sawmills in Tennessee, 7946 



Size of sawmill l (thousand 



Mills 



Lumber production 



bd.-ft.) 



Softwood 



Hardwood 



Total 



1-199 



Number 



2,238 



532 



19 



Thousand 



bd.-ft. 



108, 993 



141, 879 



12,860 



Thousand 



bd.-Jt. 



222, 287 



320, 376 



86, 552 



Thousand 

 bd.-ft. 

 331,280 



5U0-2.999 



462, 255 



3.000 and up 



99, 412 







Total 



2,789 



263, 732 



629, 215 



892, 947 







1 As measured by production of lumber in 1946. 



part get their imports principally from Kentucky. 

 The fact that the big mills draw such a large propor- 

 tion of their logs from outside the State points to a 

 short supply of high-quality timber in Tennessee. 



Much of the State's lumber output moves in inter- 

 state commerce. About one-third of the lumber pro- 

 duced in Tennessee is exported, chiefly to Indiana, 

 Kentucky, and Ohio. Of the total lumber consumed, 

 slightly more than half is produced within the State. 

 Tennessee mills produce some three-fifths of the State's 

 hardwood requirements; two-fifths of its softwood re- 

 quirements. Alabama and Mississippi provide more 

 than half of the imported lumber, which is about 

 equally distributed between hardwood and softwood. 



22 



Forest Resource Report No. 9. U. S. Department of Agriculture 



