Volume Estimates 



About two-thirds of the saw-timber volume of 42.4 

 billion board teet is hardwood (including cypress), the re- 

 mainder pine. Sixty percent ot the hardwood saw timber 

 is in the bottom lands of the Mississippi River Delta; the 

 remainder, along with practically all the pine, occurs in 

 the three upland survey units. 



Loblolly pine makes up more than half the pine volume, 

 shortleat pine more than one-fourth. The hardwood and 

 cypress saw-timber volume is about equally divided among 

 three species groups: The oaks, the gums (sweetgum and 

 tupelos), and miscellaneous species, including cypress. 



Less than a fourth ot the pine volume, but over halt the 

 hardwood and cypress volume, is in old-growth stands. 



The total volume ot sound material, including bark, is 

 237 million cords. It is composed ot 62 million cords in 

 under-sawlog-size trees, 101 million cords in sawlog-size 

 trees, 44 million cords in the tops and limbs ot saw-timber 

 trees, and about 30 million cords in cull trees. The volume 

 of sound wood, excluding bark, is 16 billion cubic feet. 



Special Forest Resources 



Nearly 30 million of the pine trees included in estimates 

 of volume are suitable for poles and piles. This is about 

 one-sixth of all pine trees 7 to 19 inches d.b.h. Nearly 

 two-thirds ot these, however, would make poles or piles no 

 longer than 25 feet. 



In 1935 the 2 south pine units contained approximately 

 10 million round longleat and slash pine trees 9 inches d.b.h. 

 or larger and suitable for turpentining. In the 1937-38 

 season, 4 gum turpentine stills were operating in the State; 

 production totaled 2,070 units — the smallest quantity 

 since about 1880. 



About 7)2 million tons of stump wood (on a blasting 

 basis) was available in 1935 for the production of wood 

 naval stores; 58 percent was on clear-cut areas supporting 

 14 or more stumps per acre. In 1937, three wood naval 

 stores plants were in operation; they consumed about 

 121,000 tons ot seasoned pine stumps and top wood and 

 produced 7 times as much turpentine as the gum naval 

 stores industry. 



Forest Industries 



Employment provided by the forest industries in 1937 

 totaled 14 million 8-hour man-days. Lumber manufacture 

 alone accounted for more than 40 percent of this employ- 

 ment; fuel-wood production was second. The pulp 

 industry turnished nearly half as much employment as the 

 lumber industry. 



In 1937. there were 557 sawmills in the State; 10 percent 

 ot these had capacities ot 40,000 board teet or more per 

 10-hour day and produced 68 percent ot the lumber sawed. 

 The number ot mills increased to 565 in 1940, but the num- 

 ber ot mills ot 40,000 board teet and larger capacity 

 declined trom 58 to 45. There were also, in 1937, at least 

 88 nonlumber torest-industrial plants; most important ot 

 these were the 6 active pulp mills, which consumed more 

 than 700,000 cords ot pulpwood. 



Forest Increment and Drain 



In 1937, a peak year ot lumber production, the annual 

 cut tor all purposes trom the saw-timber component ot the 

 forest was 2,300 million board teet, which exceeded the net 

 increment by 400 million board feet. Subsequent lumber 

 production has been less than in 1937, so that the deficit 

 in later vears is almost certain to have been less. Even so 

 the cutting is chiefly concentrated on the larger, higher 

 quality trees, while the increment is mostly in the smaller 

 less-marketable trees. Furthermore, present cutting prac- 

 tices are gradually reducing the stocking of timber stands. 



Net increment of the entire growing stock ot sound 

 trees 5 inches d.b.h. and larger was about 7 million cords. 

 The cutting ot about 6.3 million cords for commodities 

 left 0.7 million cord as surplus. All this excess of incre- 

 ment over commodity drain measured in cords was in 

 hardwoods and cypress, where increment exceeded drain 

 by nearly a million cords; in the pines drain exceeded 

 increment by about 264,000 cords. Mortality loss was 

 equivalent to 15 percent of total growth in cords for pines 

 and 31 percent for hardwoods and cypress. 



Because the depletion in saw-timber material is more 

 than offset by the accretion in material below saw-timber 

 size, the forest volume as a whole is slowly building up, 

 but this increase is in sizes and of species not now readily 

 marketable. Growth processes and proper cutting prac- 

 tices can in time remedy the developing deficiency in 

 timber of saw-timber size, and changes in market require- 

 ments may make possible the utilization of species not 

 now moving easily on the market. Nevertheless, shrink- 

 age in the aggregate forest industrial set-up, due to lack of 

 suitable timber supply, seems inevitable. It the forests 

 are correctly handled, this shrinkage will be only temporary. 



Adjustments Needed 



The primary objective of forestry is to build up and 

 maintain the quantity and quality of the forest growing 

 stock so that forest industries can have adequate sup- 

 plies of raw material. The accomplishment ot this aim 

 involves definite action by land owners, the State, and 

 the Federal Government. 



