SOFTWOODS: Sees 
VIRGINIA PINE 
OTHER YELLOW PINES 
OTHER SOFTWOODS 
TOTAL 
HARDWOODS: 
OAKS 
GUMS & YELLOW-POPLAR 
OTHER HARDWOODS 
TOTAL 
ALL SPECIES 
10 ihe} 
PERCENT 
Figure 64.—WNet change in total growing stock, measured 
in cords, 1940 to 1946. 
In that year, 70 percent of the saw-timber drain, and 
63 percent of the drain of all material, was softwood. 
By 1945 the proportion of softwood in the drain had 
declined to 59 percent of saw timber and 54 percent 
of all material (fig. 65). The principal reason for this 
decline lay in the greatly increased demand for hard- 
wood for war needs subsequent to the outbreak of hos- 
tilities. Some of it may well have been the result of 
diminishing supplies of operable softwood timber. 
Whatever the causes, this proportional decline in 
softwood drain relieved for a few years some of the 
pressure on the softwood growing stock. As has been 
noted, however, the softwood growing stock continued 
to decline in relation to the total stand (fig. 65), and 
there is every reason to expect that the proportion of 
In 1946, hard- 
wood demand slackened as war contracts were can- 
celed. 
softwood in the drain will rise again. 
At the same time, the pent-up demand for 
construction lumber and increased consumption of 
pulpwood accelerated softwood drain. While soft- 
woods may not again reach the 1941 peak of 70 percent 
of all saw-timber drain, there is little question but that 
they will rise above the 1945 level over the next decade, 
and that a very large proportion of softwood drain 
will be loblolly and shortleaf pines. Saw-timber 
growth of these species now barely exceeds drain in the 
Coastal Plain. In the Piedmont additional drain 
would further accentuate the decline in shortleaf saw 
timber, which appears to have decreased nearly one- 
fourth in 6 years. 
PERCENT 
I-SAW TIMBER 
IT-ALL SOUND TREES 
5.0" 0.B.H. & LARGER 
4 
Ficure 65.—A, Proportion of growing stock which was soft- 
wood, as of January I each year; and B, proportion of 
commodity drain which was softwood in each vear (plotted 
over mid point of year). 
‘44° (45° «(46 
YEARS 
To be sure, better protection of forests from fire, in- 
sects, and disease, better utilization practices in both 
woods and mill, changed demands arising through 
technological advances—all of these can change the 
picture quite radically, and undoubtedly will do so 
in time. Nevertheless, in certain parts of the State, 
notably the Piedmont, the industries now cutting pine 
may be forced in a relatively short time to adapt their 
output increasingly toward a hardwood market. In 
view of the currently readier markets for pine, its 
quicker growth, higher yield, and lower cost of har- 
vesting, such a transition to a predominately hardwood 
operation may well require a major adjustment in the 
industrial economy of the Piedmont. 
50 Miscellaneous Publication 681, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
