Fuel Wood 
Between 3 and 4 million cords of fuel wood are used 
annually in Virginia for heating, cooking, and curing 
tobacce (fig. 53). This is the largest single use of 
wood, exceeding even lumber, but only a portion of 
the consumption represents drain on the growing stock. 
The exact volume for any one year cannot be accu- 
rately determined because of difficulty in obtaining an 
F—441835 
Figure 53.—Curing tobacco required 154,000 cords of wood 
from living trees in 1945. 
adequate sample and because fuel cut varies with the 
severity of the winter. Most fuel wood is cut by 
users from their farm woodlands (fig. 54), but use of 
mill waste has increased sharply since 1940. On the 
basis of 1945 estimates, about three-fifths of the fuel 
wood cut from living trees came from hardwood 
species. 
40 percent came from tops and limbs, dead and cull 
By source of wood, 35 percent was mill waste, 
trees, and the remaining 25 percent from sound grow- 
ing trees. Farm families consumed an average of 
11.7 cords per family, rural nonfarm families 6.7 cords, 
small-town families 4.4 cords, and urban families 0.1 
cord per year. 
Fuel wood ranks third as a source of drain on the 
In 1945, 329,000 
cords of pine fuel wood was cut from sound, growing 
pine growing stock of the State. 
Q 
and cap boards are included under “mine timbers.” 
38 Miscellaneous Publication 681, U. S. Department of Agriculture 4 
trees. The total pine pulpwood drain from Virginia’s — 
forests in the same year was 590,500 cords, while the 
lumber industry used the equivalent of 1,305,500 
cords ofpine. _ : 
F-382654 
Figure 34.—More than 800,000 cords of fuel wood was cut 
from sound, live trees in 1945. 
Mine Timbers 
Virginia’s extensive coal-mining industry, which 
produces from 15 to 20 million tons of coal annually, 
requires a wide variety of wood products, both rough 
and dressed. ‘These include rough mine props, cap 
boards, brattice lumber, wedges, mine ties, and other 
miscellaneous products. 
ties are included under the lumber industry, mine 
Brattice lumber and sawn 
wedges, hewn ties, and other miscellaneous mine prod- 
ucts under “miscellaneous industries.” Mine props 
In 1945 more than 128,000 cords of wood were used 
for mine timbers. Almost any species is acceptable, 
but props must be sound, at least 5 inches in diameter 
at the small end, and from 3 to 16 or more feet long. 
Pieces larger than 8 inches in diameter are generally 
split in half, and those over 14 inches are quartered. 
In 1945, 78 percent of mine timbers were hardwood 
and 22 percent softwood. Oaks, hickory, chestnut, 
maple, yellow-poplar, and locust were the chief hard- 
wood species used. 
Because of labor shortages during the war and the 
