F —4417! 
Ficure 48.—WNail-keg staves are the principal product of the 
cooperage industry. 
About 8 percent was hardwoods. Of the total con- 
sumption, 74,300 cords was produced in Virginia, the 
rest being imported from North Carolina. At the 
same time 500 cords was exported to North Carolina. 
LEGEND 
STANDARD CORDS 
2,000 - 4,999 
ee 5,000 OR MORE 
[| none 
WZ 500 - 1,999 
TOTAL PRODUCTION 
74,800 CORDS 
MOUNTAIN 
Nail-keg slack staves (fig. 48) are the principal 
product, but small amounts of slack staves for potato 
barrels and tobacco barrels, and tight staves for 
whisky barrels are also produced. The industry is 
centered in Southampton, Sussex, and Greenville 
Counties of the Coastal Plain (fig. 49). Here 70 per- 
cent of the plants (fig. 50) consume 81 percent of the 
wood used by the industry in Virginia. 
F-441775 
Figure 50.—Cooperage plants are small, but in 1945 they 
used 76,900 cords of wood. 
Although a few companies own sizable tracts of 
timber, almost all the wood used is purchased as 
stumpage, usually on a lump-sum basis. While trees 
from as small as 6 inches d. b. h. up to 20 inches are 
used, most of the wood for nail-keg staves comes from 
trees 8 to 12 inches in diameter, 
COASTAL PLAIN 
Ficure 49.—Cooperage-bolt production by county, 1945. 
36 Miscellaneous Publication 681, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
