with individual timber owners to deliver pulpwood 
to the mill, and others buy it at the roadside or loaded 
on cars. By whatever means the wood is procured, 
the contractor gets a fixed fee per unit delivered at 
the mill for wood from his district. The price of pine 
pulpwood, f. 0. b. mill, was $9 to $10 per cord in late 
1946. In the same period pulpwood stumpage was 
valued at $2 to $2.50 per cord, or even higher in some 
locations. 
Transportation costs have always been an important 
factor in pulpwood costs. They set the limits to pro- 
curement areas. About 30 miles is the economical 
: , limit for truck haul, but railroad hauls of 200 or more 
F-481868 miles, and barge hauls of 50 or more miles, are not 
FicurE 45.—One of the ee of Virginia’s nine wood-pulp uncommon. Differentials in rail-freight costs have 
mills. 
created strange procurement patterns. For example, 
a pulp mill 200 miles from a source of wood may com- 
pete successfully with a mill only 40 miles from the 
same source, because the first mill has a one-line haul 
whereas the second mill has a two-line haul. A mill 
may pay less in transportation cost for a unit rail- 
hauled 150 miles than for a unit truck-hauled only 
25 miles. In general, however, pulpwood produc- 
tion is greatest relatively close to operating plants 
(fig. 47). 
Cooperage 
Measured by number of plants, cooperage produc- 
tion is Virginia’s leading nonlumber forest industry, 
nee but it ranks far below the pulp industry in volume of 
| Ficure 46.—E£ven a small pulp mill requires a large amount r . 4 
| of wood annually. In 1946 the State’s nine plants pur- wood used. In 1945, the 63 aCuve plants (fig. 42) 
chased more than 1 million cords. obtained 76.900 cords of wood, chiefly loblolly pine. 
LEGEND 
STANDARD CORDS 
. ea Ge ros W 10,000 - 19,999 
1,000 — 4,999 ae 20,000 OR MORE 
Wi 5,000 - 9,999 
TOTAL PRODUCTION 
798,900 CORDS - 
MOUNTAIN : PIEDMONT _COASTAL PLAIN 
§ Ficure 47.—Pulpwood production by county, 1945. 
Virginia Forest Resources and Industries 
35 
