Ficure 43.—Rotary-cut veneer for furniture is the principal 
product of the State’s veneer industry. 
Softwoods provided the remainder. The largest cen- 
ter of production was in the southeastern part of the 
State (fig. 44). 
Veneer plants have a more difficult log-procure- 
ment problem than sawmills. Veneer bolts, because 
of the higher quality and the larger diameter trees 
required to produce such quality, bring higher prices 
than sawlogs. They are bought delivered at the plant 
or on cars for shipment; few plants own their own 
timber or buy stumpage. Because the proportion of 
woods-run logs suitable for veneer is low, except for 
yellow-poplar, most plants draw material from a wide 
territory. About 75 percent of the log volume is hauled 
an average of 46 miles by truck to the plants, the re- 
mainder an average of 15 miles by truck to a railroad. 
LEGEND 
THOUSANDS OF BOARD FEET 
es) NEGLIGIBLE 500 - 999 
ae 1,000 OR MORE 
V/A \00 - 499 
TOTAL PRODUCTION 
20,000 M BOARD FEET 
MAM 
MOUNTAIN 
Wood Pulp 
In 1946 Virginia’s-nine wood-pulp mills (fig. 42) 
had the plant capacity to produce over 1,770 tons of 
pulp every 24 hours. Several pulping processes are 
used, but the sulfate process accounts for 78 percent 
of the pulp produced. Four of the mills use this 
process. Two mills use the soda process to make 
hardwood pulp for book, writing, and other white 
papers; one mill makes insulating board from pine 
groundwood, one uses the semichemical process for 
converting chestnut into linerboard; while one 
groundwood and semichemical mill produces corru- 
gating board (fig. 45). 
In 1945 these nine mills purchased 823,500 standard 
cords * of pulpwood, of which 73 percent was yellow 
pine and 27 percent was hardwoods, principally 
gum, yellow-poplar, chestnut, and oak, fig. 46). Pine 
will undoubtedly continue to be the principal source 
of Virginia’s pulp for a long time to come. 
While some of the mills own fairly large tracts of 
timber, more than three-fourths of their pulpwood 
is obtained from other lands, almost all of it under 
the contract system. Under this system, the pulp com- 
pany enters into contracts with a number of individ- 
uals who agree to supply the mill with a stated amount 
of pulpwood.each month or week. The system is 
extremely variable—some contractors buy boundaries 
of timber and furnish the labor and equipment to 
harvest it; others subcontract with truck operators or 
° The standard cord contains 128 cubic feet; the more com- 
monly used “unit” contains 160 cubic feet. 
COASTAL PLAIN 
Ficure 44.—Veneer log production by county, 1945. 
4 Miscellaneous Publication 681, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
