mills, by operating full time with a full crew of labor 
not available in 1942, and with adequate logging and 
milling equipment likewise not available during the 
war, production could probably be tripled or quad- 
rupled—if a sufficient supply of timber were available. 
TABLE 14.—Number of sawmills and lumber production by mill class, 
1942 
Sawmills Total lumber production 
Range of annual | 
production Average |Average 
(M bd. ft.) Num-j}~ daily | opera-| Soft- Hard- | 
3 | : i Total 
ber | produc- ing | woods | woods | 
tion 
time | 
M bd. ft. | Days | M bd. ft.| M bd. fi M bd. ft. | Percent 
Ties ss asciut 65/735 tence eres | eee le toro pene een ee ca [ee 
Oe IB 2 1 | 5,226 | 8,073.) 13,299} 1.1 
50190 eee 1, 219 3 56 |115, 443 117, $30 | 233,273 | 19.2 
500-999_______| 460 5 132 |228,035 | 98,498 | 326,533 | 26.9 
1,000-4,999__-_| 317 8 | 189 |382,177 |122,736 | 504,913 | 41.6 
5,000-9,999____ 6 28 258 | 27,606 | 16,117 | 43,723 | 3.6 
TOO00S Senet 3 114.| 269 | 54,669 | 37,487 | 92, 156 7.6 
Total___|3, 275 | 6 | 76 |813, 156 |400, 741 |1, 213, 897] 100.0 
| 
| 
Although there is ample unused capacity, the great 
majority of Virginia’s small sawmills are not equipped 
or operated efficiently enough to produce high-grade 
lumber. Neither do they efficiently utilize the logs 
they saw. Thus, the production of rough-sawn, un- 
graded, and green lumber is accompanied by large 
losses in slabs, edgings, and sawdust. Unfortunately, 
nearly one-half of Virginia’s saw-timber acreage is so 
poorly stocked as to be considered inoperable ex- 
cept by small mills. The result is economic waste of an 
already depleted resource. But this does not mean 
LEGEND 
THOUSANDS OF BOARD FEET 
RS. RY 
0 -2,499 RSS 10,000 - 19,999 
’ BS OSS 
Xs 
| 20,000 OR MORE 
Y 5,000 - 9,999 
TOTAL PRODUCTION 
994,664 M BOARD FEET 
MOUNTAIN 
J 
PIEDMONT 
that a small mill must be inefficient. _ It is logical to as- 
sume that a small mill can be efficient and operate in 
such stands. 
Concentration yards are an essential adjunct to 
the small-mill industry. A majority of the smaller 
mills sell their lumber—generally rough, green, and 
none-too-well manufactured—to these yards, where it 
is assembled, dried, graded, and dressed for the market. 
In some instances the concentration yard buys rough 
lumber directly from the sawmills; in others the yard 
owns mills outright or finances them in whole or in 
part, the mill cutting on contract for the financing 
yard. There is no fixed pattern of relationship for 
In 1946 there were about 
100 concentration yards in Virginia, 85 of them in the 
Piedmont and Coastal Plain, and about 15 in the 
mountains. 
either the yards or mills. 
These yards perform a highly useful 
service in preparing lumber in the form desired by the 
consumer, and in providing a central market for the 
Ver it 
is also true that their presence provides an incentive 
for overcutting and for wasteful mill practice. When 
yards are concentrated, competition for timber is in- 
output of many small scattered producers. 
creased as the demand for stumpage is localized. Since 
the common yard practice is to buy mill-run lumber, 
the mill owner has little incentive to grade-saw his 
product or otherwise improve its quality by better 
manufacturing processes. 
In 1945 about two-fifths of the year’s output of 
lumber came from the mills of the Coastal Plain. The 
Piedmont’s mills produced almost the same volume; 
the mills in the mountains contributed less than one- 
COASTAL PLAIN 
Ficure 41.—A pproximate lumber production by county, 1945. 
32 Miscellaneous Publication 681, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
