VIRGINIA FOREST RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES 
The Forest-Products Industries 
57? 
HE forest resources of Virginia which have been 
described in preceding pages provide the raw 
material for numerous forest-products industries. 
For more than 300 years these forests have provided 
the people of Virginia with shelter, fuel, implements, 
and the means of livelihood. They still do so today— 
and not only Virginians but also the people of the 
Nation and, in some measure, the world. The pur- 
pose of this section of the report is to describe in some 
detail the variety and magnitude of these forest values 
in terms of commercial and domestic products and 
employment. 
TaBLe 12.—Production or receipts of forest products, 1940, 
1942, 1945 * 
| 
1940 1942 | 1945 
Product | ; | 
Active} Units? |Active| Units? |Active| Units 
plants} produced | plants) produced | plants) produced 
| B 
No. | M bd. ft.| No. | M bd. ft.| No. | M bd. ft. 
Timbers aeeuee see 2, 004/1, 049, 800} 2, 618}1, 213, 900|______ 994. 700 
Veneer logs--—- - == == 15 37, 100 16 25, 900 18 29, 300 
; Cords | Cords Cords 
Cooperage bolts________ 69} 107, 200 70} 109, 400 63 76, 900 
Pulpwood___--__---_-- 9| 834, 300 9| 876, 800 9} 823, 500 
Excelsior bolts_______-- 20 42, 700 20 55, 900 17 30, 000 
Tanning extract 3_______ 921061300} 22 No data 9 64, 600 
Mine timbers= == 2282-2 |- 25-22 LOI 700 soe 133 100/22 <2" 128, 200 
Huelswood sss werceenesn | Seas 3, 897, 100|----_- 3, 610, 000)______ 3, 261, 500 
ence*posts=0) se [ene TA3H3 00 |S 133300 |e 99, 600 
Miscellaneous 4__-__-__- 34 34, 300 26 32, 400 23 30, 900 
| M pieces | M pieces M pieces 
Polesvand:piles==. S255 tenes 128 |eesse= 160|22223 157 
lewnntiestsias saps st) m/e SOG ae 100 (zeae 274 
phota lees ees e 223160 |e se ee Ce) bees a Be 
| 
1 Data on lumber production obtained in cooperation with Bureau of the 
Census; data on other products obtained by Forest Survey. 
2 Production is reported for lumber, mine timbers, fuel wood, fence posts, 
poles and piles, and hewn ties. Receipts at plants are reported for veneer logs, 
cooperage bolts, pulpwood, excelsior bolts, extract wood and bark, and miscel- 
laneous products. Receipts include wood imported from other States. 
3 Includes chestnut wood and chestnut oak bark used for manufacture of 
tanning extracts. 
4Includes plants making handles, turned wood products, insulator pins, 
shingles, dimension stock, boxes, picker sticks, wooden utensils, mine wedges, 
shuttle blocks, and cedar chests. 
Important primary forest products processed in 
Virginia are lumber (which provides the major por- 
tion of value), veneer, pulpwood, extract wood, fuel 
Virginia Forest Resources and Industries 
825098°—49__5 
KS 
wood, cooperage, excelsior, poles and piles, fence posts, 
cross ties, and mine timbers. The number of plants 
and volumes produced or received in 1940, 1942, and 
1945 are shown in table 12. As has been noted previ- 
ously, the forest-products industries as a group rank 
second among the State’s manufacturing industries 
in number of employees and third in value of products. 
Among the secondary forest-products industries the 
most important is the furniture industry, centered 
largely in Henry, Franklin, and Campbell Counties: 
and the paper industry (excluding pulp mills) , making 
principally kraft paper, fiberboard, linerboard, and 
various types of paper containers. This report is 
chiefly concerned with the primary forest industries. 
The Lumber Industry 
From 1608 to the present day, lumber has been 
Virginia’s most important forest product. The indus- 
try has progressed from the Tidewater to the farthest 
corners of the State—from the days of sash gang-saw 
mills, through the period of relatively few large band 
mills, to the present era of a host of small portable 
mills, many of which cut less than 10,000 feet a day 
and operate only a few months per year. Lumber 
production has averaged almost 1 billion board feet 
a year for the past 40 years. The first decade of 
BILLION 
BOARD FEET 
ee 
4 
1 n ibaa el fie 
1925 1930 1935 1940 
Figure 35.—Lumber production in Virginia, 1905-45 
(1905-39, Bureau of the Census; 1940-45, Forest Service 
in cooperation with Bureau of the Census). 
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