“million dollars. Transportation is generally ade- 
quate; power development is expanding. Population 
} growth has averaged 10 percent per decade since 1890. 
Forest resources are reasonably abundant and diversi- 
fied, and their utilization is an important segment of 
} Virginia’s economy. 
| Population and Employment 
In 1940 Virginia’s population numbered 2.7 million 
people, roughly two-thirds of whom were classified as 
rural and one-third as urban. 
this total lived on farms. Urban-population increase 
has averaged 18 percent per decade since 1920, but 
rural population increased at a rate of only 3 percent 
Nearly 37 percent of 
H per decade in the same period. Undoubtedly this 
‘trend toward increased urbanization was even more 
'}) accentuated after 1940, as a result of war industrializa- 
‘tion. Postwar trends have not yet been reported. 
In March 1940 about 933,000 Virginians were em- 
‘} ployed in normal activities not classified as public 
emergency work. By occupation they were distrib- 
uted as follows: Agriculture 25 percent, manufactur- 
ing 20 percent, wholesale and retail trade 12 percent, 
} professional services 6 percent, transport and utilities 
7 percent, and miscellaneous occupation 30 percent. 
One-fourth of those engaged in manufacturing were 
employed in the forest-products industries. 
Agriculture 
In 1940 Virginia’s 174,885 farms contained 16,- 
445,000 acres, an average of 94 acres perfarm. There 
were only 688 farms of 1,000 acres or more, but 22,291 
were of less than 10 acres each. The 94-acre average 
farm had 39 acres in woodland, 27 acres in crops, 18 
acres in plowable pasture, and 10 acres in other uses. 
The total value of farm products sold, traded, or 
used in 1940 was about 151 million dollars. 
percent of this income came from the sale or trade 
of livestock and livestock products, including poultry, 
Most 
of the rest of the value represented products used on 
Seventy 
and from farm crops, chiefly tobacco and fruit. 
the farm. The value of farm woodland products 
.} sold and used cannot be accurately determined from 
recent statistics. On the basis of a questionnaire sur- 
vey made jointly by the Forest Service and the Bu- 
reau of Agricultural Economics in 1937, it is estimated 
that their value was about 15.5 million dollars. Con- 
sidering that at that time there were about 6 million 
acres of farm woodland, the average return per acre 
‘was very low, only $2.60: 
ever, that many acres were not operated at all and that 
the realization of the income on the woodlands which 
It must be recalled, how- 
Virginia Forest Resources and Industries - 
were operated required little expense other than the 
value of the owner’s own labor or that of his hired 
farm hands. Even this low income, however, repre- 
sented more than 10 percent of the value of all farm 
products in 1940. Comparing the 15.5 million dol- 
lars of forest products in 1937 with 1940 farm-prod- 
uct values, only livestock, livestock products, corn, 
tobacco, hay and forage, and vegetables sold and used 
on farm had a higher value. 
An arresting fact about Virginia’s agriculture is that 
a large proportion of the farms yield incomes that 
permit the operators and their families only the barest 
necessities. [he 1939 census reports that the value 
of all farm products sold, traded, or used was less than 
$400 for 44 percent of the farms, and less than $600 
for 61 percent of the farms. These meager incomes 
are, of course, supplemented by off-farm labor income. 
Thirty-five percent of all farm operators reported 
that they worked off their farms for an average of 
170 days each during 1939. Assuming a daily wage of 
$4, this would gross only $680 per year. 
Since half of the State’s forest area is on farms, im- 
provements in managing and harvesting the farm 
woodlands can play a vital part in the welfare of the 
forest industries and of the State as a whole. 
Manufacturing 
Pronounced industrial development has taken place 
in Virginia since the turn of the century. During this 
period (1899-1939) value of manufactured prod- 
ucts has increased to nine times the former value, 
and value added by manufacture to seven times the 
former value. The number of wage earners has 
increased from 66,000 to 134,000 and wages from 20 
There have also been 
some striking shifts in type of industry. Those pro- 
ducing capital goods have been replaced to a con- 
siderable extent by those producing consumer goods, 
chiefly textiles and food products. 
cigarettes and of smoking and plug tobacco has long 
million to 116 million dollars. 
Manufacture of 
been a major industry. 
In 1939 the 2,579 manufacturing establishments 
reported by the United States census employed 134,000 
wage earners and produced goods valued at nearly 
989 million dollars. The textile and apparel industry 
had the most employees, followed by wood products 
(fig. 6), and food products (fig. 7, A). In value 
of products, however, the tobacco industry was far 
in the lead, providing 36 percent of the value of all 
goods produced. ‘Textiles, and 
chemical products each provided about 13 percent of 
total product value (fig. 7, B). 
wood products, 
