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37> 
VIRGINIA FOREST RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES 
Summary of Survey F indings 
ORESTS rank high among Virginia’s rich and 
varied natural resources. ‘They have a significant 
influence on the welfare of agriculture, industry, 
employment, water supplies, game and fish, and recre- 
ation. But their contribution to the people of the 
State is only a fraction of what it could be under bet- 
‘ter forestry and closer timber utilization. 
VIRGINIA’S FORESTS 
| SUPPORT A LARGE FOREST-PRODUCTS 
INDUSTRY. Some of Virginia’s largest industrial 
plants use wood as raw material, and small wood- 
using industries are scattered throughout every county. 
In 1939 the products of these 2,700 plants were valued 
at about $123,000,000, of which about $54,000,000 
Wood prod- 
ucts ranked third in value among all manufactures. 
was the value added by manufacture. 
The wood-products industries rank next to textiles as 
a source of industrial employment, accounting for 22 
| percent of all employees in manufacturing. Com- 
mercial forest industries provided nearly 40,000 man- 
years of employment in 1944. 
In 1942 the lumber cut was 1.2 billion board feet, 
placing Virginia eighth in the South and eleventh in 
the Nation in lumber production. In 1945 the cut 
was 995 million board feet. Nearly one-half the 
lumber was produced by small, generally portable mills 
cutting less than 1 million feet a year, two-fifths by 
mills cutting from 1 to 5 million feet and a little more 
| than one-tenth by the nine larger mills. 
Veneer production required 29.3 million board feet 
| of logs in 1945 of which 10.7 million feet was brought 
| 
in from adjoining States. Exports to neighboring 
States totaled 1.3 million feet. 
The State’s nine pulp mills have a daily capacity 
of over 1,770 tons of pulp and in 1945 purchased 823,- 
500 standard cords of wood of which nearly three- 
fourths was pine, and the remainder gum, yellow- 
poplar, chestnut, and oak. In 1945 these and out-of- 
State mills obtained 798,900 cords of pulpwood from 
Virginia. 
Virginia Forest Resources and Industries 
ra keke 
Cooperage plants totaling 63 produced principally 
nail-keg staves; but potato-barrel, tobacco-barrel, and 
whiskey-barrel staves were also manufactured. Total 
wood used for cooperage in 1945 was 76,900 cords. 
More than one-third of the Nation’s excelsior plants 
are located in Virginia, where 30,000 cords of pine 
were consumed for this product in 1945. Miscellane- 
ous manufactured products accounted for an addi- 
tional 30,900 cords of various species. In 1945, 3.3 
million cords of wood were used for fuel, one-fourth 
of it cut from sound living trees. 
In 1945 saw-timber drain was 1,223 million board 
feet, of which 719 million feet was softwood, and 504 
million feet was hardwood. Nearly one-half the saw- 
timber drain came from loblolly and shortleaf pine. 
Of saw-timber drain, lumber accounted for 75 per- 
cent, pulpwood more than 11 percent, fuelwood 6 per- 
cent, and all other products 8 percent. 
Total drain from the growing stock was 4.7 million 
cords, of which 2.6 million cords was softwood. Of 
total drain, 57 percent was used for lumber, 18 percent 
for fuelwood, 15 percent for pulpwood, and 10 per- 
cent for other products. 
OCCUPY 58 PERCENT OF THE TOTAL AREA 
OF THE STATE. Forests cover 14.8 million acres, 
of which 14.4 million are commercial timberland. 
More than one-half of this commercial forest land 
is on farms; nearly nine-tenths is in private owner- 
ship. In 1940, 46 percent of the forest area was oc- 
cupied by the upland hardwood type, while the bot- 
tom-land and cove hardwood types together covered 
an additional 11 percent. The loblolly pine, shortleaf 
pine, and Virginia pine types each occupied about 2 
million acres, or 14 percent each, of the forest area. 
The white pine type was limited to little more than 
200,000 acres. 
CONTAIN 7 PERCENT OF THE SOUTH’S 
SAW TIMBER (fig. 1). In 1940 the live saw-timber 
volume was 24.3 billion board feet, or 1.5 percent of 
that in the Nation. 
softwood. Loblolly pine made up 29 percent of the 
total, with 7 billion board feet. There was then 
One-half of the live volume was 
1 
