SHORTLEAF PINE: IMPORTANCE AND MANAGEMENT. 15 
cost of finished lumber as $13.66. At current selling prices (April, 
May, 1913) of $15.75, this yielded a net profit of $2.09 per thousand 
feet, or total annual net earnings of $7,315. This represents clear 
profits of 21 to 24 per cent, or an average of 22 per cent, for the 
five companies. 
WASTE. 
The degree of utilization in the logging, manufacture, and general 
use of shortleaf pine varies widely. On the whole, the utilization 
is comparatively close throughout its range. In the uplands of the 
coastal Atlantic and Gulf States practically all of the product finds a 
ready market. The poorer class of timber is used locally, and the 
day of clearing off lands by destructive fires ceased in this region long 
ago. Almost paradoxical, however, is the waste in one particular 
feature of logging in some of the more progressive regions. As an 
illustration, in Pickens County, in the upper Piedmont of South 
Carolina, stumps of mature shortleaf pine were cut from 20 to 34 
inches in height (March, 1913), where everything of the smaller sizes 
down to 2 inches in diameter was being corded and shipped by rail 
for fuel. Thus, clear and high-priced timber was being left where 
there was a paying market demand for even the small topwood. The 
cause for this condition was given by the operator as the impossibility 
of changing the old-time habits of the negro labor of cutting high 
stumps. ‘Two stumps, 28 and 30 inches high, shown in Plate IIT 
scaled a total of 38 board feet (Doyle log rule) above a stump height 
of 12 inches, and were worth $0.19 at a stumpage rate of $5 per thou- 
sand feet.1 Measurements on an average acre gave 30 stumps con- 
taining an average of 9 board feet each above a maximum stump 
height of 12 inches, or a value of $1.35 per acre. This represents 
practically a clear loss due to careless logging of not less than $270 
on the tract of 200 acres. 
In contrast, the operators of the Mississippi Valley region are cut- 
ting to a maximum stump height of 12 inches, and small trees up to 
15 inches in diameter are taken mostly at 8 to 10 inches. On the other 
hand, in very many cases they do not take the log or logs in the crown 
above about the second limb. Top diameters of 12 to 16 inches were 
common in representative mature cuttings in Pike County, Ark., in 
the fall of 1912. Ina well-stocked stand, 150 years old, 380 logs were 
taken and 100 logs left per acre in the tops because of the lower grade 
of timber. The top logs taken ranged from 16 down to 9 inches and 
averaged 11.6 inches in diameter at the small end. The diameters of 
the top logs left in the woods averaged 9.8 inches and ranged from 13 
down to 8 inches. The number of logs taken and left per acre, and 
1A conservative price for clear material in butt logs. 
