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OCCASIONAL PAPER NO. 83

MAY 20, 1939

SOUTHERN FOREST EXPERIMENT STATION
E. L. Derrunon, Director
New Orleans, La.

fORE^TSERVlc'

lu^s

FORESTS IN THE ECONOMY OF THE SOUTH

by

I. F. Eldredge, Regional Director,
Forest Survey of the South

The Occasional Papers of the Southern Forest Experiment
Station present information on current southern forestry prob-
lems under investigation at the Station. In some cases, these
contributions were first presented as addresses to a limited
group of people, and as ’’occasional papers” they can reach a
much wider audience. In other cases, they are summaries of
investigations prepared especially to give a report of the
progress made in a particulai’ field of research. In any case,
the statements herein contained should be considered subject
to correction or modification as further data are obtained.

fORESTS IH THE ECONOMY OF THE SOUTH

by

I. F. Eldredge, Regional Director,
Forest Survey of the South

Once again the South is suffering from a maladjustment in its agricul-
tural economy » Millions of acres of former cotton fields have been thrown out
of cultivation and a considerable part of its population is suffering because
of lack of opportunity for gainful employment. Its railroads, its power com-
panies, and its ports have all been affected adversely, and the tax bases of
its cities, counties, and States have been weakened. The Nation and the South
itself is feeling the blight of its lessened purchasing power.

Everywhere in the South its leaders have come to believe that the most
hopeful remedy for a distressing situation lies in an expansion of industries,
particularly manufacturing. Every part of the South is taking stock of its re-
sources and facilities with a view toward bidding for factories (with payrolls
and with raw-material requirements) that will furnish dependable, profitable,
nearby markets for its labor and produce.

It can be understood, therefore, how gratefully the recent spectacular
expansion of the pulp and paper industry in the South has been received. In
the last 4 years or so, 15 new plants have been (or are being) built south of
the Potomac River, representing an investment of aroimd $100,000,000 of new
capital in plants alone, to say nothing of additional millions invested in
tributary forest land. This is a big step in the direction the South wants
to take.

This development, as much as anything else, has directed attention to
one of the South's chief assets — its forest resource. It is my purpose in
this brief article to give a view of the salient facts concerning the amount,
character, and capacity of the timber resource of that part of the South em-
braced in the eight States, or parts of States, lying west of the Savannah
River and including Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, the
eastern timber belt of Texas, about three-fourths of Arkansas, and the extreme
southeast corner of Oklahoma. This area, which is shown on the accompanying
map (figo 1), for convenience is hereafter designated "the lower South,"

The data presented here were gathered by the Forest Survey of the South,
which, as an activity of the Southern Forest Experiment Station, has been mak-
ing a field inventory of the forest growing stock, and concurrently, a detailed
canvass of the forest-using industries. This work has been under way since
1932, and to date over 40 resource reports have been made available for public
use .

The over-all land area of the region covered is, in round figures, 213
million acres. Of this area, the Survey determined that 122 million acres, or
nearly 5B percent, can be classified as productive forest land. The areas
characterized by certain dominant forest type-groups are shown on the

'Sj This paper was prepared for inclusion in the souvenir program of the Annual
Southern Paper Festival, Savannah, Ga,, April 17-19, 1939.

accompanying map. The Survey found that, for the lower South as a whole, old-
growth forest stands occupy only 15 percent of the forest area; second-growth
stands of sawlog size occupy 38 percent; second-growth stands under sawlog size,
34 percent; seedling areas, 5 percent; and clear-cut land, i.e., land from
which the timber crop has been totally removed and no new crop has taken its
place, 8 percent.

On this land the timber cruisers found the huge volume of 255 billion
board feet of timber in sound trees of sawlog size. The total growing stock of
the lower South, including not only trees of sawlog size, but all sound trees
5 inches d.b.h. and larger, and expressed in standard cords (4x4x8 ft.),
stacked with the bark on, totaled the sizable sum of more than one billion
cords, of which 525 million cords are pine. In the accompanying tabulation
(table l) is a statement of the forest area and the volume of the growing stock
by States, expressed in cords. It should be observed that the volume in the
hardwood species makes up more than half the total volume of growing stock.

Table 1, - Forest area and volume of growing stock^ by States

State

Total
productive
forest area

Net cordwood volume of
growing stock

Total

Pine

Hardwood and
cypress

Thousand acres

- - - - - Thousand cords-^

3/

Texas'^ ^ /

Oklahoma /

Arkansas-^

10,553

67,348

52,324

119,672

2,961

8,028

8,696

16,724

14,820

65,214

99,287

164,501

Louisiana

16,194

53,033

115,651

168,684

Mississippi

15,869

57,015

91,552

148,567

Alabama .

Georgia"^

Florida-^-/

18,860

91,449

75,960

167,409

21,036

122,959

79,197

202,156

21,653

59,776

48,353

108,129

Total

121,946

524.822

571,020

1.095.842

\J Includes all sound trees 5,0 inches d.b.h. and larger. The upper stems to a
4~inch minimum are included for all sizes of pine, for hardwoods 5,0 to 12,9
inches d.b.h.^and cypress 5,0 to 8,9 inches,

2/ Stacked standard cords (4 x 4 x 8 ft.) including bark,

3/ Includes only that part of the State in the forest region of the lower
South, The south Missouri delta is included with Arkansas,

4/ Excludes the Okefenokee Swamp and Coastal Islands, which have an estimated
productive forest acreage of 299,000 acres,

5y Excludes the Ocala National Forest and the Everglades, which have an esti-
mated productive forest acreage of 224,000 acres.

In the long run, and if the South's development is to be based soundly,
the forest-using industries must keep at least within the productive capacity
of the forest growing stock. We have not always done this, and in the past
many of our communities and the region as a whole have suffered because of
short-sighted liquidation.

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3

FIGURE

The present measure of the extent to which we may safely dip into our
forest wealth is its annual increment, that is to say, the net amount of wood
produced annually through growth. Mortality is deducted in computing the in-
crement, and the volume of wood in cull trees, dead trees, and the tops and
limbs of sawlog-size hardwoods and cypress is not taken into account in either
growing stock, increment, or drain.

The current annual increment of the forests of the lower South for the
year 1936 is shown by States and species-groups in figure 2. For the region
as a whole, based on a rough conversion from increment calculated in cubic feet,
it totals nearly 48 million cords, 56 percent of which was contributed by pines.

As stated before, this annual increment is net. It is interesting to
note that in 1936 the Survey estimated that the loss due to mortality amounted
to about 8 million cords of pine and 8 million cords of hardwood and cypress.
This annual loss is due in a large measure to the direct and indirect effects
of forest fires and to the non-observance of the elementary rules of forest
management. It will never be possible to eliminate entirely annual losses,
but widespread and effective fire protection and rational forest management
could reduce the losses tremendously and, to that extent, swell the volume of
increment from which to maintain industry.

The forests of the lower South are already the source of raw material
for a large and well-developed forest industry. The Survey found over 10 thou-
sand forest-using plants of all kinds, including 8,000 sawmills, 1,100 turpen-
tine stills, 24 pulp mills, and many other forest-products activities.

In addition to the annual drain of the forest resource of these indus-
trial plants, it was found that the annual requirement for fuel wood, together
with other domestic uses, constitutes one of the largest items the forests are
called upon to furnish. The drain from all sources in 1936 amounted to almost
40 million cords, of which lumber accounted for 53 percent; fuel wood and other
domestic uses, 24 percent; pulpwood, 4 percent; and all other uses, 19 percent.

The commodity drain on the sound-tree growing stock, as compared with
the net increment for 1936, is also shown in figure 2. Although a favorable
balance existed that year between increment and drain, the situation is not
static. It is obvious that in several States the margin is so small that
existing industries responding to a boom-time demand of forest products might
reverse the situation quickly and cut more than the annual increment. On the
other hand, it is entirely within the power of southern timber owners to in-
crease materially in every State in the lower South the volume and the quality
of the annual increment.

In every one of the 30 Survey units it covered in the lower South, the
Forest Survey found that the existing forest growing stock is from only a fourth
to a half of what the forest sites are capable of sustaining. This is what
might have been expected, for it must be realized that 85 percent of our forest
area is second growth that has grown to its present size without the benefit of
any conscious effort towards good husbandry, and exposed to the debilitating
effect of oft-repeated forest fires. The forests, therefore, are characterized
over many large areas by thin stands handicapped by the presence of cull trees,
and in some sections by badly over-crowded young stands, in which density of
stocking increases mortality and decreases increment.

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TOTAL DRAIN VERSUS NET INCREMENT
ON GROWING STOCK IN STANDARD CORDS

1936

There is a source of supply in the forests of the lower South not ac-
counted for in the preceding statement of volume of growing stockj nor in the
comparison of increment and drain » This is the sound usable volume in cull
trees and parts of trees not included in the above statements. The Survey
found that this volume has accumulated to the very large sum of more than 350
million cords of wood I By far the greater part of this volume is in the hard-
wood species-group. To the extent that this huge volume of material is used in
industry or for domestic purposes j it can supplement the cut from annual incre-
ment, Its removal from the forest stands would constitute a much needed step
in improving the growing conditions of the sound-tree growing stock.

On the face of it, the figures presented in the chart showing the com-
parison of increment and drain may be disappointing? in that they apparently do
not hold much promise for the large-scale industrial expansion that the South
so sorely needs. But, fortunately, this is not true; the present forest area
in the lower South is capable of supporting on a sustained-yield basis a
greatly expanded forest industry. It cannot do this, however, if it is treated

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in the future as it has been in the past. The forests of the South are, in
the main, young stands that will respond promptly and satisfactorily to intel-
ligent efforts to develop them.

There is room for more pulp mills in the South, provided that the new-
comers follow the example of the mills that are already established and buy
suitable forest lands in adequate acreage and put these lands lander sound tech-
nical forestry management designed to produce successive crops of timber to the
full capacity of which the land, the climate, and the species are capable. The
24 pulp and paper mills now established in the lower South have, through their
forward-looking forestry policy, already given a marked impetus to better
forest-land management in the region. Other industries depending upon the for-
est for their raw material must, if they expect to maintain their places in
the sun, adopt similar policies.

In addition to securing the major part of their future supplies through
land ownership and forest management, the forest industries in all categories
will find it to their financial advantage and future security to join forces
with the public agencies in preaching and practicing good forest management on
the non-company lands to which they must look for a considerable part of their
requirements for wood.

Eager as the South is for more forest industries, it wants only those
industries that will so use the resource as to become a permanent part of its
economic structure. Tne pulp and paper industry is looking for the promised
land where it may settle down, at last, to move no more. Properly managed,
protected, and utilized, the forests of the South will provide a sound basis
for a secure future — an ever-continuing succession of timber crops that will
be a permanent resource for a permanent industry.

Note: Assistance in the preparation of these materials was furnished by
the personnel of Works Progress Administration Official Projects 701-3-9 and
365-64-3-7.

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