Treesearch

Rapidly increasing imports have captured a significant share of America's hardwood markets. Total imports of hardwood raw materials and building products are now four times as large as exports. Before World War II the U. S. was a net exporter of hardwoods, and imports were limited to high-quality mahogany and specialty logs and lumber. Availability of large volumes of competitively priced imports has led to a doubling of U. S. consumption of hardwood plywood in the last 10 years. Lumber, principally from tropical areas, comprises an increasing share of the fine hardwood used in furniture...

In 1964, for the sixth consecutive year, pulpwood production in the South established a new record. Gains in 11 of the 12 States raised the total 8 percent above that of 1963. The cordage increases were largest in Alabama and Georgia. These two States also led in volume harvested; together they accounted for more than a third of the 1964 total. All but three of the Southern States cut more than 2 million cords apiece. Tennessee was the only State showing a decline from the previous year.

The weight of foliage on loblolly pine trees in a 25-year-old north Mississippi plantation was found to be closely related to tree diameters, while fascicle length and weight were independent of tree size. Thus foliage parameters such as needle numbers, volumes, or surface areas, often needed for hydrologic and other purposes, may be approximated from relatively inexpensive stand measurements. Since the study area included a considerable range in site quality, the relationships should be rather widely applicable in similar fully stocked stands.

A plastic-covered shelter simulates drought severe enough to cause seedling mortality. Air and soil temperatures, and relative humidity, are but slightly higher under the shelter than outside it.

Cold storage of pine seedlings has become an accepted practice in the South. For the past 3 years the Yazoo-Little Tallahatchie Flood Prevention Project in north Mississippi has been using railroad refrigerator cars, parked on sidings, to store loblolly pine seedlings. This is a report of a 1963 study of survival and growth of stock that was outplanted after being held for 1, 5, and 9 weeks in refrigerator cars and in a cold-storage room.

In stands on the batture of the lower Mississippi River, the proportion of volume rendered cull by rot increased with stand age but was less than 1 percent after 30 years, by which time most pure stands were breaking up.

In 1963, timber products from Louisiana forests totaled 381 million cubic feet. This harvest supplied roundwood to more than 220 primary wood-using plants within the State, and to about 60 in surrounding States. A canvass of these plants, together with a survey of nonindustrial wood use, provided the data summarized in table 1.

In 1963, Midsouth mills paid an average price of $15.77 per cord for delivered pine bolts. Hardwood bolts sold for $13.10 per cord. The price for pine has increased nearly fivefold since 1937, when the rapid growth of the southern pulp industry began. Hardwood prices have increased some $3.00 per cord since 1947, the earliest year for which data are available.

In a nine-county area, epicormic branches were found on the second log of 72 percent of the saw-log size hardwoods. Branching was most frequent in stands with basal areas below 75 square feet per acre; for the most common species it was inversely related to the product of tree d.b.h. and stand basal area.