U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY In cooperation with the University of Wisconsin MADISON, WISCONSIN f SMALL SAWMILL UTILIZATION OF APPALACHIAN HARDWOODS FOR TIES Production, Mill and Wood Costs, and Practice in Relation to Forest Management and Profits By R. D. CARVER Senior Forester and J. B. CUNO Associate Wood Technologist Published in CROSS TIE BULLETIN March, 1931 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/sawutilOOfore SMALL SAWMIL L UTILIZ ATION 0? APPAL ACHIAN HARDWOODS FOR TIES PRODUCTION, MILL AMD WOOD COSTS, AND PRACTICE III RELATION TO FOREST MANAGEMENT AND PROFITS By R. D. GARTER, Senior Forester, and J. B. CUNO, Associate Wood Techno logist-i The annual increment from about one-fifth the saw timber growing area of the United States is required to balance the drain on forests for cross ties, sv/itch ties and bridge timbers. On this basis the tie industry, including both the consuming and producing ends, is custodian of a forest area equal in size to the aggregate acreage of the states of New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island, plus one-half of Arkansas* It uses about one-ninth as much wood as is consumed as lumber. The importance of the tie industry on forest practice is further emphasized by the fact that sound logs which produce only common lumber are practically as good for tics as logs which produce high grade lumber. Thus, the tie industry provides a profitable outlet for low grade material which if sawed into lumber, would be difficult to dispose of at a price above its production cost and thereby removes some of the economic obstacles encountered in practicing forestry. Ties and timbers are holding their markets against substitutes as well as or perhaps better than any other wood product of the forest. Present indications are that they will continue to do so. A tie operation is a two-edged knife, however, so far as forestry is concerned. Tie production can be made to favor good silviculture and close utilization, or, on the other hand, young trees can be slaughtered and the land skinned closer in tie operations than in most any other way. Oftentimes because ties are produced from low quality timber, operators give little heed to utilization. —The authors wish to make acknowledgment to Ray Miller, Associate Engineer, and A. C. Wollinj Lumber Inspector, who, in addition to helping in the field work, rendered valuable assistance in analysis of the data; also to members of National Forest Region No. 7 a ^d the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station, who assisted in planning and carrying out the field wo rk. RIO 86 For example, ties arc often hewed, which results in the loss of about 8 "board feet of lumber fcr each tie produced. Or, even if sound, the lumber in the slabs is not always used. It is just as important to practice good silviculture and close utilization on tie operations as on lumber operations. Tie operations are carried on in such a way as to be easily adaptable to selective cutting, either as to the trees to be cut or the areas to be logged. If a company is properly organized, it is profitable to utilize the side lumber. Care in tie manufacture has a bearing on utilization and profits just the same as in lumber manufacture. Most of the hardwood timberland in the Appalachians has been cut over to a greater or less degree* Fire has run through the remaining stands from time to time, with the result that the trees are for the most part poorly formed and defective. These poor trees should be removed from the stands and a portable mill cutting ties and timber seems to be one of the best ways of doing it. If unrestricted cutting is practiced, the future production of the stand will be wrecked for a long time. On the other hand, if selective cutting is practiced, enough healthy young trees can ordinarily be left to form the nucleus for a future crop. The specific purpose of this investigation was to get information at small sawmills that cut ties and timbers as the principal products on production costs, overrun, percentage of defect, percentage of the different grades of ties, timber and lumber from trees of different sizes and species, and mill and ;voods practice in relation to forest management and tie operations in the Appalachian region with particular reference to hardwoods. This report contains the results of a logging and milling investigation ca.rried on by the Forest Service among the small sawmill operations on the Shenandoah national Forest, located in Virginia and West Virginia, which were cutting principally ties and timbers with lumber as a secondary product. The study was carried out on the Shenandoah National Forest on the Trout Fun and. Thorn Bottom drainages, which are a part of the Lost River Working Circle. The area comprised about 15>000 acres of rough mountain land that supported a light stand of mixed hardwoods and pine estimated at 20,000,000 board feet. For the most part the soil was rocky and contained very little organic matter. Fire had run over the area from time to time prior to the creation of the national forest. Many of the trees were fire- scarred and badly decayed, but there were enough healthy young trees which, if released from competition, would make good growth and provide the nucleus for another crop. The stand averaged about 1,500 board feet per acre and was made up of 75 percent mixed oak, 3 percent chestnut, !■-'- percent pine and 2 percent other hardwoods, such as hickory, ash and black gum. Small mills were the only practicable means of cutting the tract because of the light stand and low quality timber. R10S6 -2- The timber sale area on which this study was conducted was made "by the Forest Service to a subsidiary of a large company. In addition to taking out the timber, the company also contracted to handle about 15,000 tons of chestnut oak bark on the area. The sale contract called for the cutting of not less than SO percent of all merchantable timber 12 inches and larger in diameter breast high, except in dead timber and chestnut where everything worth taking was removed. A tree was considered merchantable if it contained one or more logs and had a net scale equal to one-fourth of its gross scale volume. Any log, which was at least 8 feet long and 8 inches in diameter at the small end and which after deductions for visible indications of defect scaled one-third of the gross scale, wa.s considered merchantable. Slash was lopped and scattered. The following information applies directly to small, circular sawmill operations and to Appalachian hardwoods as found on the Shenandoah National porest, Virginia and "7est Virginia: 1. Tie and timber operations provide one of the best means of removing undesirable species, poor specimens of desirable species and of salvaging poor quality stands of hardwoods in the Appalachians so that another timber crop can be begun with healthy and desirable growing stock. 2. The average cost of producing ties, timbers and lumber from five species of the oaks varied from 314.16 per thousand board feet, mill tally, for black oak, to 315.64 for chestnut oak. 3* The average value of the ties, timbers and lumber varied from 323.44 per thousand board feet, mill tally, for scarlet oak, to 32b. 31 per thousand board feet for white oak. 4. The average difference between production cost, not including stumpage, interest or a margin for profit and risk, and the value of the ties, timbers and lumber was 3S.26 per thousand board feet, mill tally, for chestnut oak, q>9»31 for scarlet oak, $9.49 for black oak, $10.34 for red oak and 310. So for white oak. 5« 'The overrun, including rejected ties, averaged 36.4 percent for the five oaks combined. The overrun was extremely high in small logs, because they were cut mostly into ties, only a small percentage going into lumber. Furthermore, the small logs, particularly the crooked ones, were often cut into pole ties. 6. Defect, which included crook, rot and any other defect that reduced the gross volume for the logs brought to the mill, was as follows: Chestnut oak, lb.l percent; whit.; oak, 12. S percent; red oak, 11*3 percent; scarlet oak, 11.1 percent, and black oak, 6.9 percent. RIO 86 -3- 7. The following percentages of ties were rejected "by main line railroads, principally because of rot: Chestnut oak, 17 percent; white oak, 9 percent; "black oak, 20 percent; red 00k, 16 percent, and scarlet oak, 23 percent. 8. On a net log scale basis, the cost of producing ties, timbers and lumber from red oak trees 11 inches in diameter was 1*59 times more than that for red oak trees 25 inches in diameter. When reduced to a mill tally basis the cost was practically the same for the two diameters due to the effect of the extremely high overrun in the small logs, 9« A larger percentage of the small trees than of the large trees was cut into ties. For example, on the average, 93 percent of the red oak trees 12 inches in diameter was cut into ties and 7 percent into lumber, while 73 percent of the red oak trees 2^ inches in diameter was cut into lumber and 27 percent into ties and timbers. 10. Good silviculture demands weeding many Appalachian stands* On the national forest timber sale area, where this study was made, about 80 percent of the volume of all trees 12 inches in diameber and larger was cut. One hundred and seven thrifty trees per acre, varying in size from h to 21 inches in diameter, then remained on the ground. lie Eigh+ percent of the trees cut were unmerchantable Most of these were chestnub oak, followed ~by white oak, black oak, scarlet oak and lastly red oak. 12. White oak and chestnut oak growing in competition with other species seem to maintain a sustained growth rate better than red oak, scarlet oak or black oak. 13 • The average yield per acre from tops and limbs left on the cutting area was about 60 15 cords of fairly straight material from h to lh inches in diameter and from 4 to 8 feet in length. lU. On the average, 3^ percent of the oaks cut were "long-butted" because of rot. 15* Brush disposal costs on the study area varied from 89 cents per thousand board feet, net log scale, for chestnut oak, to $1.28 for black oak. This variation is due principally to the fact that brush disposal costs more per thousand board feet for small trees than for large ones. lo. Milling costs for small operations cutting ties, timbers and lumber show less spread between small and large logs than is true in small mill operations cutting only lumber. 17. The output of the mill selected as representing an average in efficiency was 8,9^0 board feet, mill tally, per 10-hour day. Delay time amounted to 27.6 percent. R1086 -U- UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 3 1262 08929 1966