Excerpt from West Virginia Geological Survey, Vol. 5: Forestry and Wood Industries

In calling attention to the condition of West Virginia forests and to the necessity for a more economical use of them, we bring before the farmers, the manufacturers, the lumbermen, before business men, professional men, capitalists, laborers, and men of every trade and calling, a question in which they are all alike interested. In no state are the forests greater timber producers, and in no state do they occupy a more important position than in West Virginia. The non-agricultural lands lie on our mountains at the heads of the streams. The removal of forests from these lands would affect not only the citizens of this state but all who are influenced in any way by the flow of the Ohio river. The approximate figures given below will serve to show the situation briefly.

There once existed within the present limits of West Vir ginia an almost unbroken forest covering more than 15% million acres and containing 150 billion feet of timber. During the time which has elapsed, from the clearing of the first acre by civilized men to the present, the virgin forest area-has been reduced to one-tenth its original size or to 1% million acres. In addition to this area there are extensive cut-over forests aggregating about 3 million acres; and 5 million acres of far mers' woodlots. The present forests, then, cover 60 per cent of the state and contain not less than 25 billion feet of standing timber. There are 83 mammoth band saw mills and about 900 portable saw mills operating within the state. These have a combined annual capacity of approximately 1% billion feet. Should all of them continue to operate as at present they would cut the timber of the state in a little over 16 years.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.