warp in drying, but with the development of im- 

 proved kiln-drying methods, sweetgum has become 

 one of the most valuable of southern hardwoods. 

 The dark heartwood of mature trees is marketed as 

 red gum, and the lighter wood of young trees as well 

 as the sapwood of old trees as sap gum. Sweetgum 

 is extensively used as lumber and veneer in furniture, 

 interior trim, baskets, and crates. It is found to a 

 limited extent on the moister soils of the piedmont, 

 but is most prevalent, and reaches its best develop- 

 ment, in the bottom-land swamps bordering the 

 Coastal Plain rivers. 



Blackgum and tupelo. — Although blackgum and 

 tupelo can be readily distinguished from each other 

 in the forest, their woods are similar in appearance 

 and few lumbermen attempt to distinguish be- 

 tween them. In 1936 South Carolina had an esti- 

 mated 1.8 billion board feet of blackgum and 700 

 million board feet of tupelo. 



Commercial use of these species, like that of sweet- 

 gum, was limited until modern seasoning methods 

 solved the problem of warping. Now they are a 

 major factor in the production of southern hard- 

 woods. The lumber is used chiefly in furniture, 

 planking, planing-mill products, and boxes and 

 crates. 



Tupelo grows in the deep swamps of the lower 

 Coastal Plain, frequently associated with cypress. 

 Blackgum does best in the shallower swamps and 

 well drained terraces along the coastal rivers. It 

 grows also on the upper Coastal Plain and piedmont, 

 but here seldom reaches saw-timber quality. 



Oaks. — Oaks account for 7 percent of the board- 

 foot volume of the State. The numerous species are 

 divided into two groups: white oaks, comprising 8 

 percent, and red oaks, 13 percent of the hardwood 

 volume of South Carolina. In the latter group the 

 leading components are water, willow, and cherry- 

 bark oaks on the Coastal Plain, and southern red, 

 black, scarlet, and northern red oaks on the pied- 

 mont. The important white oaks include overcup, 

 swamp chestnut, white, and post oaks on the Coastal 

 Plain, and white, post, and chestnut oaks on the 

 piedmont. Cherrybark, northern red, swamp chest- 

 nut, and white oaks are most in demand for lumber 

 and veneer. Other species are usually defective, 

 but are extensively used for lumber, timbers, and 

 ties. 



Yellow-poplar. — Although yellow-poplar com- 

 prises less than 3 percent of the State's saw-timber 

 volume, its rapid growth and wide use put it among 

 the leading hardwoods. Yellow-poplar is in great 



demand for aircraft and as lumber and veneer in fur- 

 niture and interior woodwork. It is also an excel- 

 lent pulpwood, though little used for this purpose in 

 South Carolina. Yellow-poplar abounds in the 

 mountain coves and piedmont valleys, but also oc- 

 curs in the Coastal Plain bottom lands. 



Other hardwoods. — Nearly 6 percent of the timber 

 volume of South Carolina consists of other hard- 

 woods which, except for ash, do not occur in suffi- 

 cient quantity to justify separate estimates in this 

 survey. The principal species, ash, red maple, 

 hickories, and elms, are used for furniture, handle 

 stock, ski stock, and specialty uses. 



Cypress. — Because of its durability and excellent 

 texture, cypress has been a valuable wood since the 

 arrival of the first white men. It still ranks among 

 the best construction woods of the South, although 

 the old-growth timber, on which the reputation of 

 cypress has been based, is gradually becoming ex- 

 hausted. 



The cypress stand, as we have seen, comprises 5 

 percent of the saw-timber volume of South Carolina. 

 It is common in the bottom-land swamps of the 

 Coastal Plain, occasionally in pure stands but usually 

 associated with water tupelo, blackgum, and other 

 hardwoods. There are two species, baldcypress 

 and pondcypress, the latter amounting to only 6 per- 

 cent of the combined volume of cypress. Pondcy- 

 press, which occurs most frequently in shallow peat 

 swamps, is inferior to baldcypress in the form of the 

 tree as well as quality of the wood. 



Volume by Condition Class 



Old-growth. — Nearly 40 percent of South Caro- 

 lina's saw-timber volume is in old-growth, including 

 a fourth of the pine and three-fourths of the hard- 

 wood and cypress board-foot volume (table 10). 

 The total of 11.7 billion board feet of old-growth in- 

 cludes young trees in old-growth stands. Nearly 

 two-fifths of the old-growth volume is in partly-cut 

 stands from which trees of the more desirable species 

 and sizes have been removed. 



Of the old-growth pine, 4.7 billion board feet or 

 four-fifths, is on the Coastal Plain, about equally di- 

 vided between the northern and southern units. By 

 species, 59 percent is loblolly, 15 percent longleaf, 15 

 percent shortleaf, and 11 percent other pines. 



The volume of old-growth hardwoods and cypress 

 come to nearly 7 billion board feet. About 65 per- 

 cent of this volume is on the northern Coastal Plain, 

 chiefly in bottom-land swamps along the Pee Dee, 

 Black, and Santee Rivers and their tributaries; 



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