of forest products and the nurtiber of wood using 

 plants in South Carolina in 1940; and figure 35 the 

 location of manufacturing plants in 1942. 



Lumber 



The major expansion of South Carolina's lumber 

 industry has taken place since 1890. Previously, a 

 lack of power and of cheap, easy transportation had 

 largely confined the manufacture of lumber to local 

 requirements, with only a small volume for ship- 

 ment out of the State. With the development of 

 steam power and band saws in the latter part of the 

 nineteenth century, and the rapid expansion of the 

 railroads, the number of mills and the volume of pro- 

 duction increased rapidly. 



Census records indicate that the annual produc- 

 tion of lumber, which prior to 1890 had not exceeded 

 200 million board feet, reached a peak of about 900 

 million feet in 1909 (fig. 36). Production slackened 

 during the first World War and the depression years 

 that followed, but reached a new high of over a billion 

 board feet in 1923 and again in 1929. The depres- 

 sion of the early thirties reduced the cut to less than 

 400 million feet, the lowest point in four decades; 

 but by 1936 the industry had nearly attained its 

 predepression level. More recently the stimulus of 

 defense and war needs has accelerated production, 

 which in 1940 (table 18) approached 900 million 

 board feet, and in 1941, according to Forest Service 

 estimates, reached 1.1 billion feet, valued at more 

 than $25,000,000. Output amounted to 1.1 billion 

 feet in 1942, and an estimated 1 billion feet in 1943. 



Figure 35. — Distribution oj forest industries in South Carolina, 1942. 



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