production 7 percent; and clear-cut 1 percent. 

 Sawlog stands are most extensive in the Coastal 

 Plain, cordwood in the Piedmont Plateau. 



Timber Volume 



There are approximately 30 billion board feet of 

 saw timber in the State, about three-fifths pine and 

 two-fifths hardwood and cypress. More than a 

 third of the total volume is loblolly pine. 



Of the saw-timber volume, one-fourth of the pine 

 and six-tenths of the hardwood-cypress is in old- 

 growth stands; but more than half of these have 

 been partly cut over, leaving much of their volume 

 in small or inferior trees. 



Most of the saw-timber volume is in small trees. 

 One-third of the pine is in trees of 10- and 12-inch 

 diameter classes, and half of the hardwood is in the 

 14- to 18-inch classes. 



Most of the board-foot volume is commercially 

 operable. Ninety-two percent is in stands of 2 M 

 board feet or more per acre, and over half in stands 

 of 6 M board feet or more. The average volume is 

 1,871 board feet per acre on the piedmont and 

 3,235 on the Coastal Plain. 



The total volume of living trees 5 inches d. b.'h.^ 

 and larger is 158 million cords. Pines constitute 43 

 percent, hardwoods 53 percent, and cypress 4 per- 

 cent. Twelve percent, however, is in cull trees, 

 principally hardwoods. Thirty-five million pine 

 trees meet the specifications of the American Stand- 

 ards Association for poles; three-fourths are in the 

 20- and 25-foot length classes. 



Forest Growth 



For the period 1936-40, the saw-timber growth in 

 South Carolina averaged 1.7 billion board feet per 

 year. This was reduced almost a fifth through mor- 

 tality, leaving a net growth of 1.4 billion board feet. 

 Growth in cubic feet of all sound trees that had a 

 diameter of 5 inches or more, after deduction for ' 

 mortality, averaged 360 million feet annually. 



The average net growth per acre of saw-timber 

 trees in all types of stands was 135 feet, and of a.11 

 sound trees 5 inches and larger about 34 cubic feet 

 annually. These figures reflect the generally un- 

 derstocked condition of timber stands in South Car- 

 olina. In contrast, stands of loblolly pine growing 

 at a yearly rate of 500 to 600 board feet, or 100 to 

 150 cubic feet per acre, are not uncommon for small 

 areas in the State. 



2 D. b. h. = diameter at breast height, outside baric, 43^ feet 

 above ground level. 



More net growth accrued to the pine than to the 

 hardwoods. Proportions differed among survey 

 units, but for the State as a whole 72 percent of the 

 board foot volume and GG percent of the cubic foot 

 volume was pine increment. 



Forest Industries 



The wood-using industries, as a group, rank next 

 to textiles among the manufacturing industries of 

 South Carolina. Forest industries are found in 

 every county (in contrast to the concentration of 

 most other industries in a few sections of the State) 

 and lumber is the principal product. In 1942 there 

 were 1,267 operating sawmills which cut a total of 

 1.1 billion board feet. Twenty-eight percent of the 

 cut came from the 26 larger mills that had an average 

 daily production of 30 M board feet or more. The 

 remaining 72 percent was produced by small mills 

 that had an average daily production of 8 M board 

 feet or less. 



Pulp and paper manufacture ranks next to lumber 

 in the value of product. Expansion of mills at 

 Charleston and Georgetown has increased the re- 

 quirement of pine pulpwood to a million cords per 

 year. 



Nearly half of the total volume of wood used in 

 the State in 1936 was consumed as fuel; probably 

 half of it came from dead and cull trees and half from 

 sound growing stock. 



South Carolina's wood-using industries in 1940 

 provided a total employment of 8.2 million man- 

 days, equivalent to full-time work by 31,600 per- 

 sons. The number of persons benefiting from forest 

 and mill employment is much larger, however, be- 

 cause of many part-time workers. Farmers furnish 

 much of the part-time labor. 



Forest Growth and Commodity Drain 



Comparisons between the net growth and commo- 

 dity drain show that there is a slight surplus of 

 growth for the State as a whole and for all forest 

 types combined. But the growth-and-drain rela- 

 tion differs between forest types, size classes, and 

 Survey units. Thus, on the northern Coastal 

 Plain the average yearly growth of saw-timber- 

 size-pine during the 5-year period 1936-40 exceeded 

 the average drain by 8 percent; for saw-timber- 

 size hardwoods the growth was 25 percent less than 

 the drain. But when trees 5 inches in diameter and 

 larger are considered, the growth of both pines and 

 hardwoods is less than the drain. This means that 



