SOUTH CAROLINA FOREST RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES 



Summary of Survey Findings 



FORESTS are one of South Carolina's most im- 

 portant natural resources. They form an in- 

 separable part of the social and economic 

 structure of the State. Under proper management 

 the forest resource is renewable, and because of its 

 vital contribution to the welfare of the people, both 

 private citizens and public officials should be more 

 active in initiating and putting into effect conserva- 

 tive and permanently productive plans of forest use. 



The methods used in collecting the Survey data 

 for South Carolina are similar to those previously 

 employed in other Southeastern States, following 

 careful tests to establish their reliability and effi- 

 ciency. The field work on the inventory phase of 

 the Survey was completed in 1936, and in preparing 

 the present publication the original figures had to 

 be used; in other respects the latest available in- 

 formation has been drawn upon. 



The following summary of the survey data em- 

 phasizes the importance of the forest resource to 

 the economy of South Carolina and the welfare of 

 its people. 



Land Use 



The land area of South Carolina (fig. 1) is approx- 

 imately 193^ million acres. About 55 percent is 

 forest land, 3 percent abandoned cropland, 26 per- 

 cent agricultural land, and 6 percent is devoted to 

 other uses. Much of the forested area has pro- 

 gressed through several cycles of clearing, cultiva- 

 tion, and abandonment, but for the State as a whole 

 the acreages in forest and cropland have remained 

 relatively constant for the past century. Decline in 

 cotton production and farm prices generally, how- 

 ever, has resulted in a greater diversification in land 

 use. Moreover, there has been a steady increase in 

 the utilization and value of forest products and a 

 tendency to convert the less productive cropland to 

 forest. 



Figure 1. — South Carolina and other Southeastern States. 



Forest Land 



Almost all of South Carolina's 1 1 million acres of 

 forest land is capable of commercial timber produc- 

 tion. Three-fourths is classed as pine types — 

 loblolly pine being the most extensive — and one- 

 fourth as hardwood types, chiefly bottom-land 

 hardwoods. 



Stands of sawlog-size^ timber are found on 58 

 percent of the forest land (15 percent is classed as 

 old growth and 43 percent as second growth); 

 cord wood-size stands occupy about 34 percent; re- 



1 Definitions of the terms used will be found in the appendix, 

 p. 63. 



