





FOREST GROWTH SHORT OF TIMBER NEEDS 
How well is the forest as a timber-producing plant 
providing for the State’s forest industries? As already 
indicated, in the period 1936 to 1947 there was a 5- 
percent decrease in the total growing stock volume and 
a 10-percent decrease in saw-timber volume. The heavy 
demands for timber for World War II contributed to 
this reduction, as drain reached a peak of 5.7 million 
cords in 1942. By 1946, timber drain was based upon 
peace-time markets, but even then total drain was 5.0 
million cords (fig. 39), 25 percent above that of 1936. 
In 1946 the total growth of sound timber was 5.6 
million cords—11 percent more than drain. From a 
practical standpoint this is rather misleading since all 
of this growth is not equally well-suited to meeting 
South Carolina’s An examination of 
growth and drain by class of material and species groups 
reveals serious growth deficiencies in the kind of timber 
timber needs. 
most urgently needed by the forest industries. Particu- 
larly disturbing is the fact that, almost without exception, 
drain exceeds growth in the same classes of timber 
which are already in short supply or show the greatest 
decline since 1936, Saw-timber drain is making deep 
inroads into saw-timber growing stock in the Piedmont, 
where the shortage in this class of timber is already 
acute, and also in the southern Coastal Plain, which 
sustained the greatest reduction in saw-timber volume 
MILLION 
4. 
since 1936. In the Coastal Plain, drain on the pole 
timber exceeds growth. 
Saw-timber Growth Less Than Drain 
In 1946, net saw-timber growth amounted to 1,457 
million board feet, 63 million feet, or 4 percent, less 
than commodity drain (fig. 40). Drain on softwood 
saw timber exceeded growth by 35 percent in the 
southern Coastal Plain, by 27 percent in the Piedmont, 
and 15 percent for the State. Soft hardwoods (gums, 
soft maple, and yellow-poplar) are faring better than 
the softwoods in these areas. Drain on the soft hard- 
woods exceeded growth by 11 percent in the southern 
Coastal Plain and by 26 percent in the Piedmont. 
Much of the saw-timber growth is concentrated in 
the smaller trees, which yield a relatively small amount 
of lumber per cubic foot of wood. The drain, on the 
other hand, comes mainly from the larger trees, which 
yield a larger amount of lumber per cubic foot. This 
means that a greater cubic volume of wood made up of 
small trees is required to saw out a thousand board 
feet of lumber than is required for large trees. The 
combined effect of this, and the preference for large 
trees for commodities, results in indicating growth in 
excess of drain when the total wood volume involved ts 
computed in cubic feet. This does not vitiate the state- 
ment that saw-timber drain in board feet exceeds growth. 









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4. 
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35 
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1938 1939 







1942 1943 1944 1945 

FIGURE 39.— Total drain on trees 5.0 inches d.b.h. and larger by species group, 1936-46. 
Timber Supply Outlook in South Carolina 
31 

