














The large area of poorly stocked and nonstocked 
stands is chiefly due to repeated fires and poor cutting 
practices. Between 1936 and 1947, about 850,000 acres 
of forest land burned over annually in South Carolina. 
By killing the young trees as soon as they became 
established, these fires prevented many areas from 
restocking. Also, in recent years, extensive areas of the 
remaining old-growth lowland hardwoods have been 
cut, leaving on the land only a scattering of small 
spindly trees which once formed the understory of the 
old stand. Hardwood stands 80 years and older, which 
in 1936 made up 38 percent of the total hardwood 
type area in the Coastal Plain, accounted for only 
14 percent in 1947. 
Natural regeneration on many of these areas is a 
slow process. Seed trees are widely scattered and often 
of undesirable species. By the time the small trees of 
the more desirable species are large enough to produce 
seed, the area is frequently choked with inferior hard- 
wood sprouts and other shrubby vegetation. In some 
cases, even when a seed source is available following 
cutting, regeneration of the more valuable species, 
especially the pine, is retarded by an unfavorable 
seedbed of grass and heavy forest litter. 
Poorly stocked stands are also associated to some 
extent with the 11-percent increase in forest land since 
1936. The invasion of forests into abandoned fields 
usually extends over many years. Many areas which 
have only recently qualified as forest land‘ are in the 
initial stages of reversion to forest and consequently 
are understocked. 
A Fifth of Basal Area of Live Trees Is in Culls 
Since only sound trees have been considered in deter- 
mining stocking, poor stocking does not necessarily 
mean a lack of stems in the stand. Frequently, especially 
in the hardwood stands, all the growing space is being 
utilized by live trees, but a large proportion of them are 
of such poor form, limby and defective, that they have 
practically no commercial value. 
A fifth of the total basal area of all live trees 1.0 inch 
d.b.h. and larger is in these culls. Most of the culls 
are hardwoods; 31 percent of the basal area of live 
hardwood trees is classed as cull, as compared to but 
5 percent for softwoods (fig. 33). 
The various scrub oak species, which form the 
dominant cover on extensive areas of the Sandhills and 
_ frequently form an understory in pine stands on drier 
™ Areas 5 percent stocked with trees of commercial species 
are considered forest land. 
Timber Supply Outlook in South Carolina 

SIZE CLASS 
AND 
BASAL AREA 
SPECIES GROUP 
10 INCHES + 
SOF TWOODS 
WUMMMMMMMHE@@EHE@q@@qq@lédla 
HARDWOODS 
6-8 INCHES 
SOF TWOODS 

HARDWOODS 
2-4 INCHES 
SOF TWOODS 


HARDWOODS 
ALL TIMBER 
SOFTWOODS 


HARDWOODS 






PERCENT 
FIGURE 33.— Proportion of the total basal area in cull trees bj 
species group and size of timber, 1947. 
sites, make up the biggest part of the small cull trees. 
Also included as culls are the overtopped trees which 
obviously have no chance of becoming crop trees even 
if released. Among these overtopped trees the distinc- 
tion between a cull tree and a sound tree cannot be 
drawn sharply, since merchantability cannot serve as 
a yardstick. Some of the sound trees will undoubtedly 
become culls as the stand develops. Presumably, many 
of the sound trees will respond to stand improvement 
measures and are in this sense potential crop trees. 
The saw-timber cull trees are often of high-value 
species, but because of excessive rot, numerous and 
large limbs, and crook there is not enough merchantable 
wood in them to pay the cost of harvesting. Yet they 
take up growing space; often widespreading limbs will 
preclude the establishment of young growth for a 
considerable radius around the tree. They account for 
33 percent of the total basal area of live hardwood 
saw-timber size trees. 
The low-quality hardwoods are concentrated in the 
Coastal Plain and in the mountains (fig. 34). They 
are especially abundant in Sumter, Florence, Marion, 
and Dillon Counties in the northern Coastal Plain, 
where 52 percent of all the cull hardwood volume in 
the State is located. In Sumter County, cull hardwoods 
amount to nearly 6 cords per acre of forest land, and 
in Florence County 42 percent of the volume of live 
hardwood trees is in cull trees. 
Clearly, then, the productivity of the forest stands 
depends not only upon the density of the stands, but 
also upon the quality of the stems in the stands. In 
27 
