STAND-SIZE CLASS 
AND 
EORESTAIYPRE 
SAW-TIMBER STANDS 

SOFTWOOD TYPES Yl: 
5 | ea | | | 
WILL LLL 
HARDWOOD TYPES 
ALL OTHER STANDS 
SOFTWOOD TYPES 

HARDWOOD TYPES 






4 
4 6 8 10! 12: 1455 16318 
BILLION BOARD FEET 
MM soFTwoops WZ HARDWOODS 
FIGURE 24.— Distribution of saw-timber volume by stand-size 
class and forest type, 1947. 
Over a Third of Sound-tree Volume in Pole-size Trees 
The supply of sound pole timber® in the State is 
the key to future productivity. Not only must the pole 
timber provide for about a quarter of the total forest 
drain, but enough must be left over to provide the 
growing stock for a future supply of sawlogs (fig. 25). 
TABLE 5. — Dastribution of the commercial forest area, 
by stand size, 1947 

| 
| Southern | Northern 


Stand size | Coastal | Coastal |Piedmont | South 
Plain Plain | Carolina 
| Percent | Percent Percent | Percent 
Large saw timiber.........0.5-0s0. 11 | 15 5 11 
Small saw timber. SN RSID | 31 | Sie 26 32 
Bolettimbers pee se eer ae | 23 | 13 44 26 
Seedling and sapling.. ........... 24 30 18 24 
Roorlwistocked iy see ee 11 5 7 7 
‘Total .. se | 100 | 100 100 | 100 

The 43.2 million cords of pole-size timber make up 
36 percent of the total volume in sound trees 5 inches 
and larger. Only 17.2 million cords of this is in pole- 
timber stands (fig. 26), which make up about 26 per- 
cent of the commercial forest land in the State. The 
dividing line between small saw-timber stands and 
pole-timber stands is often not distinct (fig. 27), for 
practically all the remaining 26.0 million cords of pole 
trees is in saw-timber stands. These stands in the soft- 
wood types average 4.2 cords of pole-timber trees per 
acre, and in the hardwood types about 5.2 cords. Pole- 
timber stands contain only a slightly larger volume of 
° Trees 5.0 inches to saw-timber size. 

pole trees: 5.5 cords in softwood types and 5.8 cords 
in hardwood types. 
While saw-timber supplies are concentrated in the 
Coastal Plain, most of the pole timber is found in the 
Piedmont. Forty-four percent of the commercial forest 
in the Piedmont is in pole-timber stands while only 
17 percent of the commercial forest in the Coastal 
Plain is pole timber. The Piedmont unit, with but a 
third of the commercial forest land in the State, has 
57 percent of the pole-timber stands and 42 percent 
of the pole-timber volume. 
The pole-timber stands in the Piedmont are more 
heavily stocked than those in the Coastal Plain. The 
difference between 8.3 cords per acre in the pole stands 
of the Piedmont and 7.5 cords per acre in the Coastal 
Plain reflects mainly a difference in the origin of the 
stands. Pole timber in the Piedmont is largely of old- 
field origin; pole timber in the Coastal Plain, for the 
most part, consists of residual stands where. saw timber 
has been removed, and thus has a tendency to be sparse. 
CHANGES IN TIMBER VOLUME, 1936-47 
Total sound volume of trees 5.0 inches and larger 
decreased by 5 percent since the first intensive survey 
of forest resources in South Carolina was made in 1936. 
While the change in total volume has not been great, 
wide variation is displayed by the three survey units 
in the State. The southern Coastal Plain had 24 percent 
less volume in 1947 than in 1936, while the Piedmont 
showed a gain in volume of 14 percent (table 6). No 
significant changes in total stand volume were revealed 
in the northern Coastal Plain. 
Saw-timber Volume Decreases 
Most of the decrease in total volume can be attributed 
to the decrease in saw-timber volume. The total volume 
TABLE 6.— Change in total sound-tree volume, 1936 to 1947. 
/ 
Cypress |Hardwoods|All species 


Survey unit Pine 
Percent Percent | Percent Percent 
Southern Coastal Plain.......... | —31 —16 —18 —24 
Northern Coastal Plain.........-.} — 4 span (7) | ae 
Piedmonti sacs vee eens +11 | +19 +14 
Statesch cae cnienesee : — 8 — 5 —2 -—5§ 
1 Comparison of volumes in trees 5.0 inches d.b.h. and larger 
2 Negligible. 
20 Forest Resource Report No. 3, U. S. Department of Agriculture 

