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Volume and Condition of Timber Stands 

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A FourTH OF LIVE-TREE VOLUME HAs LITTLE VALUE 
OUTH CAROLINA'S forests, in 1947, contained 11 
billion cubic feet in living trees 5.0 inches d.b.h. 
and larger (table 4). Only three-fourths of this 
volume has economic value at the present time; the 
remaining fourth of the volume in living trees is cull 
and upper stems of hardwood saw-timber trees. As 
much as a third of the total hardwood volume is in 
cull trees and limbs of sound saw-timber trees, which 
may have potential use for fibre or chemical products 
but at present can yield little except fuel wood. The 
current demand for wood must be filled from the 
8.3 billion cubic feet of timber in sawlog material, 
pole-timber trees, and the upper stems of softwood 
saw-timber trees (table 4). 
TABLE 4.— Cubic-foot volume’ of all live trees on commercial 
forest land, by species group and kind of material, 1947 







Tree size and 
kind of material Softwoods Hardwoods All species 
Million Million Million 
cu. ft. | Percent| cu. ft. | Percent| cu. ft. | Percent 
Saw-timber trees: 
Sawlog material......... 2,852 57 | 2,013 34 | 4,865 44 
Upper stems......... Te 663 13 451 8 | 1,114 10 
Pole-timber trees.......... 1,291 26: 2015529 25 | 2,820 26 
Cullitrees:2 3S Sass 227 4 | 2,000 33 | 2,227 20 
Motalyetran< seis 5,033 100 | 5,993 100 | 11,026 100 

1Excluding bark. 
2Includes limbs of sound hardwood saw-timber trees. 
| Saw-timber Supply 30 Billion Board Feet 
South Carolina has a better supply of saw timber in 
proportion to its forest area than any of the other four 
_ southeastern States. With only 14 percent of the area 
of the commercial forest land in the Southeast, South 
Carolina has 19 percent of the board-foot volume in 
sound trees (fig. 23). 
Of the estimated 30 billion board feet in the State 
in 1947, 87 percent, or 25.7 billion board feet, is in 
' saw-timber stands. These stands contain at least 1,500 
Timber Supply Outlook in South Carolina 

board feet of timber per acre and they occupy 43 percent 
of the forested area (table 5). The remaining 13 per- 
cent of the saw-timber volume is scattered in other 
stands averaging less than 1,000 board feet per acre. 
Softwood saw timber totals 17.6 billion board feet, 
16.0 billion feet of which is in the softwood types 
(fig. 24). An additional 1.6 billion feet is scattered 
through 4.3 million acres of hardwood types. Hardwood 
saw timber totaled 12.0 billion board feet, 8.9 billion 
feet of which is in the hardwood types. 
Three-fourths of the area in saw-timber stands in 
the State is in the Coastal Plain. They contain 21 billion 
board feet, or 71 percent of all the saw-timber volume 
in the State. Of this, 56 percent is softwoods. 
FIGURE 23.— About 43 percent of the commercial forest land 
in South Carolina is stocked with saw timber, but only 11 
percent has large saw timber. 
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