
FiguRE 11.— The distribution of forest land ranges from small islands surrounded by cropland to extensive areas broken only by 
small clearings. 
TABLE 2.— Area of commercial forest land, 1936 and 1947 



| 
Survey unit 1936 | 1947 Increase 
| Acres Acres Acres | Percent 
Southern Coastal Plain. ... 2,993,000 3,026,300 | 33,300 1.1 
Northern Coastal Plain...| 4,498,400 |} 4,854,500 | 356,100 7.9 
Biedmonterstarcetee sea 3,187,200 | 4.018,700 831,500 | 26.1 
| 
Wotalhe ce .ceavaceree 10,678,600 | 11,899,500 | 1,220,900 | 11.4 
The area of idle farm land is especially large in the 
Sandhills and in the upper part of the Piedmont (fig. 
13). In Aiken County, where a large proportion of the 
soils are sandy and poorly suited to farm crops, 195,000 
acres, or 28 percent of the total land area, were lying 
idle in 1947. In the Piedmont large areas of worn-out 
cropland are being abandoned. It is estimated that in 
Union County alone 5,300 acres have been taken out of 
cultivation annually in the past 10 years. Adjacent 
Spartanburg County has 144,000 acres of idle farm land. 
While much of this idle land is only temporarily out 
of cultivation, a substantial part is suited only to timber 
growing and will eventually revert to forest. A study of 
changes in land use by the Soil Conservation Service on 
10,943 individual farms in South Carolina revealed that 
21 percent of the land which was idle, prior to the 
development of a conservation plan, was recommended 
for forest use. Thus, in the absence of a sudden spurt 
in land clearing, the reversion of part of this idle land 
to forest can be expected to add several hundred 
thousand acres to the present forest land area. 
Some of this abandoned farm land, especially that in 
the Sandhills and upper Piedmont, will restock very 
slowly, or will restock with undesirable species, unless 
planted. On the other hand, abandoned farm land in 
the lower Piedmont and the agricultural districts of the 
Coastal Plain generally restocks satisfactorily in a 
relatively short time. 
A reversal in the present trend in cropland abandon- 
ment is not anticipated in view of the declining acreage 
in crops. In 1948, the acreage of principal crops was 
14 percent below the 1935-1944 average. At least 
partially responsible is the continuing farm-to-city move- 
ment, which has reduced rural population by 10 percent 
between 1940 and 1949. 
LAND Use History INFLUENCED PRESENT 
FOREST TYPES 
When the first colonists settled at Charleston, the 
forests of South Carolina were quite different from 
10 Forest Resource Report No, 3, U. S. Department of A griculture 

