Forest Land and Forest Types 
Ss 
STs 

SIXTY-TWO PERCENT OF AREA FORESTED 
N 1947, 62 percent of the total land area of South 
Carolina was commercial forest land (fig. 10). 
These 11.9 million acres of commercial forest land 
are characteristically intermingled with cultivated fields 
and pasture (fig. 11). In 1947, 36 out of the total 46 
counties in the State had more than half their total land 
area forested, while no county had less than 35 percent 
of its total land area in forests (fig. 12). 
The pattern of intermingled forest and cleared land 
is determined largely by the suitability of land for 
agriculture, This in turn is influenced largely by soils 
and topography. Generally, the best soils are devoted 
to agriculture, leaving the rest for producing timber. 
Berkeley County, for instance, with a high proportion 
of poorly drained flatland and swamp, has 87 percent 
of its total land area in forest. With rising elevation 
and more rolling topography making for better soil 
drainage conditions, cleared farm land becomes increas- 
ingly more prevalent inland from the coast. These better 
soils, however, give way to a belt of excessively drained 
coarse sand hills, lying between the Coastal Plain of 
marine origin and the Piedmont Plateau.” Here, forested 
land again predominates over cropland. 
* The Sandhills are considered as part of the Coastal Plain 
units for statistical purposes. 
FOREST LAND 
62% 
FIGURE 10.—Land area of 
South Carolina by broad use 
class, 1947. 
AGRICULTURAL 
LAND 
Timber Supply Outlook in South Carolina 

Ke 
The Piedmont is characterized by rolling uplands and 
heavy soils originally of high agricultural value. Prac- 
tically all the Piedmont has been in farm crops at one 
time or another. Under intense cropping practices large 
areas of land were rendered marginal for agriculture 
because of excessive erosion. The present heavily forested 
area through the lower Piedmont consists largely of 
abandoned farm lands. 
Where the land slopes more gently and the soil is 
less eroded, agricultural land continues to predominate. 
The proportion of forest land drops below 25 percent 
in the peach belt of Spartanburg County and is only 
35 percent in Anderson County in the northwestern 
part of the State. 
Forest AREA ON THE INCREASE 
From 1936 to 1947, the area of commercial forest 
land increased by 1.2 million acres (table 2). The 
greatest increase occurred in the Piedmont area where 
a large amount of agricultural land has reverted to forest. 
A further increase in forest land area can be expected. 
In 1936, 552,000 acres were not growing farm crops 
and were less than 5 percent stocked with trees; by 1947, 
the area of idle farm land rose to over a million and a 
half acres. 
CLASSES OF LAND 
MILLION 
ACRES 
FOREST 
COMMERCIAL Ig 
NONCOMMERCIAL NEG. 
AGRICULTURAL 4.8 
IDLE 1.6 
ALL OTHER 1.0 
TOTAL LAND AREA 19.3 
