419 
Tar WoopLot FoR CENTRAL INDIANA. 
By H. C. Preaa and M. B. THOMAS. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The purpose of this paper is to show as accurately as possible with the 
information at hand the conditions of central Indiana woodlots and to 
make suggestions for their improvement and perpetuation. 
A SHORT HISTORY OF INDIANA’S FORESTS. 
Karly explorers of Indiana found a wilderness of giant trees. Upon 
the tops of hills and higher ground were such trees as beech, hickory, oak, 
hard maple, walnut, ash and tulip; in the richer lowlands were the elms, 
buckeye, basswood and soft maples; and tall sycamores and overhanging 
willows lined the banks of the streams. It was not uncommon to find 
trees nearly two hundred feet in height and twenty to twenty-five feet in 
circumference. Everywhere smaller trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants 
struggled for their requisite amounts of sunlight. A spongy mass of forest 
litter made a floor that held rainfall and fed the innumerable springs, 
which in their turn supplied the streams and rivers with a constant and 
uniform volume. Such was the unbroken forest. 
Clearing.—It was soon discovered that Indiana’s soil was well adapted 
to agriculture. The early settlers began the work of forest destruction by 
clearing their homesteads for agricultural purposes. Regular log-rollings 
were held at which tree after tree was cut down, piled in log heaps and 
burned. Such work at that time was justifiable because timber was very 
plentiful and because the ground thus cleared was necessary to furnish 
a living for the ever increasing population. 
Lumbering.—For this reason much of the land was cleared. Official 
records, which begin in 1870, show an acreage of 7,189,334 acres in tim- 
bered lands. In 1880 only 4,335,000 acres were left. As Indiana became 
more thickly settied, better houses, cities, roads, railroads and factories 
were being built, each requiring a certain amount of timber for construc- 
tion. And in additional ways the consumption steadily increased. The 
towns and cities afforded market places, the roads and railroads a means 
of transportation for lumber. Thus began the other chief influence in 
