447 
Forrest Conpitions IN INDIANA. 
By STANLEY COULTER. 
Certain economic statements may serve as a suggestive introduction 
to this study of Forest conditions in Indiana. Some of these will be more 
fully elaborated later in the paper, others need, no comment since their 
mere statement is sufficient to call attention to existing conditions. 
A reference to the Census report of 1SS80 will show that at that time 
Indiana ranked sixth in the list of lumber producing states. In 1908 it 
ranked twenty-seventh.t Not only had it fallen to this low position in the 
list of lumber producing states, but the cut of 1908S was very decidedly less 
than that of 1907. While some part of this latter loss may be attributed 
to the reduced demand for lumber in 1907, all of it cannot be so referred. 
As a matter of fact the cut made represented all of the high grade timber 
upon which lumbermen could lay their hands. 
While certain regions of the state, notably in the southern counties, 
still appear to be heavily timbered, an examination shows that practically 
all forms of high value have been cut from them. They have been swept 
clean of their yellow poplar, white oak, black walnut, and cherry and are 
made up almost entirely of what may be regarded from an economic 
standpoint as second grade or inferior forms. It is these inferior forms 
that are furnishing the future forest, if indeed there is any promise of a 
future forest. The splendid forests of the past,? splendid not only in ex- 
tent but in the quality of the timber they yielded, have disappeared and 
the forests that remain are infinitely inferior to them both in extent and 
quality. Present conditions indicate a still further deterioration unless 
prompt remedial measures are taken. 
A rather careful examination of the existing areas, supplemented by 
the opinion of lumber buyers, leads to the conclusion that few extensive 
areas in the state will show a stumpage of desirable forms exceeding 
2,500 feet board measure. My own judgment is that the average stumpage 
1Forest Products No. 2. Lumber, Lath and Shingles, 1908. Bureau of the 
Census, issued November 15, 1909, p. 8. 
2Stanley Coulter. The Forest Trees of Indiana, Trans. Ind. Hort. Soc., 1891, 
p. 8. A. W. Butler. Indiana: A Century of Changes in the Aspects of Nature, 
Proc. Ind. Acad. of Sci., 1895, pp. 32, 33. 
