46 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



form of package. This means that you cannot ship the fruit 

 so far as you did before and that in place of our getting a 

 barrel of apples at the beginning of winter we have to be 

 satisfied with a basket or two of the fruit. Some of the own- 

 ers of these veneer mills have already told me that they im- 

 port logs from Arkansas and Missouri and other states 

 farther south and that the local supply of logs will not last 

 over five years. Then they must move their mills to the 

 south, nearer the timber, and you will be deprived not only 

 of the cheaper product which you could buy at home but 

 your town will lose a factory employing a great many 

 laborers. 



You are increasing each year the acreage of orchards and 

 berries and melons, without thinking of where the boxes 

 and crates are coming from to ship this produce to market. 

 Why not devote some of this wet land to the growing of 

 bottomland timber, keep your local mills running, give local 

 people employment and assure the perpetuation of the fruit 

 and truck-growing interests? 



You have a great tie preserving plant right here in Car- 

 bondale, but only about one per cent, of the ties treated come 

 from your own state or from regions near that plant. Why 

 not look more carefully after the keeping of a supply of 

 beech in these ravines of yours instead of being so anxious 

 to make small patches of corn for a few years and then 

 abandon the land ? One man who is a competent judge says 

 that Union County has the best supply of white and other 

 oaks for railroad ties of any county in the state and yet 

 these woods are allowed to burn over twice a year. I have 

 been informed that large areas have burned over in Union 

 County in the last two years. A year ago I saw six sepa- 

 rate forest fires burning from the top of Bald Knob in Union 

 County. It cannot be that there is no market for railroad 

 ties because I know that last summer hackberry and maple 

 ties, 7 by 9 inch face, were selling for $1.90 delivered, ma- 

 terial which at one time would have been rejected. Methods 

 of preservation with creosote or zinc chloride make this pos- 

 sible. Red oak and black oak can be similarly treated and 

 made to give good service, while the more valuable white 

 oak can be allowed to grow into saw timber, into ties, and 



