PAPERS ON BIOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE 105 



A FORESTRY POLICY FOR THE FUTURE 

 In discussing a forestry policy for this region we might 

 divide the forested lands into three classes : (1) the smaller 

 woodlots; (2) large tracts held by coal companies, silicon 

 companies, sand and gravel concerns, or coal companies ; 

 (3) those timber lands in the bottoms in organized drainage 

 projects which are subject to overflow and may not come 

 under cultivation for ten or twenty years. 



1. Woodlots and Their Treatment. 



Professor Frederick Dunlap, of the University of Mis- 

 souri, at a recent Forestry Conference at the Union League 

 Club in Chicago, mentioned a situation in the southern 

 Ozarks of Missouri which seems to find its counterpart in 

 Alexander County. He described the valleys of the hill 

 country as being narrow so that the farmers in the winter 

 made quite a large per cent, of their living from woods ope- 

 rations, carried on in the hill land. With the timber be- 

 coming scarcer the portable mills move out of the region, 

 people who found employment in the woods leave and with 

 scarcity of pupils the schools become depleted, with short 

 terms. Those who do remain in the hill country find their 

 main chance for winter employment gone with the rapid 

 disappearance of the timber. 



This shows a relationship between forestry and com- 

 munity welfare which does not exist in the Mississippi bot- 

 toms where the entire land is agi'icultural or destined to be 

 cleared. Farmers having woodlots should not be too eager 

 to encroach upon them for pasture or farming but should 

 see that fires are kept out and that they are handled with an 

 aim to future timber production, both for direct returns in 

 money and indirect returns in preventing erosion, storing up 

 water in the hills and making stream flow more regular. 

 Farming of these patches in the woods must be attended 

 with small profit after the superficial richness of the soil is 

 exhausted and the fields are abandoned to erosion or allowed 

 to go back to woods. 



2. Policy to he Pursued bij Owners of Large Tracts. 



Timber Land Acquisition by the State 

 In the hill country we find tracts of considerable size, up 

 to 1000 acres, held by silicon and gannister companies, and 



