PAPERS ON BIOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE 107 



maple scaled 1173 board feet. This will show to what size 

 timber grows in some of these rich bottomland forests of 

 which we have only an occasional example. 



Ver>- often in such tracts as this bayous are found con- 

 taining stagnant water in the summer, which indicates that 

 drainage after clearing m.ay be unsuccessful and that such 

 tracts, after taking out the larger timber, might be left for 

 a second crop. The ordinary procedure is to take out the 

 larger trees for logs, after which the makers of railroad and 

 motor ties come in and clean up the remaining species, such 

 as elm. soft maple, hackberry and sycamore while leaving 

 a fair number of these smaller trees on the ground might 

 insure a future crop. After the logging of c>i3ress we have 

 many acres where black gum comes in, and if the stand is 

 sufficiently opened up to the light, the cottonwood and the 

 willow. We have been informed by men who own large 

 tracts of this land that it might not pay to raise cottonwood 

 on a twenty year rotation on account of the high drainage 

 tax which must be paid, in addition to ordinary taxes, al- 

 though it might pay to grow willow, on a shorter rotation. 

 Willow is used to some extent in Illinois for charcoal, for 

 gunpowder, while cottonwood is now finding a sale for soda 

 pulp. Charcoal can be made near the source of supply, but 

 so far there are no soda pulp mills in Illinois to afford much 

 of a market for cottonwood. It would seem that working 

 for such industries to be established near St. Louis to use 

 the cottonwood and other bottomland species suitable for 

 charcoal and soda pulp so as to make a better deniand for 

 these species would be good forestry and just as essential 

 as working for fire protection, better sylvicultural require- 

 ments or reforestation. Southern Illinois offers good op- 

 portunities for som.ething of this kind due to rapid gro-u-th 

 of the species mentioned, and the chance to utilize the 

 smaller material from thinnings for mine timbers, mine and 

 motor ties, and other similar purposes. 



