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uplands, besides having a value for timber growing and stock raising, are 
underlaid with coal or contain deposits of silicon, ganister, and kaolin. 
Cliffs of limestone are frequent and furnish fertilizer and building stone, 
and the chert ledges yield road material. 
The western portion of this highland region was chosen as a subject 
for a preliminary report on forest conditions for the following reasons: ’ 
1. It has the most continuous body of timber in the state, and be- 
cause of its nearness to important wood-using centers is admirably located 
for continuous forest management. 
2. The timber, being largely on uplands, is on cheap land which is 
poorly adapted to agriculture under ordinary methods of cropping because 
of high elevation, steep slopes, and a soil which erodes very badly when 
the protecting forest cover is removed. 
3. A very considerable amount of information concerning the region 
has been accessible to us. The soil. map and report on Union county are 
now in course of preparation by the State Soil Survey, while topographic 
maps of the Alto Pass, Jonesboro, Carbondale, and Dongola quadrangles 
are in various stages of preparation by the State Geological Survey, de- 
tailed information having been available both on the geology and soils of 
the region. 
4. When the time comes for Illinois to acquire land for state forests, 
it is believed that this report and the accompanying map will be of service 
in showing where suitable tracts are located and will give some idea of 
their nature and value. As Henry S. Graves (’21) points out, the acqui- 
sition of public forests by states would furnish examples of the best 
methods of protecting and handling forests in the regions in which they 
were established. Thus managed they would also help to strengthen the 
local wood-using industries by assuring a regular supply of timber and 
would become real factors in the upbuilding of rural communities. 
The total area represented by the map of this region accompanying 
this report, is 697,286 acres, 522,250 of which are cleared or in pasture 
and 175,036 acres are woodland. There are 147,636 acres of timber 
which may be classed as merchantable, 131,217 acres being upland and 
16,419 acres bottomland timber. There are 13,299 acres which may be 
classed as culled forest, which means that the merchantable trees have 
been removed as the demand came, leaving trees which were defective, 
of inferior species, or too small for the market. Such lands have a future 
value if fire is kept out of them for a few years until the slash decays 
and reproduction has started. There are 14,100 acres classed as saplings, 
that is, the ground is well covered with trees of sapling and pole sizes, 
not yet merchantable, but which will have a distinct value within the next 
ten years if properly protected and handled. Of the entire area covered 
