2904) 
not for that reason be overlooked, since it is valuable for the manufacture 
of veneers, and of charcoal for gunpowder, and willow and cottonwood 
are used for soda pulp manufacture. Where another crop of this timber 
can be raised on the land before it is needed for farming, it should cer- 
tainly be utilized for timber-growing, since it is less subject than the up- 
land to damage by fires, and makes more rapid growth. 
From the most reliable information obtainable, we estimate the annual 
cut of timber in the region covered by our map at about-20,000,000 board 
feet. The veneer industry uses a large amount of the local supply for 
veneers for baskets and crates and hampers for fruit and vegetables; the 
railway companies secure large numbers of railroad ties from species 
along their rights-of-way which may be used directly or are sent for 
treatment to the wood-preserving plants in that region; stationary and 
portable mills saw out lumber, cross-ties, car stock, and mine ties; while 
a very large amount of round timber purchased by contractors is shipped 
to mines in the counties farther east in the form of props, legs, and cross 
bars as well as hewed motor and mine ties. The present supply is coming 
from woods which if not practically destroyed in many cases by cutting 
and fires, are at best left with too few or too small trees to replace, by their 
annual growth, the volume removed by cutting. Even though some of 
these forests are of poor quality, they represent a resource which if 
properly developed will contribute very largely to the prosperity of the 
individual owner and of the community. Development lies along the line 
of their protection from fire and a handling which will improve their com- 
position and the quantity and quality of their product. Maintenance of a 
supply of local timber such that the mills of the region will not be forced 
to move to other sources of supply, as to Arkansas and Missouri, and a 
development of new industries which will make a market for such species 
as cottonwood and willow, are measures of a constructive forestry policy. 
While stressing better protection and the handling of existing stands, we 
do not intend to underestimate in any degree the importance of a restora- 
tion of deforested and waste lands to productiveness by planting them 
when such a measure is necessary. 
The main problem in this region is the prevention of forest fires. Our 
investigations show that fires are the chief cause in reducing the number 
of trees far below what should stand on an average acre of upland forest, 
and are therefore chiefly responsible for the reduction in the volume per 
acre and in the amount of wood which accrues each year by growth. Some 
sample plots show that at least 70 per cent of the reproduction and young 
growth is killed by fire. This thinning out of the stand places the trees 
too far apart for adequate natural pruning and admits so much light that 
grass and weeds come in, hindering the reproduction of the better species 
of trees and further increasing the fire danger. 
