remaining forests were building up under favorable conditions. About 

 1855 rail and water transportation were so developed that the prairie 

 farmer could replace his log buildings with white pine lumber from the 

 great pineries of the Lake States. His fuel problem was solved by the 

 perfection of the coal stove. With the development of rail and water 

 transportation, land values were reversed in this region. In Logan county 

 $10.00 prairie land went to $50.00 while $50.00 timber-land dropped to 

 $25.00 an acre. Woodland came to be regarded as an encumbrance. 

 Arable parts were cleared, grazing was practiced, and these forests suf- 

 fered a deterioration which has continued to the present day. 



Coincident with the utilization of these original forests adjacent to 

 the prairies, the process of nibbling in the non-prairie forested region con- 

 tinued. Here timber was destroyed and wasted as a thing of little value. 

 Until 18G0 agriculture was the only important industry in the forested 

 area. Then progressive development of railroads made a market for ties. 

 Wood-using industries sprang up along the river towns and furnished a 

 market for the better grade of the better species. In 1860 the timber 

 owner might find a market only for the best of his yellow poplar, white 

 oak, and black walnut logs. By 1870 ninety-two of the 102 counties of 

 the state had manufacturing establishments dependent upon wood. The 

 total number of such establishments was 19.44 per cent of all manufactur- 

 ing establishments of the state, employing 31.5 per cent of all persons 

 engaged in manufacturing industry, and producing 20.51 per cent of the 

 value of all manufactures of the state. To keep these industries supplied 

 wood was imported from other states. By 1870 Rock Island county led 

 all counties in value of the lumber sawed, with Pulaski second. Logs 

 from the Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan pineries were rafted down 

 to Illinois towns along the Mississippi or Lake Michigan, and manufac- 

 tured into lumber to a total of 26 per cent of all lumber manufactured 

 within the state. During the eighties the Lake pineries reached their 

 peak of production. Rock Island county sawed 70,000,000 feet annually, 

 or a fifth of all produced within the state, and other points drew upon 

 these pineries. By 1900 thirty-four per cent of all lumber produced in 

 the state was sawed from imported white pine logs, and the total lumber 

 production for Illinois reached its highest point with 381,584- M. B^ F. 

 By 1909 lumber from such imported logs ceased to be a factor and pro- 

 duction had dropped to 170,181 M. This total production was further 

 reduced to 64,628 M. in 1919 as the original forests were drained. Per- 

 haps 22,000 acres of virgin forest, about one township, remain of the 

 original 15,310,205 acres of Illinois forests. This remnant occurs chiefly 

 on the undrained flood-lands of the large rivers. The remaining forest 

 is a culled or second-growth type. The reduction in area and yield of 

 Illinois forest is shown by the following tabulation. 



Year Area timbered 



on farms 

 1800 (original forest). 



1870 5,061,578 



1923 2,815,150 



