115 



stove was patented and added comfort to the life of the prairie fanner. 

 From this date forward the forests did not greatly increase in value, but 

 prairie land began its climb towards $250 per acre. Thus the timber- 

 land owner was under a pressure to clear wherever tillage was possible, 

 and this has been the trend to the present day. 



Present Forested Areas and their Relation to 

 Land Economics in the State 



The figures given for the present wooded area in Illinois are as yet 

 tentative, pending the completion of the forest survey now being con- 

 ducted. They are based upon data gathered in 33 counties north and 

 west of the Illinois River and 13 counties in the southern part of the 

 state. 



Those areas of woodland more than 5 acres in extent were mapped 

 and their totals found by counties. Two other sources of information 

 were available as checks. The 1920 census reported farm woodland by 

 counties, and in 1923 crop reports were made showing farm woodland. 

 The forest survey included all woodlands, the census and crop surveys 

 included only woodland on farms. It was shown by comparison that 

 the census returns were about 36 per cent higher for timber on farms 

 than actually shown by survey for total timber. The crop reports were 

 less than two per cent higher than the survey. In computing the total 

 timber on farms the nature of the ownership of the timber-lands was 

 taken into consideration. If the county had large areas of timbered 

 bottomland, was evidently a county where mine-company holdings were 

 important, or for any reason contained considerable bodies of timber- 

 land not on farms, the crop report figures were ordinarily used to com- 

 pute the area of woodland on farms. If the timber-land was entirely 

 on farms the survey figures were used. To get the total timber lor 

 the state the survey figures were used where complete, and crop-report 

 figures where the survey has not yet been completed. 



The preliminary result gives : 



Areas of woodland on farms 2,668,050 



Area of woodland not on farms 195,7 14 



Total area of woodland in state 2,863,764 



This total is 92.3 per cent of the area shown by the census of 1920 

 as contained in farm woodlands alone, and when the 19."),'; ll acres above 

 indicated as not included in farms is added to the census figures, this 



