122 



and that in the last decade it has decreased 2.7 per cent. The waste 

 land on farms has increased 250,928 acres or 18.9 per cent, while our 

 'forest area has shrunk 45,300 acres in the last ten years, or at the rate 

 of 4,530 acres per year. 



These figures have added significance when taken with those from 

 adjoining states, which indicate that the tide of pioneer eflfort in land- 

 clearing is on the ebb, and that at least for the present in all states of 

 the eastern wooded area, more land is being abandoned than is being 

 brought under cultivation annually. Even in a state as fertile, and with 

 so large a proportion of its surface arable, as Illinois, a large residue 

 of land is found which has never been cleared because it was unfit for 

 agriculture, and another large acreage has been cleared which after trial 

 has evidently proved to be of such low agricultural value that its use 

 for crop production has been abandoned as unprofitable. 



The amount of land unsuited to ordinary farming because of its 

 hilly character, which makes the soil subject to erosion when cleared and 

 renders its cultivation unprofitable in comparison with more level and 

 fertile areas, has been the subject of careful investigation by the State 

 Soil Survey. January 4, 1917, Professor J. G. IMosier summed up the 

 conclusions reached by that department in the following letter: 



UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 



Aqkicultckal Experiment Station 



Urbana, Illinois, January .}. 1917. 

 Dr.. S. a. Forbes, 

 University of Illinois. 



Di'AR DocTOH Forbes: In reply to your inquiry concerning the amount of 

 hilly land in the state not suited for ordinary farming, will say that the area 

 of such land covers approximately 17 per cent of the state, or 6.000,000 acres. 

 This large area is very irregularly distributed, but is principally along the 

 larger streams, as the Rock River, Mississippi, Illinois, Sangamon, and some 

 minor ones. 



The Ozark Ridge in southern Illinois gives rise to a large area of very hilly 

 land. All of this was originally forested, but since it has been cleared, much 

 of it has eroded so badly that profitable crops can not be grown any longer, and 

 much of it is being abandoned or used for pasture. 



In the seven southern counties, approximately 55 per cent of the area is of 

 this kind. In the counties bordering the Mississippi, approximately one third 

 is too hilly to be farmed successfully, while along the Illinois to La Salle, prob- 

 ably 25 per cent of the counties are made up of this land. 



As to the distribution of this soil; in Johnson county it constitutes 67 per 

 cent of the area and is made up of the two types, yellow silt loam and stony 

 loam. Edwards county contains about 24 per cent and is composed of the 

 types, yellow silt loam, yellow fine sandy silt loam, and yellow sandy loam. 

 Cumberland county is considered a level county, and yet 10 per cent of its area 

 is too hilly to farm successfully. This land comprises the yellow silt loam and 

 yellow sandy loam. 



