123 



The only use that can be made of this land is for pasture or forest. In 

 many places it is left in permanent pasture. There is little doubt, however, but 

 that if this could be re-forested it would become a source of permanent income 

 to the owner. The abandoned land is growing up to persimmon, sassafras, and 

 some other forms that are of little value from the forestry standpoint. 



Very truly yours, 



(Signed) J. G. Moster. 



In July, 1923, the areas of land of hilly and broken character, or 

 so-called eroded lands, were given for 44 counties by Professor R. S. 

 Smith, Assistant Professor of Soil Physics in the College of Agriculture, 

 as 2,004,860 acres, or 11.8 per cent of the total area of these counties. 

 These are the same counties on which the per cent of forest lands was 

 based. The area of these 44 counties was 16,934,240 acres, or 47.21 per 

 cent of the land area of the state. If this proportion held good, the area 

 of eroded lands for the state would be 4,232,367 acres. But the southern 

 half of the state containing 41 counties included but 12 of the 44 counties 

 measured, and so is not weighted properly. Correcting this average by 

 weighting these two sections, gives a total of hilly or so-called eroded 

 land of 4,810,149 acres. 



Eroded land as described by the Soil Survey is land the original 

 surface of which has been washed away, leaving as a rule what is known 

 as yellow silt loam as the present surface, although the erosion sometimes 

 reaches deeper to other subsoils. Such land is commonly subject to still 

 further erosion which may in time injure it severely, but it is not now 

 necessarily unfit for general agriculture. It is impossible to state with 

 any certainty the absolute area within the state which is better fitted for 

 the growing of forest crops than for tillage, improved pasturage, or 

 orchards, since this will vary with economic conditions as well as with 

 soil quality and physical drawbacks. Not all of the so-called eroded land 

 is unsuited to agriculture ; on the other hand there are some areas of 

 sandy land, or of tight clay soils, and some bottomlands subject to over- 

 flow which it will not pay to drain. To these could be added a con- 

 siderable acreage in the aggregate representing wood-lots, plantations, 

 windbreaks, and hedgerows, on better soils. The total area in Illinois 

 which is or could be forested is probably equivalent to 4.810,149 acres, 

 or 13.41 per cent of the state. 



What condition is this area in at ])resent ? It is ])robable that all 

 but a very small fraction of the remaining woodlands of 2,863,764 acres, 

 amounting to 7.98 per cent of the state's surface, are included in this 

 acreage. This leaves 1,946,385 acres as the approximate area which 

 has been cleared for either agriculture or pasturage, or has been used 



