124 



for hillside orchards. Subtracting the area of 1,577,663 acres listed by 

 the Census as waste lands, leaves a possible net acreage in productive 

 use other than either woodland or agricultural crops, of 368,722 acres. 



Since no attempt has been made to segregate the timber-covered 

 areas of land which will ultimately be cleared for agriculture, though 

 the total has been deducted from or charged against the area of hilly, non- 

 agricultural land, it is probable that in the form of groves and planta- 

 tions, or wood-lots fully as large an area of the more level lands in the 

 state will be retained in timber voluntarily as will be needed for pasturage 

 or orcharding on the non-agricultural soils or steep hillsides. Of the 

 368,722 acres of soil not accounted for by woodland or by waste land 

 in farms, a certain per cent must fall in the area not included in farms. 



The existence of a very considerable area of land actually abandoned 

 or waste, equal to 55.1 per cent of the total existing woodlands in the 

 entire state, and not classified by the owners as pasture lands, indicates 

 that whatever may be the ultimate division of use of non-agricultural 

 lands between pasture and forests, the present forest area may be in- 

 creased one half without taking an acre from any existing use. The 

 soils of many of these hilly areas are easily eroded. This is especially 

 true of the yellow fine sandy silt loam, yellow silt loam, and yellow 

 sandy loam types in the southern counties, though examples of advanced 

 erosion are not lacking elsewhere as set forth by Bulletin 207* of the State 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. These hilly areas constitute the larger 

 percentages of the non-agricultural or absolute forest soils of the state. 



Two other classes of soil are found, which under certain conditions 

 should be in forest. The first is wet lands which are infertile when 

 drained, or which can not be drained successfully. In this class come 

 many islands in the Mississippi River, and areas not protected by levees. 

 Other tracts may be found, of which certain lands along the Big Muddy 

 River in Jackson and Union counties are examples, where the soil is a 

 tight clay which does not repay the expense of drainage. The total area 

 of undrained bottomland is steadily diminishing and in time will become 

 a negligible quantity, while the fertility of such soils and the drainage 

 taxes which they must pay in organized districts force their improvement 

 and cultivation at the earliest possible moment. Many stands of young 

 timber of rapid growth may yet develop on some of the least desirable 



• Univeisitv of Illinois. Asiicultural Exporlment Station, Bulletin 207. "Wash- 

 ing of Soils ami Methods of Prevention", by J. G. Mosier and A. F. Gustatson. Urbana, 

 Illinois, April. 1918. 



