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hundred to two hundred feet. The slopes also vary from gentle to precip- 

 itous. The greater part of the slopes are gentle to steep. The soil of the 

 greater part of the area is limestone and will support a good stand of 

 blue grass. Parts of about ten counties have a residual soil composed of 

 decomposed sandstone, knobstone or knobstone shale which will not 

 support a good stand of blue grass, and which are regarded as our 

 poorest agricultural and forestal lands. This hill area may be* roughly 

 divided into forestal and agricultural lands. There is, however, a wide 

 divergance of opinion as to the definition of each in Indiana. The for- 

 ester tells us that all lands that will not support a permanent and profitable 

 agriculture should be classed as forest land. He calls attention to areas 

 that have already been cleared and farmed successfully for a few years, 

 but having become washed and eroded, have been abandoned. He says : 

 "Such lands should not have been cleared." The Agricultural Experimental 

 Station expert tells us that the washing and erosion is the result of poor 

 farming, and that practically any slope in Indiana might be cleared and 

 farmed or grazed successfully. The land owner will tell you he can 

 clear a rugged slope and grow tobacco on it a year or two and receive 

 an income from five to one hundred times the value of the land, but he 

 fails to tell you that after a few years the soil on their farmed slopes will 

 be washed away. We should, therefore, not be surprised to find thou : 

 sands of acres of hill land that have been farmed for a year or two and 

 then abandoned, or left to "go to pasture or grow up" to use the vernacular 

 of the hill country. 



Today there are thousands of acres of cleared land in the southern 

 part of the State which are not now farmed because they have washed 

 or eroded so that they cannot be farmed or are too unprofitable to be 

 farmed. They are growing up in poverty grass, weeds, briars, sassafras, 

 persimmon, etc. These washed areas usually occur in small tracts of a few 

 acres in extent. Yet the agricultural expert tells us all of these areas 

 can be redeemed and be made profitable for agriculture and grazing. 



Is this hill country forestal or agricultural lands? Let us consult 

 statistics and also note the activities of the present population. In 1915 

 ninety-two per cent, of Indiana was listed as farm land. Of twenty of 

 the hilliest counties of the State, eleven reported more than ninety-two 

 per cent, of their county as farm land. In 1917 the average sized farm in 

 Indiana was one hundred three acres, yet in eleven of the roughest counties 

 of the State, the average farm contained only ninety-six acres. The 

 average rural population in Indiana in 1916 was forty-three per square 

 mile. Yet Crawford, Orange and Perry counties which are regarded as 

 among the roughest counties of the State had an average of forty. The 

 average forty-three for the State represents an inflated figure, since the 

 large rural coal mine and suburban populations are included in the State 

 average. It is reasonable to believe that agriculture today in the counties 

 just named is supporting as large and contented a population as the 

 average county. 



It is a fact that the forests are disappearing"" most rapidly in the 

 hilliest counties. Why is this? The following may be offered in answer. 

 The land owner has no notion of the annual increment value of an acre of 





