THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. ' 547 



NORTHERN CENTRAL DIVISION. 



* OHIO. 



The forests of Ohio were originally composed of deciduous species, among which, iu the eastern and especially 

 in the uortheastern counties, white piue and hemlock existed iu isolated bodies of no great extent. 



The original forest has now been generally removed, except from Ottawa, Miami, Montgomery, and a few 

 other western counties, and from swamps and other lands unfit for agriculture ; everywhere the walnut and other 

 valuable timbers have been culled, and Ohio must soon depend almost exclusively for the lumber which it consumes 

 upon the northern piueries and the hard-wood forests of the south. 



During the census year 74,114 acres of woodland were reported destroyed by fire, with an estimated loss of 

 $797,170. Of these fires the largest number was traced to carelessness in clearing laud, to hunters, sparks from 

 locomotives, etc. 



The production of cooperage stock has long been an important industry in the state; it has already suffered from 

 a scarcity and deterioration of white oak, for which elm, beech, maple, and poplar are now often substituted. 

 Manufacturers of wheel stock, furniture, woodenware, etc., report abundant material forpieseut consumption. 



Ohio is sixth among the states in the volume of its lumber-manufacturing interests. The business is widely 

 distributed throughout the state, generally in the hands of small manufacturers operating portable mills, which 

 threaten the rapid destruction of the remnants of ber forests. 



INDIANA. 



V 



Indiana was once almost entirely covered with noble forests of deciduous trees. Along its western borders 

 these were interrupted, however, by numerous small prairies, the extreme eastern outposts of the great treeless 

 region which, toward the north, extended over the counties of Benton, Newton, and Jasper, and over considerable 

 portions of Lake, Porter, La Porte, Pulaski, White, Tippecanoe, and Warren counties. These prairies have 

 gradually decreased in area with the settlement of the country, and those originally of small extent are now covered 

 with a vigorous giowth of the forest trees of the region. 



The forests of Indiana are cbaracterized by an almost entire absence of coniferous trees. Stunted white and 

 gray pines occupy the sand-dunes which border the southern shores of lake Michigan, and " the knobs " low, 

 gravelly hills of small extent, in the southeastern river counties are covered with a heavy growth of the Jersey- 

 pine. Swamps in the southwestern counties contain cypress, wliich finds here the northern limit of its distribution. 

 The broad bottom lands and low ridges of this part of the state are covered with a forest growth probably 

 unsurpassed in the development of individual trees, and rarely equaled iii the richness of its composition. 



The forests of the state have been largely removed in the development of its agriculture. No large bodies 

 of the original timber remain. The black walnut with which the forests of Indiana once abounded has been 

 everj-where culled and is now rare, while the best yellow poplar, oak, and other valuable timbers have been largely 

 consumed. 



During the census year 90,427 acres of woodland were reported injured by fire, with an estimated loss of 

 .$130,335. These fires were set by farmers carelessly clearing land, by hunters, and by sparks from locomotives. 



The forests of Indiana have long supplied material for a large manufacture of cooperage stock, furniture, 

 wagon stock, woodenware, etc. The cooperage and furniture manufacturers already feel the scarcity and deterioration 

 of the highest grades of oak and walnut, and very generally predict the entire exhaustion at no very distant day of 

 the forests of the state. 



Indiana is fifth among the states iu the value of iU lumber-manufacturing interests. Evansville, upon the 

 Ohio river, in Vauderburgh county, is an important manufacturing center on account of the capital invested there in 

 he lumber business and the amount of its product. The business, however, as in Ohio, is generally in the hands 

 of small manufacturers operating portable mills and sawing logs hauled to them by farmers. At the present rate 

 of destruction the forests of the state must soon lose all commercial importance. 



ILLINOIS. 



The forests of Illinois were originally confined to the southeru.portion of the state, the broad bottom lands of the 

 Mississippi and the Illinois, and the southern third of the delta formed by these rivers. The remainder of the state 

 was covered by broad, rolling prairies. The forest growth in this prairie region was confined to the narrow river 

 bottoms and occasional open park like groves of burr, scarlet, red, black-jack, or post oaks, known as "oak openings ", 



