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Forest Conditions in Indiana. 



By Stanley Coulter. 



Certain economic statements may serve as a suggestive introduction 

 to this study of Forest conditions in Indiana. Some of these will be more 

 fully elaborated later in the paper, others need no comment since their 

 mere statement is sufficient to call attention to existing conditions. 



A reference to the Census report of 1880 will show that at that time 

 Indiana ranked sixth in the list of lumber producing states. In 1908 it 

 ranked twenty-seventh. 1 Not only had it fallen to this low position in the 

 list of lumber producing states, but the cut of 1908 was very decidedly less 

 than that of 1907. While some part of this latter loss may be attributed 

 to the reduced demand for lumber in 1907, all of it cannot be so referred. 

 As a matter of fact the cut made represented all of the high grade timber 

 upon which lumbermen could lay their hands. 



While certain regions of the state, notably in the southern counties, 

 still appear to be heavily timbered, an examination shows that practically 

 all forms of high value have been cut from them. They have been swept 

 clean of their yellow poplar, white oak, black walnut, and cherry and are 

 made up almost entirely of what may be regarded from an economic 

 standpoint as second grade or inferior forms. It is these inferior -forms 

 that are furnishing the future forest, if indeed there is any promise of a 

 future forest. The splendid forests of the past, 2 splendid not only in ex- 

 tent but in the quality of the timber they yielded, have disappeared and 

 the forests that remain are infinitely inferior to them both in extent and 

 quality. Present conditions indicate a still further deterioration unless 

 prompt remedial measures are taken. 



A rather careful examination of the existing areas, supplemented by 

 the opinion of lumber buyers, leads to the conclusion that few extensive 

 areas in the state will show a stumpage of desirable forms exceeding 

 2,500 feet board measure. My own judgment is that the average stumpage 



1 Forest Products No. 2. Lumber, Lath and Shingles, 1908. Bureau of the 

 Census, issued November 15, 1909, p. 8. 



2 Stanley Coulter. The Forest Trees of Indiana, Trans. Ind. Hort. Soc., 1891, 

 p. 8. A. W. Butler. Indiana : A Century of Changes in the Aspects of Nature, 

 Proc. Ind. Acad, of Sci., 1895, pp. 32, 33. 



