ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 19 



farm forestry, for the Arbor and Bird Day booklet, and for the press. 

 Mr. Miller has given addresses before farmers' institutes, horticultural 

 societies, the Tri-State Forestry Conference, the Arche Club of Chicago, 

 the Biology Section of the Central Science and Mathematics Teachers' 

 Association, the Prairie Club of Chicago, and elsewhere, emphasizing in 

 some of the talks with slides the recreational side of the forest. Five lec- 

 tures were given in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the 

 University of Illinois and Mr. Miller has appeared before schools as op 

 portunity has offered. 



To this publicity work which might well alone tax the resources of one 

 person, Mr. Miller adds field work, the demands of which are rapidly 

 growing. He has been called upon to make estimates for farmers in 

 various parts of the state, a recent instance being concerned with marking 

 the trees in a 65 acre tract to be taken out so that the owner can realize on 

 them and also improve the woodlot. The Forester looked after the plant- 

 ing of 6000 red pine and jackpine seedlings on "stripped lands" of the 

 Electric Coal Company at Danville. He has just made a preliminary 

 report upon a tract of 5000 acres of mining lands for one of the most 

 progressive coal companies in Chicago, this company desiring to handle 

 its timberlands so as to produce a perpetual supply of mine timber. This 

 will probably mean the making of a scheme for planting so as to keep up 

 the annual supply, and devising measures for fire protection, for better 

 cutting, and disposal of slash after cutting. It is hoped to get other coal 

 companies in southern Illinois interested in the same kind of work and 

 thus there will be openings for trained foresters to go directly into the 

 employ of the mine owners themselves. 



The Soil Physics Department and the Geological Survey both assert 

 that there are many thousands of acres of lands in southern Illinois which 

 should not be cropped but which should remain in timber because when 

 denuded of forest cover the land soon erodes and gullies very badly, making 

 the raising of farm crops impossible. A thorough study of conditions in 

 typical areas is being made to determine what kinds of trees should be 

 used in re-planting, and this should ultimately mean the establishment of 

 state nurseries to raise trees at cost for private owners. 



The office of the Forester receives many inquiries of a varied nature 

 on the uses of native woods, planting of trees, use of wood preservatives 

 in prolonging the life of fence posts, etc. There are calls for the latest 

 information upon subjects such as forest taxation, fire protection, forest 

 policy, state and national, and other things necessary to introduce into 

 legislation. Forestry exhibits, to attract the attention of schools and of 

 farmers at their different meetings, engage the activity of the Forester also. 

 In New York state there are five men working in the department of forestry 

 extension alone, and it is evident that the work in Illinois will soon so far 

 outgrow the power of one man to attend to it that some of it will have 

 to remain at a standstill unless the department receives a larger measure of 

 financial support. 



