6 THEAUDUBONBULLETIN 



been impressed by the looseness of the hill soil, its fertility as 

 compared with many forest soils on ridges, and consequently 

 the greater chances for rapid growth if these annual fires can 

 be prevented. 



This can be done by carrying on a campaign of education 

 among the people, by the formation of cooperative fire-protect- 

 tive associations, perhaps, or by the state acquiring a large 

 acreage of land in regions where stream protection and future 

 timber supply are especially important features. 



Danger from fire is not so great in bottomland areas as in 

 the case of hill timber, although no special precautions are 

 taken about slash disposal or fire prevention. With better and 

 more conservative handling, there is no reason why the 

 smaller trees on a bottomland tract, instead of being sac- 

 rificed when of small value, might not soon form a second crop. 

 In many cases, due to periodic flooding, such tracts, even when 

 included in organized drainage districts, may not be cleared 

 and farmed for several years. The census report for 1920 in 

 Illinois shows that there are over 250,000 acres of such wet and 

 swampy timber land in organized drainage projects, classed as 

 "unimproved land/'and failure to manage this conservatively 

 until it is brought under cultivation represents a great waste. 

 In some counties of southern Illinois this bottomland contains 

 a considerable amount of cypress, as in the Cache river bottoms, 

 either in scattered pure patches or mixed with gum, cucumber 

 and so forth. 



Coming down to facts and figures, the U. S. Census Report 

 of 1920 gives the area of farm-woodlands in Illinois as 3,102, 

 147 acres, a reduction of about 45,000 acres in the last ten 

 years. To prevent the useless whittling away of the old wood- 

 lot is quite a task, in view of the demand for land for grazing 

 and farming purposes. A study of the situation reveals the 

 fact that much woodland is cleared which should have been left 

 in woods, especially on the steeper slopes, where it may be 

 farmed for a few years until the surface fertility has been ex- 

 hausted, then it reverts back to waste land, covered with briars 

 and sassafras and persimmon bushes. This is simply increas- 

 ing the number of acres of waste land without really adding 

 very much to production of farm crops. The testimony of the 

 Geological Survey in Hardin County is that land which has a 

 slope of over 800 feet to the mile should be kept permanently 

 in forest, while the Soil Survey of the state says that such land 

 should never have been denuded of its forest cover. There are 

 some 6,000,000 acres of this doubtful land whose character 

 needs to be determined by soil' experts, orchardists, and for- 

 esters, so that it can be devoted to its best and most economic 

 use. We do not mean that this entire area of 6,000,000 acres 

 should be put back into woods, but let us say that half of it is 

 better adapted to forestry than to any other purpose. 



