6 BULLETIN 1491, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
onty one-fourth is in comparatively large tracts of practically con- 
tinuous forest. 
The unbroken or only slightly broken forest is found in the hilly 
sections, mainly on lands not well suited for farming, in southern 
Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, the highland rim of Kentucky and 
Tennessee, and the Ozark Plateau in Missouri and Arkansas. The 
30,000,000 acres in farm wood lots are scattered throughout the 
better-developed agricultural sections. 
By reason of its soil and climate the region as a whole is as 
highly productive of hardwood timber of fine quality as of field 
crops. Its oak, hickory, ash, and walnut have won almost world-wide 
renown by their excellence. 
There is an excellent market within the region for all the timber 
that can be grown there. Of hardwood saw timber alone the seven 
States of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and 
Ohio consume annually one and one-half billion board feet. The 
quantity of posts, poles, and cordwood consumed in the rich farm- 
ing districts, although it can hardly be estimated, is also large. The 
farms of the region are very generally fertile and productive and 
the farmers thrifty. Farm buildings and fences are of a good type 
and are kept in repair. In the cities are many industries dependent 
upon hardwood supplies. The centers of the furniture, veneer, auto- 
mobile, and farm-machinery industries are located there. Manu- 
facturers of ash and hickory handles and oak flooring are numerous 
and are large users of native timber. 
Large quantities of hardwood railroad ties and mine props are 
yearly cut and marketed. From the Ozark region of Missouri hard- 
wood railroad ties have been taken out since 1850, and the present 
output is said to be about 10,000,000 ties annually, together with two 
or three million mine props. 
For the entire area of all the States shown in Figure 1, which 
embraces some territory not in the central hardwood region, the 
1920 census gives the following figures for the lumber industry dur- 
ing 1919 : 
Number of establishments 8,926 
Capital invested $526,382, 044 
Persons engaged 192,147 
Yearly salaries and wages . $183, 555, 940 
Taxes paid (Federal, State, county, and local) $15,743,098 
Value of products $615, 274, 624 
Agriculture and the mines, railroads, lumber manufactures, and 
other industries afford an ample market, and in some instances a 
very high-class market for all timber grown or that can be grown in 
the region. 
TIMBER AND TIMBER TYPES 
The present stands of timber in the central hardwood region are 
largely the culled remnants of former very fine hardwood forests. 
Continual cutting of the best species and individuals, forest fires, 
and the heavy pasturing of three-quarters or more of the smaller, 
fenced-in farm wood lots have rendered these stands for the most 
part badly dilapidated and decadent. Although here and there are 
tracts that have been well cared for and are in excellent condition, 
