Gow 4 THE AUDUBON. “BU DL Dosa 
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. 8S. 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. 
