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C'l c: ~ has quadrupled; pasture land has decreased slightly and production CJt of barley and oats has dropped from 75,575 acres to 14,104 scres CJt in the two county area.ll See Table 2 for land use patterns. -..l The known deposits of lead and zinc ores have apparer.tly heen mined out to economic limits leaving surface land areas of tailing piles, cave-in prone undermined areas, and shallow polluted water. There has been no sustained ore production in the area since 1957.12 Although a four foot thick, eight foot deep vein of coal was reported in Newton County in 1871 and deposits of 94,000,000 tons of coal are estimated in Jasper C~~nty, no commercial coal mining has taken place in either county. No oil or gas deposits have been reported in either Newton or Jasper County although 'minor amounts have been recorded in McDonald Ccun ty to the sou th and extensive 0 i 1 sha 1 e depos i ts are recorded to the north and west.14 A brickyard operated for several years early in this century at Carthage, and some deposits of stoneware clay are reported near Duenweg, but there are no apparent commercial clay operations in the foreseeable future within the two-county area.15 . Commercial stonc production in the two-county area is princi- pally dimension marble from Jasper County and construction, agri- cultural, and chemical grades of crushed limestones from both Newton and Jasper Counties. Stone production is relatively shallow and Covers small areas with little pollution of land, water or air except in the ilTUTlediate vicinity of operations.16 Under the cate- gory of sand and gravel would fall the extensive use of tailings from the abandoned mines for railroad ballast, ssnd blasting, grinding and polishing and concrpte aggregate. The value of ma- terial produced under this classification amounts to slightly in excess of thr,e million dollars annually in the Newton-Jasper County area.1 Principal active stone operations are north of Carthage in Jasper County. . Tripoli deposits near Seneca were first mined in 1871 with extensi.ve mining operations near Racine developing in the early 1900's and phasing out with development of more extensive deposits in nearby Oklahoma. Some small Missouri, production has resumed but the bulk of the Senecs mill supply is from Oklahoma.18 r Timber land in the Newlon-JE'lsper County arefl is in a recov(>ry stag~ from over-cutting and wild woods fires which have held timber production to a minimum. See Table 3. Oak sBwlogs, stave bolts, posts and other miscellaneous timber products that make up the commercial forest land in both 97