156 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



From the first I have l)een inclined to the opinion that, while 

 location as to high or low land, clay soil or loam, timber or prairie 

 land, do have their influence in the ease with which trees may be 

 grown, we must look for much of the trouble in those causes that 

 have operated to make a considerable portion of this State a prairie. 

 Beginning in Ohio and going west, we find through the latitude of 

 Central and Northern Illinois, a gradual diminution of trees till we 

 come to the plains, where we find only a few stunted cottonwoods 

 along the streams. At first it is a falling off of certain kinds, then 

 others, till in Illinois about the only trees to be found over the up- 

 lands are oaks; beeches, hard maples, chestnuts and many others have 

 disappeared. It is evident that where causes have operated to pre- 

 vent the natural growth of those trees, it will be more difiicult to 

 grow the more tender fruit trees. As evidence of this, we do not 

 hear of apple trees being killed by cold weather, where beech and 

 chestnut are indigenous, though the thermometer goes lower every 

 winter than in any portion of Illinois. Now, why is a portion of 

 this State a prairie? First, allow me to quote a little from " Forests 

 of North America," one of the special reports of the last general 

 census, the words probably from the pen of Prof. Charles S. Sargent, 

 of Harvard. He says, in speaking of the regions into which the 

 United States may be divided: 



''The western third of the Atlantic region is subjected to very 

 different climatic conditions from those prevailing in the eastern por- 

 tions of the continent. It consists of an elevated plateau which falls 

 away from the eastern base of the Rocky mountains, forming what 

 is known as the Great Plains. This great interior region, on account 

 of its remoteness from natural reservoirs of moisture, receives a 

 meager and uncertain rainfall, sufficient to insure a growth of herb- 

 age, but not sufficient to support, outside the narrow bottoms of the 

 infrequent streams, the scantiest forests. This treeless plateau ex- 

 tends north to the fifty-second degree of north latitude. It follows 

 southward the trend of the Rocky mountains into Mexico, extend- 

 ing eastward, at the point of its greatest width, in about latitude 40° 

 north, nearly to the ninety-seventh meredian. This whole region is 

 generally destitute of forest. The narrow bottoms of the large 

 streams are lined, however, with willows, poplars, elms and hack- 

 berries, trees adapted to flourish under such unfavorable conditions. 

 These diminished in size and number with the rainfall, and often 

 disappear entirely from the banks of even the largest streams toward 

 the western limits of the plateau, south of the forty-fifth degree of 

 latitude. North and east of these central treeless plains, a belt of 

 prairie extends from the sixtieth degree of north latitude to Southern 

 Texas. The average width east and west of this prairie region, 

 through much of its extent, is not far from 150 miles. Its eastern 

 extension, between the fortieth and forty-fifth degrees of latitude, is 

 much greater, however, here, reaching the western shores of Lake 



