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the rough land farther south. The chief trees are the familiar black 

 and white oaks and hickories, with a considerable amount of hard 

 maple. Bur oak here grows on the higher situations, though with a 

 tendency to choose the moister places, and white ash, walnut, and 

 cherry are also found in considerable numbers. The few persimmons 

 noted in this locality show a tendency to grow on high and dry sites. 

 The narrow bottoms and stream borders support a growth of bottom- 

 land white oaks, elm, sycamore, willow, and a few soft maple. Other 

 trees sometimes found in these mixtures are black gum, basswood, 

 and mulberry. To the east the valley of the Wabash seems to have 

 a controlling influence on the type, which is shown by the presence of 

 beech, tulip, and some small butternut, — all, trees which were not 

 noticed farther west. 



South of Vermilion and Paris there is much rough land with 

 steep-sided valleys. Here the woods are large in extent, and consist 

 of a mixture of white, overcup, chinquapin, black, red, and shingle 

 oaks, beech, hard maple, basswood, hickories, ash, tulip, and black 

 walnut, with sycamore, elm, and willow immediately along the stream 

 bottoms. Other species are pin oak, cherry, buckeye, butternut, and an 

 undergrowth of hornbeam and water beech. 



Much of the woodland is pastured, and reproduction is generally 

 poor under such conditions, but is excellent where fire and cattle are 

 excluded. Seedling hickories and hard maples are especially thick 

 among the young growth, and shingle oak is common in the type of 

 the prairie borders. 



On the edge of the prairies the woodlots are likely to be in better 

 condition than those of the rougher country. The latter are generally 

 uneven-aged cut-over stands, with a greater proportion of young 

 second-growth and few scattered veterans. On the whole, the growth 

 is very good, and a little management would put all the woodland into 

 good shape. 



The beech seems to be suffering from a shot-hole fungus of the 

 leaves, and the shingle oak in places is dying, possibly from too much 

 exposure and a change in conditions due to clearing. Farmers in the 

 district complain of the dying of the white oak, which they attribute 

 to a borer. This does not seem to be the real cause, which is probably 

 old age, since the big trees in the stands are usually overmature and 

 stagheaded. 



Too heavy cutting on steep slopes, which are absolute forest land, 

 has resulted in the formation of very deep gullies, some of the worst 

 results of erosion. 



