BRIEFER- AR PGi es 
DEFORESTATION AND CREEK FLOW ABOUT MONROE, 
WISCONSIN.’ 
. (WITH A MAP) 
ON a large scale and in a rather hazy way the drying up of lands 
whose forests are removed is a matter of history and is popularly 
accepted as a fact. In detail and near at hand, however, there is still 
Some scarcity of available evidence. This note and the accompanying 
map show, as far as a map can, the changes in the surface flow of water 
which have accompanied the gradual removal of the native forest from 
four townships of Green county, Wisconsin. 
The tract is typical of the surrounding region. To the south there 
is more native prairie and the forest has been more completely removed, 
while to the north and west a rather larger trace of the primeval forest 
survives. Including the neighboring towns on the east and north 
would not have altered the complexion of the map at all. 
The land in these towns is almost wholly tillable. Underlying 
most of it is limestone (Galena), with a coat of clay under the fertile 
surface of soil; the Pecatonica River and some of the larger creeks 
cut through into the St. Peter sandstone. The limestone shows on 
the brow of a few hills and low sandstone cliffs border the valleys of 
the creeks in a very few places. Practically all the land can be plowed, 
and all of it makes valuable pasture. 
The settlement of these towns began about the time of the Black 
Hawk War, and a number of the earliest settlers are still living. They 
located along the edge of the timber, and the prairie towns preceded 
those forested in settlement. The population increased rapidly after 
1840, and by 1860 was practically what it is now. The first great use 
of the land was grain-growing, which has declined since the Civil War. 
What lumbering industry there was has disappeared with the material 
for it. The dairying interest has steadily grown, very rapidly during 
*The most of the work embodied in this paper was done by Mr. Shriner and myself 
during the summer of 1902. After I left Monroe Mr. Shriner filled in the areas on 
the map where reliable information had not been obtained at the first attempt, and 
also prepared the map.—E. B. C. 
1904] 139 
