192 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



area of 32 square miles. Of this area three square miles, or 

 9.3 per cent, is in woodlands. The region occupied by 

 prairie is also shown by shading. In this paper, the initial 

 chapter of the complete report, three of the wooded areas 

 are dealt with in detail and each is illustrated by a special 

 map and each concerns a particular phase of the forest 

 problem. (For details not given here consult maps 2, 3, 

 and 4.) 



One thing stands out very prominently in all of the 

 niaps shown, and that is the almost universal distribution 

 of forest upon that portion of the surface too rough for 

 cultivation, the wooded areas being on the streams and 

 rough hillside slopes. There are very limited areas of 

 really good farm land still occupied by woods. This, how- 

 ever, emphasizes even more strongly the evident conclu- 

 sion that not a desire for conservation but unsuitability for 

 the growing farm crops has saved these remnants of forest 

 from extermination. 



No. 2 map area illustrates what may be accomplished by 

 permitting a stand of second-growth trees to remain prac- 

 tically undisturbed by the woodman or by the equally 

 dangerous grazing stock. The soil is all yellow silt loam, 

 the exposure being in general towards the east, but with 

 sharper slopes to north and south by reason of a forking 

 ravine which extends almost the entire width of the woods. 

 These secondary slopes afford excellent illustrations of the 

 effect of topography or slope upon the distribution of tree 

 species. The forty acres shows well hydrarch-mesophytic 

 associations along the lower level of the ravine, xerarch- 

 mesophytic on middle ground, and a mesotropic associa- 

 tion on the higher portion. While there is a marked com- 

 mingling of species, in the main the type species predom- 

 inates. 



A very striking feature of this woodland is the very 

 large number of young oak, ash, hard maple, and to a less 

 extent hickory, elm, basswood, and ironwood trees. Many 

 of these seedlings have reached the height of 6 to 8 feet 

 and are evidently well started in a successful struggle to 

 reach maturity. This shows better than any other fact the 

 benefit to reproduction of keeping out cattle, sheep, and 

 hogs. From this we may say that any forest land in this 

 area will be able to perpetuate itself if properly protected 



