FORESTRY SURVEY ZOD 



terrnpted by wide intervals. Bureau Creek barely touches 

 the northwest corner of the township and a small amount 

 of the woodland associated with its course extends into 

 Section 6. This forest has quite disappeared. About a 

 reservoir in Section 29 (Map I. a i the black willows have 

 covereil perhaps one acre while adjoining the willows in 

 Sec-tion 28 is a plantation of less than a half acre of black 

 walnut from 2 to 4 inches in diameter. Two or three 

 patches of silver maple (Acer saccharinum) in Sections 

 82 and 20. e^^idently planted, although now making a close 

 stand of trees from S to 20 inches in diameter and a patch 

 of young Catalpas 2 to S inches in diameter in Section 20 

 (Map I, bi, make the total forested area of the township 

 not more than three or four acres, two-thirds of which is 

 undoubtedly due to planting. What is quite as important 

 is the fact that there is no evidence that the original for- 

 ested area was more extensive. It seems certain that a 

 landscape of uninterrupted prairie gi'eeted the eyes of the 

 first settlers. There is scarcely an acre of waste land in 

 the township and cultivation has been so thorough that 

 even roadsides and the railroad right-of-way show very 

 few remnants of the original prairie vegetation. Such 

 remnants are marked by the presence of prairie docks, 

 compass plants, golden rods and stmflowers. 



Meridex Township i Map 1 1 . 



Meriden lying immediately east of Mendota resembles 

 it in being essentially a forestless area. Sloping gently 

 from the north its surface is covered with prairie soils, 

 among which the brown silt loam 1 1126 i is most widely 

 spread covering over 90 per cent of the surface, with a few 

 hundred acres of black silt loam 1 1125 ) and one small 

 area of black clay loam ( 1120 ) . All these upland prairie 

 soils are again found to be treeless except for the narrow 

 and much interrupted willow fringe along some streams. 

 These streams are almost all tributaries of Big Indian 

 Creek, the largest being known as Four Mile Creek. None 

 of them are deeply entrenched nor have they developed slop- 

 ing valleys except at the northwest corner of the township 

 where Four Mile Creek has cut somewhat more deeply on 

 account of the local elevation, due to the presence of the 

 Bloomington moraine ( Map 1 1 . Here there are about 150 

 acres of upland timber soil (1134) bordering the stream 



