256 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



and this was evidently originally entirely covered with 

 trees now largely cut away or thinned out. The forest is 

 of the upland oak type, with a small admixture of bottom 

 forest trees near the stream. At the southern extremity of 

 the area a stand of about 10 acres of mixed oak and elm has 

 been so little culled that it covers the ground rather 

 closely. North of it comes an open space and areas of 

 pasture with scattered trees. In all there are about 75 

 acres upon which trees are sufficiently numerous to be 

 classed as forest. Here, as elsewhere, as the trees become 

 more and more scattering it is difficult to say whether por- 

 tions of a pasture are to be classed as forest or not. All 

 parts of this area are grazed and many possess only a very 

 open stand of trees that have usually a trunk diameter of 

 6 to 20 inches. 



Ophir Township (Map II). 



This is another prairie township with small streams, 

 often drying up in summer, flowingin shallow channels with 

 their valleys quite undeveloped. These are mostly tribu- 

 taries of Tomahawk and Vermilion Creeks and only with 

 the latter is there any forest development associated. The 

 upland prairie soils are uninterrupted, except in Sections 

 18, 19 and 30, the brown silt loam (1126) as before cover- 

 ing over 90 per cent of the area. In Sections 18, 19 and 30 

 the action of the branches of the Vermilion Creek have 

 evidently removed the surface prairie soil and exposed 

 800 acres of the underlying yellow-grey silt loam (1134) 

 which is one of the upland timber soils. 



Originally the extent of the forests seems to have coin- 

 cided with the distribution of this timber soil, but now 

 nearly three-fourths of the area has been cleared, some so 

 recently that the stumps remain in the pastures. 



The forest soils in Section 30 and in the south half of 

 Section 19 are entirely cleared although over a hundred 

 acres of stump pasture testify to their former cover of the 

 upland oak forest type. In the north half of Section 19 

 and the adjacent portion of Section 18 about 200 acres of 

 upland oak of fairly good quality still remained at the 

 time of our visit (September, 1918), although cutting was 

 then in progress. 



