FORESTRY SURVEY 261 



timber soil. The combined area of these soils is, according 

 to the maps of the Soil Report, approximately 3,200 acres 

 a little less than 25 per cent (850 acres) of which now 

 possesses tree growth dense enough to be termed forest. A 

 reference to the earliest township maps shows that all the 

 timber soil was originally forested and that it was divided 

 into wood lots varying in size from 5 to 20 acres. 

 Township records show that these were owned and used 

 as a source of timber and firewood, for the most part, by 

 farmers living on prairie farms in other parts of Earl or 

 adjacent townships, often at a distance of 10 or even 20 

 miles. As these lots were cleared some passed from the 

 hands of the original owners and formed pai'ts of larger 

 cultivated fields or pastures. So extensive and so intensive 

 has been the grazing that not more than 40 acres show 

 evidence of reproduction. The principal ungrazed rem- 

 nants are in Sections 8, 17 and 20. The wider extent of 

 the upland timber soils and the consequent dominance of 

 wood lots and forest areas upon the east side of the stream 

 are here very notable and are discussed elsewhere. 



The cutting has been so extensive, even within the area 

 still forested, as to obscure to a large extent the character 

 of the original woodland but everywhere oaks seem to 

 have predominated. A possible exception may be found 

 upon the bottom lands southeast of the village of Earlville. 

 Here for a distance of two miles or more there remains a 

 fringe having an average width of 150 yards, in addition 

 to the isolated areas indicated upon the map. This strip 

 is populated, to a large extent, with trees of rather large 

 size — 10 to 20 inches in diameter — the density of the 

 stand varying from a condition in which trees with tall 

 straight trunks have lightly touching crowns to open pas- 

 ture having 10 to 20 broadly spreading trees per acre. In 

 these areas the species are mostly ash and maple with a 

 large admixture of the oaks and towards the southern 

 part of the township a sparse scattering of hackberry, 

 sycamore, walnut and locust (Rohinia) with occasional 

 patches of thorn apple and papaw. ''Walnut bottoms' were 

 either originally absent or else have been entirely 

 denuded. 



The upland oak forest as shown by its remnants form- 

 erly exhibited three rather distinct types: (1) The dry 

 oak upland where black and bur oaks were found, (2) 



