43 



Originally about 95 per cent of the bluff and Ozark upland region 

 was forested. The fertile soils have put a premium on arable land, and 

 customarily the flat hill-tops and the narrow creek-bottoms are cleared ; 

 yet the region is so dissected that 23.6 per cent of its area is yet forested, 

 as contrasted with an average of 6.8 per cent forested for the total of 

 the uplands of the state. The actual reduction in area from the original 

 forests is estimated at 76.2 per cent and the reduction in quantity of tim- 

 ber at 95.5 per cent. 



In the Ozark region the bluffs rise abruptly several hundred feet 

 above the Mississippi flood-plain to the general level of the uplands. 

 These uplands are so dissected for the first three to nine miles from the 

 bluff's that the continuity of the forests is broken only by clearings on the 

 narrow bottoms, or infrequently on the yet narrower ridge tops. (See 

 Map III N.) This region is the only place in Illinois where relatively 

 continuous upland forests in a single region aggregate 100,000 acres ; and 

 this forest is a belt averaging three and one-half miles in width by fifty 

 in length, rather than a compact area. 



Rock outcrops are frequent where the uplands break to the Missis- 

 sippi flood-plain, but in general loessal deposits are heavy and soils are 

 deep. This is a limestone region, and caverns and subterranean streams 

 usual to such formations exist. Springs of considerable volume are 

 numerous at the base of the bluffs, but within the region itself springs 

 are rare. 



The dry slopes rising abruptly from the Mississippi flood-plain are 

 forested save where sheer cliff's break their continuity. These forests 

 consist of short, sturdy trees, mostly oak. The upper part of this west- 

 ern slope has black oaks and hickory on the more favorable sites, with 

 post oak or red cedar on the thin soils. It is on this dry upper part of 

 the westernmost slope in Union county that the bulk of the shortleaf pine 

 grows, a few stragglers reaching the second western slope. 



These poor forests mark only the exposed margin, and within this 

 region of innumerable ravines and spurs a rich variety of trees may be 

 found. In general the ridge tops and upper parts of the south and west 

 slopes have few species other than black oak, white oak, and hickories. 

 The north and east slopes, the lower south and lower west slopes, and 

 the bottoms of the innumerable narrow draws, in addition to black and 

 white oak and hickories, have red oak, tulip, beech, hard maple, black 

 walnut, ash, cucumber-tree- butternut, basswood, elm, Kentucky coffee- 

 tree, black and red gum, and mulberry. Customarily the oaks predomi- 

 nate, yet it is not unusual to find nearly pure stands of beech in the draws 

 and on lower slopes. 



The difficulty of logging in this extremely broken region delayed the 

 harvesting of the virgin stands until the more accessible areas to the east 

 were cut out. Early operations were light and the large trees of the 

 few more valuable species were harvested and marketed in the log. This 

 was followed by sawmills operating chiefly in the larger oak. In recent 

 years this region has been drawn upon heavily for sawlogs, ties, and 



