55 



594. 3T9 acres. Throughout the northern and the central parts of the 

 state are broad regions where oak-hickory makes up 90 per cent or more 

 of the stand, and such an association occurs locally even in the Ozark 

 uplands, loessal bluffs, and post oak region. The total forested area of 

 this oak-hickory extreme is estimated as 1,209,734 acres. 



Throughout the post oak region the oak-hickory subtype is found 

 on the slopes where the flat upland breaks to the stream bottom. The 

 soils are usually yellow-gray silt loams. White oak is the commonest 

 tree, shingle and black oaks, hickory with occasional ash, basswood, 

 cherry, hard maple, elm, and black walnut form the stand. 



North of this post oak region, the oak-hickory extreme prevails 

 throughout the interior of the state. It is a region of undulating upland 

 prairies and verj' deep glacial deposits. These prairies are naturally 

 poorly drained so that, over the centuries when the prairie sod held the 

 site, decay of grass roots has been but partial, and the rich black soils of 

 the prairies have been built up. Below the dark prairie soils, yellow- 

 gray and yellow silt loams are generally found. Where these soils are 

 exposed on the slopes along the streams forests occupied the site ; and on 

 the steeper slopes of the numerous moraines, forests were found. Prai- 

 ries, however, prevailed over 70 per cent of this region. About 82 per 

 cent of the area originally forested is now cleared, and the forests remain- 

 ing are small wood-lots retained on the rougher slopes. However, this is 

 a region of relatively gentle slopes ; and much land now timbered can be 

 converted to arable land or to permanent pasture. 



Soil classification, made by the University of Illinois Agricultural 

 Experiment Station in twenty-two counties of this region, shows that 51 

 per cent of all timbered soils not bottomland are yellow-gray silt loams, 

 and 33 per cent are yellow silt loams. These are comparatively heavy 

 soils, and the yellow silt loams are those common to the less gentle slopes ; 

 consequently, erosion is a possibility where this soil type is cleared. Gul- 

 ly erosion was noted in Bureau. Fulton, Knox. \\'arren. Brown, McDon- 

 ough. and Madison counties and was especially severe in Pike county. 



These oak-hickory stands are usually even-aged, and occur as narrow 

 strips along the slopes and as isolated wood-lots. Shingle oak may oc- 

 cur, but the commonest tree in the central region is black oak ; in the 

 northern, white oak. Oak and hickory often make up the entire stand. 

 In the northern quarter of the state bur oak is a common tree in the as- 

 sociation, and often forms the entire stand in wood-lots of counties along 

 the northern border of the state. These bur oak stands are usually poor- 

 ly stocked with short-boled, wide-crowned, and "limby" trees. Elsewhere 

 the oak-hickory wood-lots usually show good stocking with trees up to 

 small sawlog size and under 80 years of age. The usual drain on these 

 wood-lots has been for posts and fuel. For these purposes inferior and 

 smaller trees are customarily cut, leaving the better trees. These latter 

 are, in most wood-lots, from 60 to 80 years old and entering into the saw- 

 log class. The practice of grazing these wood-lots is almost universal. 

 Statements from 430 woodland owners show that 92 per cent graze wood- 



