496 FOREST GROWTH IN OHIO. 



Lorain County. — As to relative abundance and importance the for- 

 ests around Oberlin are about as follows : 



1. The oak genus stands at the head; Quercus alba being most com- 

 mon. 



2. Beech everywhere. 



3. The hickories, led by Carya alba. 



4. The maples. Acer dasycarimm being most abundant, and A. sac- 

 cliarinum most valuable. 



5. Elms. Ulmus Americana. The U. rubra rdve. 

 G. Ashes, white and black, and the basswood. 



7. Liriodendron — a grand tree. 



Other valuable trees are not very abundant. The Platanus occiden- 

 iaiis is common along streams and sandy places. The Juglans nigra 

 and S. cinerea occur in some localities. The Nyssa multifiora occurs, as 

 also the Primus serotina, the black cherry, and the Populus, especially the 

 tremuloidcs, which is common in swamps. The chestnut is scattered 

 thinly over the county, more abundant on lake ridges, and about like 

 the whitewood {Liriodendron) in quantity. The buckeye is found near 

 streams, and some conifers {Abies^ Pinus, and Juniperus), only a light 

 sprinkling, along a few streams. Cottonwood grows occasionally, both 

 wild and cultivated. 



For shade-trees nothing surpasses the white elm, but the maples are 

 more commonly set, especially the soft maple, and nowhere can finer 

 specimens of these trees be seen than along the lake ridges in this 

 county. The second growth comprises the same species and about the 

 same abundance as the first. A few cedars spring up in place of decid- 

 uous trees. The soft maple grows rapidly on cleared lands, but in time 

 it is reduced to its normal proportion. 



The drainage is much more rapid since clearing — the streams now 

 swollen and now dry — but no further changes noticed from clearings. 

 There has never been any sweeping destruction, as where charcoal is 

 made for a furnace. The use of coal for fuel has come in within five to 

 ten years, and is now as common as wood. Much lumber is still cut, 

 and will be as long as pastures (for dairying) are more profitable than 

 forests. If woodlands were exempt from taxation the scale might be 

 turned. 



The size of the oak, elm, sycamore, and whitewood logs seen in oor 

 mill-yards is sometimes remarkable, those four and five feet in diameter 

 being not rare, and oaks of six feet and more are known. A sycamore 

 in Columbia Township is 33 feet 4 inches round. — [Edwin 8. Steele, 

 Oberlin, Ohio.) 



Portage County. — " In Aurora, Portage County, there is a farm 

 where the shell-bark hickory has been allowed to grow in an old flash- 

 ing. After twenty years these trees produced a profitable crop of first- 

 class nuts; and the larger ones were cut for ax-helves and pick-handles. 

 Old settlers of Stark County, Ohio, have told me that where, in 1800, there 

 were openings covered with bushes not as high as a man's head, in 1850 

 the trees were few of them less than 50 feet in height."— (CoZ. Charles 

 Whittlesey, Cleveland, Ohio.) 



INDIANA. 



This was originally for the most part a forest region, the prairies and 

 oak-openings being relatively few and small. The surface is generally 

 level in the northern part and more uneven and hilly in the south. 



