638 GEOLOGY OP OHIO. 



tility is shown by the luxuriant forest growth with which they are cov- 

 ered. There is no finer timber produced in the State than the hills of 

 Pike county supply. The variety is large, embracing poplar, hickory, 

 ash, walnut, and oak. The flanks of the hills are covered equally with 

 the summits. 



A notable difference will, however, be observed by even a casual ob- 

 server between the northern and the southern slopes of the hills. This 

 difference is shown not only in the amount but also in the kinds of tim- 

 ber produced. It depends on physical conditions altogether, the two most 

 prominent being the following : Our heaviest rains coming from the 

 south, wear away the forming soil from the sides of the hills against 

 which they beat; and, in the second place, the action of the sun is far 

 more powerful on southern slopes than on northern, reducing the moist- 

 ure of the soil very often below the limit which vegetation generally re- 

 quires. The kinds of timber, as intimated above, are found to vary very 

 much in the different exposures. On the south side the same trees are 

 found growing that have already been named as characteristic of the slate 

 soils. On the summit of Windle's Knob, one of the high points of the 

 county, five miles west of Waverly, and on its northern slope, the follow- 

 ing varieties of trees were counted within the area of forty square rods : 



Red Oak Quercus rubra. 



Pigeon Oak Quercus acuminata. 



Chestnut Oak Quercus castanea. 



Chestnut Castanea vesca. 



Black Walnut Juglans nigra. 



Hickory Carya alba. 



Blue Ash Fraxinus quadrangulata. 



Black Locust Robinia pseudacacia. 



Redbud Cercis Canadensis. 



Dogwood Cornus florida. 



Basswood, or Lin Tilia Americana. 



Persimmon Diospyros Virginiana. 



Like all the other lands of this part of Ohio, these Waverly soils are 

 generally subjected to a rude and exhausting system of tillage; but 

 wherever an exception is made to this rule the lands yield a generous 

 return. One or two farms in Pebble township, near the little village of 

 Buchanan, give a hint of the possibilities that are latent in these up- 

 lands under wise husbandry. There is no defect in them, let it be re- 

 peated, in natural composition or constitution. Under proper treatment, 

 they make the business of agriculture a living business for the tiller of 

 the soil, while at the same time they become more and more adapted to 

 the work required of them. 



