158 GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



Along the Sangamon river and adjacent bills there is a good supply 

 of very good timber, consisting of white oak, bar oak, black walnut, 

 red oak, elm and linden. 



Out on the prairies the farmers have planted many hedges of Osage 

 orange, and they seem to thrive very well. Near Eosemond I noticed 

 a thrifty berberry hedge. 



Crops. — This is an excellent corn producing county, generally avera- 

 ging forty to fifty bushels per acre, and often sixty to seventy-five can 

 be raised. Fall wheat gives a fiue return to the farmer, but requires 

 the ground to be well broken and grain put in with a drill. It will 

 average fifteen bushels and often reach twenty-eight to thirty-two per 

 acre. As yet there have not been many orchards planted, but the 

 apple crop is generally sure and the peach trees often bear two years in 

 succession. Where the prairies are grazed down blue grass naturally 

 springs up and soon affords excellent grazing. 



The Geological Formations of this county include the Quaternary and 

 the Coal Measures. 



Quaternary. 



Under this head were recognized the alluvium, loess and drift. The 

 alluvium includes the soil and recent deposits from the streams, and the 

 black clays of the wide rich Sangamon bottoms are good examples of 

 alluvium. On Musquito creek the exposures along the banks show as 

 much as six feet of dark rich loam. On the south fork of the Sanga- 

 mon the black loam is often ten feet or more in depth. 



The loess is but partially developed, and is scarcely recognized as 

 separate from the drift. 



East of Taylorville the washings in ravines exhibit about ten feet of 

 buff and brown clays and sand "which may be referred to the loess ; 

 and in digging wells, about ten to fifteen feet of similar clay is passed 

 through, reaching beds of sand and gravel, in which good streams of 

 water are generally found. Sand beds are often reached within eight 

 feet of the surface. The well at the hotel in Taylorville is thirty-eight 

 feet deep, passing through eight feet of dark and light clay; then sand, 

 gravel and clay to the bottom. Good streams of pure and pleasant 

 tasting water are generally reached at a depth of from twelve to sixteen 

 feet on the prairies, sometimes as much as twenty feet, and very rarely 

 they have to dig deeper ; but in the timber wells have to be dug deeper, 

 often twenty to thirty-five feet. 



Bluffs of well marked drift deposits are often seen along the streams, 

 and consist of brown sand with rounded pebbles and bowlders, and 

 brownish-yellow and blue clay. 



