150 FLORA OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY. 



consequent clogging of our streams with Band and mod It is 

 superior to any aggregation of cultivated or pasture plai 



the reason that it is not removed to Leave the Boil bare during a 

 large part of the year, as Lb the case with cultivated crops, and 



it i- not eaten or tramped upon by cattle afl in I 

 pasture-. .\I<uv<>y,r. through long adjustment to <\i >tiug con- 

 ditions the native plant- are perfectly adapted to the various 

 BUrfacee npon which they occur, and they have become more 

 pliant under the varying rnoods of our uncertain climate. They 

 erefore, more certain of persisting, and thus continuing 

 their benificent influence. In a rough country the dangers from 

 erosion and desiccation are great, not only to the land itself, but 

 to the streams and water-courses. The steeper slopes should 

 never be cleared of their covering of native vegetation, either by 

 cultivation or by pasturing, for not only will they not be profit- 

 able, but they will be B menace to better lands and to valuable 

 springs and streams. 



But aside from these uses to which all our native plants lend 

 themselves more or less readily, many of them more directly, and 

 therefore more appreciably, affect the interests of num. Among 

 the questions to which this usefulness of plants gives rise may 

 be mentioned the problems of the forests, weeds, ornamental 

 plants, medicinal plants, and consideration of rusts, smuts and 

 other fungi which attack plant-. The last Bubjecl baa n 

 much attention locally from Mr. Holway and will not be dis- 

 cussed here. 



I. The Forest Problem. 



Originally not less than one-fourth of the surface of Winne- 

 shiek county was covered with forest This was boi 

 scant, as upon the rocky slopes and drier hill-tops. ■ 

 of trees of but little value, as upon the narrow lower bottom 

 lands. Here, as elsewhere, the fc developed chiefly upon 



poorer soils. The sandy alluvial bottom land-, the rocky - 

 the gravelly or clayey hills — these formed the favoi 

 of trees. Even where a veneer of rich soil and leaf-mould 



appeared it was tl ffecl rather than the cause of the 



The forest prevented erosion; it retained moisture which made 

 the disintegration of both organic and inorganic mater- 



