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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLII 



species, it will be necessary to consider the vegetable 

 covering of the soil, since there is little else in Illinois by 

 which different portions of its area may be distinguished. 

 The territory traversed by my observers, it need hardly 

 be said, was almost wholly under cultivation. Excluding 

 only forests in which the trees were too high, or the 

 undergrowth was too dense, to permit a full and accurate 

 census of the birds, the territory reported upon was 

 chosen wholly at random, and the total for each division 

 of the state seems sufficient to give us, with the exception 

 just mentioned, a fair sample of its crops and surface 

 conditions. The areas from which all the birds were 

 determined were 3,172 acres for northern Illinois, 2,117 

 acres for central, and 2,504 acres for southern. 



In the upper third of the state, 95 per cent, of the 

 surface was in corn, small grain and grass— 31 per cent, in 

 corn, 27 per cent, in small grain (nearly all of it oats) 

 and 37 per cent, in the pasture and meadow crops, about 

 equally in each. In the central region the area in corn 

 rises to 46 per cent, of the whole, that in small grains was 

 about 26 per cent, (again nearly all oats) and that in the 

 forage crops was 27 per cent, (the pasture lands nearly 

 twice as extensive as the meadows)— a total of 99 per 

 cent, of the area examined which was devoted to these 

 great farm crops. In the lower third of Illinois only 23 

 per cent, of the land was in corn, an almost equal area 

 (21 per cent.) was in small grain— more than half of it 

 wheat— and 44 per cent, was in grass, clover and similar 

 forage plants, rather equally divided between pastures 

 and meadows. That is to say, the areas in corn and 

 small grains were nearly the same, and these together 

 were barely equal to the meadows and pastures. The 

 Chop Areas. Per Cent., 1907 



Grass 37 27 44 

 Miscellaneous [ 6 I 1 I 12_ 



