THE MIAMI SERIES OF SOILS. 38 
localities bowlders were numerous until removed from the fields and 
used for the construction of foundations of farm buildings. The stony 
areas are not usually extensive. On steep slopes within the type 
erosion has sometimes exposed the deeper subsoil, and gravelly and 
stony patches are found. 
The topography of the greater part of the Miami silt loam is 
gently rolling to ridged and hilly. The type also occupies smaller 
tracts which are merely undulating or nearly level. The range in 
elevation within the limits of the type is greater in the southeastern 
part of Wisconsin than elsewhere, differences in elevation of 100 to 
200 feet being encountered in the majority of the areas, with an 
extreme range of 500 feet or more. The type in this region occupies 
the tops and slopes of ridges, and the gently rolling or undulating 
till plains between the more pronounced glacial ridges. The undulat- 
ing surface of such areas of the type is shown in Plate IX, figure 2. 
In central Indiana the differences in elevation are not so great. The 
elevation ranges from 50 to 150 feet, and a larger part of the type 
is marked by a low, undulating surface whose extreme elevations 
are not more than 25 to 50 feet above the general level. It is only 
along the courses of the larger streams, where erosion has modified 
the original surface, that steep slopes or considerable differences 
in elevation are found in this section. The greater part of all the 
areas mapped is best described as gently rolling or undulating, with 
a smaller part either nearly level or distinctly ridged. 
Because of this moderate relief and of the generally sloping sur- 
face of the Miami silt loam it is commonly well drained in its natural 
condition. The presence of the gravelly and stony deeper subsoil 
also aids in subsurface drainage of the type. It was usually suffi- 
ciently well drained and elevated to be selected by the early settlers 
in the different regions. In some localities the low ridges included 
within areas of this soil were the only available sites for homes in 
pioneer days. 
The entire type was originally forested, mainly with sugar maple, 
beech, hickory, oak of several species, some walnut, and a small 
amount of elm and ash. Nearly all of this original growth has been 
removed, and only the steeper and more hilly or stony areas remain 
in forest or farm woodlots. In some sections more than 95 per cent 
of the type is under cultivation, while it is probable that 80 per cent 
of the total area of this soil is used for some form of crop production. 
The remainder consists of pasture land and woodlots. 
In all the regions in which it is developed the Miami silt loam 
has been esteemed as a productive general farming soil since its first 
occupation. In its forested condition a fair amount of organic mat- 
ter accumulated in the surface soil, and it was usually well drained. 
