S CIENCE Notes 
PUBLISHED BY THE CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
2001 NORTH CLARK STREET, CHICAGO 14, ILLINOIS 
THE CHICAGOLAND PRAIRIE 
By W. J. Beecher 
What a pity that some of it could not have been preserved 
so that those born later might enjoy its beauty also. Now 
it is merely flat, unending corn fields, and moderns may 
read these words as being only the iridescent, childish 
romance of an old man. Albert W. Herre 
When the first European explorers finally suc- 
ceeded in penetrating the great eastern forest 
of North America, they burst suddenly out upon a 
vast sea of grass—the Prairie. This was Jlli- 
nois before the coming of the steel, moldboard 
plow-—-an endless expanse of head-high grasses 
waving away to a flat horizon, broken only by an 
occasional prairie grove. 
In a rough way the forest as a solid plant 
community came to an end in Illinois because the 
annual rainfall was insufficient to support for- 
est. In Ohio and Pennsylvania 40 to 60 inches of 
rain a year nurtured a beech-maple forest. But 
reduced rainfall in western Indiana and [Illinois 
could support only the drier oak-hickory stands. 
The reduced rainfall westward across the con- 
tinent favored the growth of the immense grass- 
land community called the prairie. The tall- 
grass prairie began in Illinois asa solid stand, 
just about at the point where rainfall drops to 
30 inches. At about the 100th meridian, under 
much reduced rainfall, the short grass or bunch 
grass prairie took over. It was the grama grass, 
wire grass and buffalo grass that so largely cov- 
ered the western plains. 
