The Native Landscape Reader

“Prairie Woodlands” (1894)

97 When pioneers began to settle in our primeval forests, the natural impulse to plot in right lines led to the clearing of rectangular spaces, so that the surviving pieces of woodland are mostly bounded by straight lines. Time has, however, modified and beautified the abrupt and naked forestborders that skirted the newly cleared fields. The taller trees along the margins have been overturned by the wind, lower ones have grown up with rounded tops and limbs which spread out to reach more light; an undergrowth of shrubs and herbs has sprung up by the enclosing fences, so that an unbroken bank of foliage stretches from the ground to the tree-tops. In the woodlands of a prairie region these sloping borders are characteristic, and the bounding lines naturally curve with the windings of streams and valleys and the outlines of timber-clad hills. These masses of timber are often surrounded by treeless prairie or cultivated fields, the woods being left to supply the adjoining country with forest-products. The large trees have been cut off, but the ground is left to grow up with timber again, and under the stimulus of self-interest a kind of rude forestry is practiced. If the wooded areas are too large to be embraced with profit in adjacent farms, they may be divided into portions of a few acres, and be owned by several farmers living within easy distance . These small holdings in the groves are bought and sold with the main estate, and this also tends to their preservation and keeps them in larger tracts, so that one may sometimes follow belts of unbroken woodland for miles along a stream. Fed by springs which issue from the bases of the bordering slopes, even the small streams become perennial in the shade of the woods, though when followed away from the forest a dry bed may mark their course through the prairie in summer. The farmer thus becomes a conservator of the woodlands which help to preserve moisture for the soil, as well as to form one of the most pleasing elements of the landscape; for this region is monotonous as a whole—a plain From Garden and Forest, October 17, 1894, 412–13. e. J. hiLL Prairie Woodlands (1894) 98 ouR amERiCan floRa with no striking features in the way of hills and mountains. These wooded areas are generally used for pasture, frequently to their injury; but cattle and horses being chiefly kept, the undergrowth is not as closely cropped as when sheep have their range. Portions of the adjoining prairie are often included in the pasture, especially on the hills or along swampy lands. Points of timber jut out from the main body into the prairie, running down the hillsides or along ravines and watercourses, or out into swamps into which drier land projects. An occasional tree or small group of trees stands apart from the rest, still further varying the outline of the border, while larger groups, like islands in a sea of prairie, lie apart from the main body. The use of the tree-covered ground and the adjacent prairie for grazing often saves these isolated trees and groups; for where land is devoted to the plow they are apt to be cut down, as may be observed where the rich soil of the prairie comes close up to the woods. If in wettish grounds the trees may be spared, because they do not encumber a meadow from which hay is taken, and which may be pastured only a part of the year. The limbs of these detached trees or groups come down low about the trunks, the tops are round and spreading, and a sturdy and symmetrical habit has been developed by the free play of light and air on every side. A pleasing feature of these woods is the way in which the border merges into the green of the prairie. Belts of trees lining low and swampy prairies, or the sloughs with which they are interspersed, become attractive, or even beautiful, notwithstanding many of their unpleasant surroundings . A continuous mass of foliage joins the green below with that at the tops of the tallest trees. Willows and Alders, the Swamp Rose, Button-bush and Osiers of various kinds are followed by Viburnums, Sumachs and Sassafras. These and other tall shrubs or low trees furnish a gradual or undulatory slope from the rank Grass, Reeds and Rushes of the swamp to taller Elms and Swamp Maples, and...