Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of Ohio, 1860
The geological basis of the northern and eastern parts of the State is formed by the equivalents of the Hamilton, Portage and Chemung rocks of the New York geologists, and by the carboniferous conglomerate; the latter a coarse massive sand-dmp which underlies the coal measures. Of these the first three are highly argillaceous, and by their decomposition produce a clay soil of most tenacious and retentive character. This soil is not restricted to the area occupied by the out creps of the rocks which furnish it, but these being soft and readily acted upon by the drift agents, have been extensively eroded, and their debris Spread over the conglomerate even reaching on to the slopes of the hills of the coal basin. This region was originally covered with a dense forest of beech, maple, tulip, elm, ash, hickory, and linden, and is agriculturally especially adapted to grazing. This fact, and no preference of inhabitants, has made the Western Reserve the dairy of the West.
To this general character exhibited by the greater part of the district under consideration, there are many local exceptions. Over large surfaces thick beds of sand and gravel - the later drift deposits - were once spread, which have not been removed by subsequent denudation; and such surfaces, having a porous substratum, and a sandy or loamy soil, in a state of nature sustained on the up land forests of white, black and red oak, with hickory in the swales, and black ash in the swamps. In cultivation, these uplands have produced good crops of cereals, and now form out-lots of the great wheat field of the State.
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