. Bulletin. ulti-vated at times. As a result the original associations have been fre-quently greatly modified or entirely destroyed. Natural competition isinterfered with, and the observed composition of the associations andhabitat-range of individual species may not correspond to original con-ditions. It is also of interest in this connection to call attention to thefact that patches of natural prairie plants on these rights-of-way maynot always be relics of the original prairie but the result of secondarysuccessions culminating in the original prairie plants. This fact is clearly illustrated
. Bulletin. ulti-vated at times. As a result the original associations have been fre-quently greatly modified or entirely destroyed. Natural competition isinterfered with, and the observed composition of the associations andhabitat-range of individual species may not correspond to original con-ditions. It is also of interest in this connection to call attention to thefact that patches of natural prairie plants on these rights-of-way maynot always be relics of the original prairie but the result of secondarysuccessions culminating in the original prairie plants. This fact is clearly illustrated in many places along the Indianapolisbranch of the Illinois Central Railway. This right-of-way was originally50 feet wide. In 1897 it was made 80 feet wide by enclosing 15 feet offarm land on each side. The diagram. Figure 6, represents the suc-cession of associations that has occurred on a strip of this abandonedfarm land near my fathers farm one mile west of Wheeler in Jaspercounty. Ajidropog^on Junens tenuis Foa pratecsls Agrostls alba Farm weeds Fig. 6. Diagram showing secondary successions on a railway right-of-way formerly under cultivation near Wheeler, Illinois. At the time of widening the right-of-way the land on one side ofthe tract was a timothy pasture, on the other side it was under culti-vation. In some places Andropogon furcatus occurs now in almost purestand and might well be considered original prairie if its history wereunknown. This reversion to the natural prairie plants may be seenanywhere along this right-of-way where a sufficient number of relicprairie plants existed on the old right-of-way. Another instance of this,on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway in Clay county, is illustrated inPlate LXX. The area now covered with Andropogon furcatus wasformerly forested. The greater part of the 90 miles of this right-of-way 545 from Odin to Olney is covered by Andropogon furcatus, and much ofit is original prairie sod. Still another type of reversion to t
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Keywords: ., booka, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectnaturalhistory
