USA > Iowa > Floyd County > History of Floyd County, Iowa : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 28
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Near the east bank of the Cedar, and one and a half miles below Bradford, the annexed section was measured at the quarry of the brothers Layton: Dark gray, thick, shaly limestone, -seven feet. Buff-gray, crystalline limestone with calcareous spar cavities,- five inches. Light gray, fine-grained limestone,-nine inchies. Hard, dark gray, shaly limestone,-eight inches. Hard, dark gray limestone, -seven inches. Unexposed,-two feet. Light, buff- gray limestone,-twenty inchies. The limestones exposed at this quarry are of medium purity, and mostly quite hard; they are en- tirely destitute of fossils, so far as observed.
In passing up the Cedar River to Charles City, on the west bank, the road lies over a rolling prairie. In the ridges limestones occur, as is shown by the presence of occasional fragments lying on the surface, or perhaps here and there an imperfect exposure. The beds, as observed, are mostly shaly, and singularly devoid of fossils. An actual river section seems necessary to the determi- nation of their relations to each other. On the Cedar at Charles City, there is a small opening in thin beds of hard, buff-colored limestone. Under these beds occurs a thick-bedded, light gray limestone, shading off into buff-gray; it contains numerous con- cretions. Both the upper and lower beds contain a few fossils, all of which are in a very imperfect condition, so that only one, an Atrypa reticularis, could be made out. There were a few frag- ments of corals obtained here, which are too poorly preserved to be distinctly recognized.
The next section was taken at a quarry three-fourths of a mile above Charles City, on the west side of the river. The beds are of very hard limestone, which is mostly fine-grained, and rather brittle; they vary in thickness from four inches to one foot; and the different layers resemble each other so much that they could hardly be distinguished in hard specimens, especially as they are all equally unfossiliferous. The whole section exposed is only
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nine feet above the dam at Charles City, of which two at the base are concealed by detritus. The court-house (the first one) was built of this rock, which is a good material for building, although too brittle to dress evenly and handsomely. The quarry is con- veniently situated for use, as the back water from the dam sets up as far as that, and allows the blocks to be rafted down to the town. The beds exposed at this point are probably a little higher in the series than those of the section at Charles City; but as there is considerable irregularity in the dip at this point, this could not be determined with certainty. At the quarry above the dam, the dip was observed to be eighteen degrees in a direction south, twenty- five degrees west.
On Lime Creek, one mile above Rockford, the annexed section was measured: Soil, etc.,-five feet. Decomposed limestone detritus with numerous fossils,-twenty-five feet. Blue clay (foot of precipitous bluff, one-eighth of a mile from Lime Creek), - twenty feet. A gently inclining surface, mostly unexposed, with buff and white striped limestone at the base,-forty-three feet, ten inches. Unexposed,-two feet. Dark-colored, hard limestone, --- two feet. White, pure limestone with shaly structure,-five feet, six inches. Hard, buff, calcareous sandstone, with Spirifer,- two feet, eight inches. Soft, ash-colored calcareous sandstone, --- one foot, three inches. Arenaceous clay shales, -- two feet, six inches. Beds not exposed down to level of Lime Creek,-three feet. Entire elevation, -- one hundred and twelve feet, nine inches. The beds represented in this section as made up of de- composing limestone detritus, underlaid by a heavy deposit of clay, form the abrupt termination of one of the highest ridges in this region, which runs up from the southeast to within a short distance of Lime Creek. The upper bed of the section contains an abundance of fossils, which are washed out by the rain from the decomposing rock. Among these were observed Atrypa ru- gora or spinora, A. reticularis, Orthis, one or two new species,. Spirifer, new species, Strophomena, and a few Hamilton corals.
On the Shell Rock River, at Rockford, the exposures of the rock are very limited. There is a light greyish, buff-colored stratum,. which is somewhat argillaceous dolomite, but rather soft and worthless for building purposes, succeeded by a bed of slightly darker color, but of essentially the same character. These- beds are probably lower in the geological series than those indi- cated in the preceding section.
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
At Shell Rock Falls, in Cerro Gordo County, about thirteen miles above Rockford, the absence of fossils in the beds exposed renders it difficult to assign them any certain place, although, from their position, they may be supposed to belong to the upper part of the Hamilton or the Chemung group. They consisted of thin- bedded, hard and rather crystalline magnesian limestones, varying in color from light gray to almost black. The exposure of the rocks at this locality is good, but the most careful search failed to- reveal the presence of any fossils. The lithological character of the rocks at Shell Rock River and Falls is peculiar, and nothing exactly like it has been observed in other parts of the State. They are all highly magnesian, but not pure dolomites, as they contain rather. more lime than belongs to the composition of the double carbonate- of lime and magnesia. The specimens from Shell Rock River have a considerable resemblance to those from Cedar Falls, which are referred to the Chemung by Mr. Worthen, with some doubt as to their real position, since they are quite unfossiliferous. The beds. at Shell Rock Falls are very magnesian limestones, or dolomites. with a little excess of lime, and are remarkably free from silicious. or argillaceous substances. One specimen analyzed from this locality contained less than two per cent. impurities mixed with carbonates of lime and magnesia. These beds are too irregular in their texture for good building-stone, some of them being hard and brittle, and others soft and perishable. They are valuable, however,. for lime, and some of them will probably furnish good hydraulic cement.
In Mitchell County, one and a half miles above Newburg, on the Cedar, there is a tolerable exposure of the rocks, where the follow- ing section was observed: Crystalline limestone, sandy at the bottom, but growing more calcareous toward the top,-two feet. Dark gray, thin-bedded limestone,-eight inches. Dark gray, hard and brittle limestones in heavy layers, varying from eight inches to four feet in thickness,-thirteen feet, four inches. Rock not exposed, down to level of dam at Newburg,-two feet, six inches. Another- section was measured at Newburg, the base of which is on the same level with the preceding ones; but as there is little agreement in their details, it appears that the dip of the strata has probably car- ried the beds of the upper one below those of the lower. The section at Newburg is as follows: Beds of detritus with Spirifer,. of irregular thickness. 13. Hard, brittle, light grayish-yellow mag- nesian limestone,-four feet. 12. Unexposed,-four feet. 11. Hard,.
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light gray, somewhat crystalline beds, with concretionary bands of darker color,-eight feet. 10. Soft, sandy beds with clay,-two feet, eight inches. 9. Hard, light gray, silicious limestone, -- one foot, three inches. 8. Hard limestone like number nine, decom- posing into a sandy rock,-ten inches. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Beds of hard, buff-gray limestone, varying from four to fourteen inches in thickness, and in various stages of decomposition,-four feet, four inches. Unexposed, to level of river at Newburg,-six feet. In this section, numbers eleven and thirteen contain Spirifer closely resembling Spirifer mucronatus; no other fossils were noticed.
Professor Hungerford remarks in regard to the lithological resem- blances of the rocks of these two sections, that there is a very great similarity between some of the beds of the Newburg section and those noticed on the borders of Winneshiek and Chickasaw counties near the one from Fort Atkinson to Jacksonville, in descending the high ridge toward the Little Turkey. In this vicinity, near a lime- kiln, loose masses of limestone were observed, marked by concre- tionary lines and having that peculiar softness and fineness of grain which was noticed above as belonging to bed number eleven of the Newburg section. The same rock is seen in number four of the section, eleven and a half miles below Jacksonville on Crane Creek.
Specimens of petrification are occasionally found within the bounds of Floyd County. A. W. Cook, in 1871, found near his residence a few miles south of Charles City, a piece of petrified wood, apparently hemlock.
STONE.
Except along the streams, there are but very few ledges of stone which appear near the surface; scattered over the prairies occa- sional grey rocks or boulders are seen. These rocks are generally found with depressions of the surface. Some of them are of enor- mous dimensions, among the largest of which is the " Big Rock," in the corner of the public park at Nora Springs. By the science of geology we are informed that these boulders are not natives of this country, but have drifted here on the ice from the regions of the north. Sometimes we find these boulders even in pieces, and the huge pieces from ten to one hundred feet apart. By what power they have been shattered, and by what agency separated, geological science does not teach, nor does it teach why they are found on the highest and lowest lands, while between these ex- tremes they are seldom seen.
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There are but few valuable stones yet found along the banks of the Flood Creek, and the Little Cedar. The banks of the Big Cedar and the Shell Rock rivers are lined with stone, which ser nearly all the purposes for which stone are used, and from which neat and costly buildings have been constructed. These ledges are sometimes found on one side of the river, and sometimes on the other, and sometimes on neither side, but never found on both sides directly opposite each other.
The ledges of stone along the river banks are generally over- laid with shale, the immensity of which often-times makes it not only difficult but unprofitable to remove. These ledges are in layers which vary in thickness from six inches to three feet. In them are generally found two or three varieties of sandstone, one comparatively of light color, and a splendid stone for almost any kind of mason-work, then a buff sandstone of coarser texture, and so soft as to be easily cut and shaped with an ax, and the third variety of the same color and texture, in and through which is found a great variety of sea-shells. The last two layers grow hard when exposed to the sun and air. Above these layers of sandstone is usually found a stratum of limestone, in layers from ten inches to ten feet in thickness. The thinnest layers are of the coarsest texture, and contain a flinty substance, the thickest being of a finer texture, and free from flint, and suitable for making a most valu- able article of lime.
BOTANY.
BY PROF. J. C. ARTHUR.
It is not so much the number of kinds of plants, as it is the number of individuals of the more prominent kinds, which deter- mines the character of the surface features of a country. Accord- ingly, a landscape with apparent richness of vegetation may yield a meager harvest to the botanist. Floyd County is a case in point. The number of species of native plants is unusually small, while the number of individuals of a large part of the flora is corre- spondingly large.
The oaks are the most abundant and conspicuous trees of the forest, and yet there are but four kinds. The evergreen, or cone- bearing trees, which are usually very prominent, are wholly absent, with the exception of some forlorn individuals of red cedar found along the river banks. There is an occasional tree of honey-locust, 19
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but no birch, buck-eye, white-wood, coffee-tree, or sassafras. The following trees occur in greater or less abundance: black walnut, butternut, cottonwood, basswood, hackberry, hornbeam, hard and soft maple, white and black ash, one species of each, with three kinds of elm, and two of poplar. Of the smaller trees there are box-elder, green ash, black cherry, choke cherry, crab-apple, plum, two thorn-apples, and a few willows. There are out of these scarcely twenty kinds which are in sufficient abundance to make up the bulk of the forests, including those upon both wet and dry land.
When we come to low vegetation-herbaceous plants and small shrubs, the same fact is equally emphasized. Here another char- acteristic also makes its appearance-unwonted rankness. It is specially noticeable in the large size and luxuriant growth of the weeds, but is equally true of most of the indigenous plants.
The changes incident to the settling up of a country have mate- rially altered the character of the native vegetation. Twenty years ago the prairies were a wonderful flower garden in June, and were well besprinkled with showy flowers during all the warm months. It took but a few years of free pasturage to transform them into the weedy plains that we have to-day. No more beautiful sight could have been seen before the days of roaming herds than a stretch of prairie covered by a solid mass of delicate phlox as far as the eye could reach, only relieved by the gopher knolls with their tall grasses and wild wormwood dotting the surface with much uniformity. Later in the season the place of the phloxes was taken by other flowers, either in the same profusion or more restricted. There was at that time a more noticeable difference between the vegetation of slough and of upland prairie. Each species kept within definite bounds. For example, what was known as prairie grass, the grass of the uplands, and which was the first to start on burnt land in the spring, was very largely sporobolus heterolepis, called in the books, drop-seed grass. It has since been replaced by a mixture of a number of species, and is no longer characteristic. The changes in woodlands and culti- vated fields are such as usually occur when wild land is brought under the control of the husbandman. It is probable that no species have yet been exterminated, although many have been driven into obscurity.
It will suffice for the purposes of this article to give a few notes on some of the prominent kinds of plants growing spontaneously
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within the county, and especially of such as commend themselves to popular notice by their ornamental, useful, noxious or other economic features. They must necessarily be brief, and to econo- mize space, plants of merely scientific interest will usually be passed without mention. No apology need be offered for includ- ing all the vegetable kingdom within our survey. Among the lower plants are some of the most useful and a large number of the most harmful and pernicious with which man has to deal. It is to the interest of everyone, and especially of the cultivator, that these should receive more attention from both scientist and lay- man. They are now so well understood, and their classification has been so much simplified that they could profitably be included in the usual high-school course of botany. The order followed in the succeeding pages is that adopted by Professor C. E. Bessey in his "Botany for High Schools and Colleges," 1880, and proceeds systematically from the lowest to the highest forms.
I. Protophyta or Sexless Plants .- This class embraces the small. est and simplest as well as the most numerous organisms known. Among the harmless plants of the class are the slime-molds, which consist of little more than a mass of jelly, usually of a yel- low or brown color. They creep about over the ground, and in dry weather crawl beneath the surface, or under sticks and leaves. They are often as large as one's hand or even larger, and yet are the most lowly organized of all plants.
The most useful plant of the class is the yeast-plant, the active principle of all yeast. It is microscopic in size, but under favor- able conditions multiplies with wonderful rapidity. Like all plants it gives off carbonic acid gas during active growth, and thiis passing up through the dough in little bubbles inakes the bread li ht.
The Nostoc family comprises a large number of species of dark green water plants. They grow in colonies, more often the size of a pin-head, but sometimes becoming several inches in diameter. They may be found floating free in stagnant water, attached to submerged weeds, or on damp earth. They sometimes increase to such an extent that their decay during the hot months of July and August causes very offensive odors. But few instances are recorded of their having occasioned sickness or death.
The plants which are probably more intimately associated with man's well-being than any other are the Bacteria. They are the smallest of all living things, and are to be found in almost every
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conceivable situation. Nearly all decay is directly due to their presence, and in their absence vegetable and animal substances are as stable as minerals. They are essential to the formation of nitro- gen compounds in the soil suitable for the food of plants, and without which plants could not thrive. They are the cause of a number of the most dreaded diseases in both man and the lower animals, including most of those which are contagious. They are also doubtless the cause of the disease in fruit trees called fire blight. It is, however, impossible to give even a glimpse of the important part these organisms play in the economy of nature.
II. Zygosporeae or Unisexual Plants .- A very large number of species of diatoms are to be found in this county in running water and clear pools. Each minute plant is encased in a trans- parent, silicious shell, covered with fine sculpturing. Some kinds swim about freely in the water, others are attached to submerged objects of all sorts. They frequently form rusty-colored deposits of considerable extent in shallow water.
The larger part of the green scum found on the surface of quiet water, especially in early summer, belongs to the genus Spirogyra, while much of that which sinks more or less completely below the surface of the water is a closely related genus, Mesocarpus. Both consist of long unbranched green threads, which are not attached to objects except as the movement of the water entangles them about weeds and sticks. While growing vigorously they are a bright yellow-green, but when they begin to form the spores which are to live over the winter and grow into new plants the next year, they turn yellow in spots, and finally become a dirty brown, sink beneath the water, decay and disappear. The ripe. spores, which are too small to be seen by the unassisted eye, drop to the bottom, and are ready to germinate when winter is past. Contrary to the pop- ular belief, these plants are not harmful, but are even beneficial in assisting to keep the water pure in which they grow. The danger to be apprehended from stagnant water is in the decay of dead vege- table and animal matter. The green scums just described may sometimes aggravate the danger; for, if they grow so luxuriantly that there is not water enough to absorb them when they have reached the end of their life, the water is made foul by the excess. If, again, the water is partly dried up during the hot months, the floating plants may be stranded, and soon die and decay in the hot sun, giving off a very offensive odor. The other green water plants which have much the appearance of those mentioned, but
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mostly with branched threads, belong to the next class-the Oospo- reæ, but in their economic features do not differ in any respect.
The molds on decaying fruit, vegetables, and pantry stores are simple plants composed of colorless, branching threads. They pro- duce dark colored spores in great abundance, which are capable of growing at once into new individuals. The presence of the ripe spores gives occasion for the name, blue mold. These spores are so light that the slightest movement of the air carries them away, and every exposed object suitable for their support is sown with spores, which during warm weather soon grow into a bountiful crop of mold.
III. Oosporec or Egg-spore Plants .- The green, filamentous species of this class have already been mentioned.
Probably all have noticed dead flies stuck to the wall or window- pane and surrounded by a white film. If the abdomen of such a fly is opened, it is found to be distended by a white, mealy substance. This white substance both within and outside the fly is a plant known as Saprolegnia, and may be called the fly-fungus. It lives upon the juices of the fly, and is the cause of the destruction of large numbers in the fall of the year.
The potato-fungus or potato disease, as it is variously called, the Peronospora infestans, is a very pernicious plant of this class. It grows on the cultivated potato, and often occasions the more or less complete failure of the whole crop. It is a colorless parasite ramifying throughout the interior of the potato plant. The ends of the threads of which it is composed push through the under surface of the leaves, and form innumerable colorless summer-spores. In this state the parasite can be detected on the under surface of the leaves looking like a delicate white mold. The spores are easily distributed by the wind, and grow at once into a new parasite. The power of reproduction is so great that under favorable cir- cumstances a potato field of many acres may speedily be infected from the product of a single individual. The winter spores are produced inside the potato stems, and are set free by their decay.
IV. Carposporec, or Mushrooms and their Allies .- Lilac bushes have the upper surface of the leaves quite covered during summer and autumn with an unsightly mildew. This parasitic plant, the Microsphæra Friesii, consists of branched threads from which minute suckers penetrate into the tissues of the leaf and absorb the sap, on which it depends for nourishment. During the sum- mer months it produces colorless summer spores. In autumn the
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winter spores are formed in small hollow balls or cases. These cases, being black, can easily be detected as dots scattered about on the mildew. They protect the two dozen or more delicate spores contained in each, during the vicissitudes of winter, and in spring the spores are set free by the decay of the cases. A large number of species of similar habit live upon and injure cultivated plants. The one on peas, the Erysiphe Martii, is so destructive that late peas are usually a failure. Mildews infest the hop, gooseberry, cherry, elm, willow, grapevine, honeysuckle, clematis, blue grass, and many other domestic plants, and a greater number of wild plants.
The black knot on wild and cultivated cherries and plums is a distortion of the branch due to the growth of the parasitic plant Sphæria morbosa. This fungus grows inside the branch, but ex- tends only ew inches above and below the swelling. The sum- mer spores are formed largely on the surface of the growing knot and give it a velvety appearance. The winter spores begin to form in autumn but are not fully ripe till February. The fungus is perennial, and the knot becomes larger each year. When a disease is understood a remedy is often obvious. In this case cut off the knots and burn them, and the spores, with the plant that produces them, will be destroyed. Ergot is another parasitic plant closely related to the last. It first attracts attention as a brown, horn-like growth, often an inch long, from the heads of cultivated and wild rye and other grains and grasses. It starts in the seed, and produces summer spores sometime before it becomes large enough to be noticeable. It does not depend upon spores of any sort for safety during the winter ; but, instead, the whole horn-like mass of fungus falls to the ground, and remains in a dormant condition till spring, when it begins to grow again and produces the winter form of spores.
The rusts are important members of this class. The wheat rust, Puccinia graminis, is a familiar example. It first becomes con- spicuous as the red or orange-colored powder produced in such great abundance some seasons on the leaves and stems of wheat and oats. This orange powder consists entirely of the summer spores. The fungus grows inside the wheat plant, spreading throughout its substance, but produces its spores on the surface. It does injury by diverting the nourishment that should go to form - ing plump grain, and using it for the production of red rust, for which man has not yet found any use. Later in the season, usually
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