Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 13

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006

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In conclusion, it is only necessary to repeat that natural gas is in all cases stored power, that there are no agencies in nature that are renewing the stocks which the rocks contain as rapidly as high pressure wells exhaust them, and that therefore economy should be observed from the outset in the use of this highly-valued source of heat and light. It is not strange that, when the surprising discovery is first made in any field, a most lavish use or rather a wanton waste of the gas is likely to prevail. It is hard to realize that such floods as rush forth can ever fail, but it is un- doubtedly true that every foot of gas with- drawn brings nearer the inevitable exhaustion of the reservoir.

IV. SOILS AND FORESTS.

The division of the State into a drift-covered and driftless region coincides as previously intimated with the most important division of the soils. Beyond the line of the terminal moraine, these are native, or, in other words, they are derived from the rocks that underlie them or that rise above them in the bounda- ries of the valleys and uplands. They conse- quently share the varying constitution of these rocks, and are characterized by consid- erable inequality and by abrupt changes. All are fairly productive, and some, especially those derived from the abundant and easily soluble limestones of the Upper Coal Meas- ures, are not surpassed in fertility by any

THE GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF OHIO

soils of the State. Large tracts of these ex- cellent native soils are found in Jefferson, Belmont, Harrison, Monroe, Noble, Guernsey and Morgan counties. Wool of the finest staple in the country has long been produced on the hills of this general region.

Among the thinner and less productive soils which occupy but a small area are those derived from the Devonian shales. They are, however, well adapted to forest and fruit production. The chestnut and the chestnut oak, both valuable timber trees, are partial to them, and vineyards and orchards thrive well upon them. The north sides of the hills throughout this part of the State invariably show stronger soils than the southern sides, and a better class of forest growthis. The locust, the walnut and hickory characterize the fornier.

The native soils of the Waverly group and of the Lower Coal Measures agree in general characters. They are especially adapted to forest growth, reaching the highest standard in the quality of the timber produced. When these lands are brought under the exhaustive tillage that has mainly prevailed in Ohio thus far, they do not hold out well, but the farmer who raises cattle and sheep, keeps to a rota- tion between grass and small grains, purchases a ton or two of artificial fertilizers each year, and does not neglect his orchard or small fruits, can do well upon them. The cheap lands of Ohio are found in this belt.

The other great division of the soils of Ohio, viz., the drift soils, are by far the most important, alike from their greater area and their intrinsic excellence. Formed by the com- mingling of the glacial waste of all the forma- tions to the north of them, over which the ice has passed, they always possess consider- able variety of composition, but still in many cases they are strongly colored by the forma- tion underneath them. Whenever a stratum of uniform composition has a broad outerop across the line of glacial advance, the drift beds that cover its southern portions will be found to have been derived in large part from the formation itself, and will thus resemble native or sedentary soils. Western Ohio is underlaid with Silurian limestones and the drift is consequently limestone drift. The soil is so thoroughly that of limestone land that tobacco, a crop which rarely leaves native limestone soils, at least in the Missis- sippi valley, is grown successfully in several counties of Western Ohio, 100 miles or more north of the terminal moraine.

The native forests of the drift regions were, without exception, hard wood forests, the leading species being oaks, maples, hickories, the walnut, beech and elm. The walnut, sugar-maple and white hickory and to quite an extent the burr oak, are limited to warm, well-drained land, and largely to limestone land. The upland clays have one characteristic and all important forest tree, viz., the white oak. It occupies vastly larger areas than any other single species. It stands for good land, though not the quickest or most generous, but intelligent farming can

always be made successful on white-oak land. Under-draining is almost always in order, if not necessary, on this division of our soils.

The regions of sluggish drainage, already referred to, are occupied in their native state by the red-maple, the elm and by several varieties of oaks, among which the swamp Spanish oak is prominent. This noble forest growth of Ohio is rapidly disappearing. The vandal-like waste of earlier days is being checked to some degree, but there is still a large amount of timber, in the growth of which centuries have been consumed, an- nually lost.

It is doubtless true that a large proportion of the best lands of Ohio are too well adapted to tillage to justify their permanent occupa- tion by forests, but there is another section, viz., the thin native soils of Southern Central Ohio, that are really answering the best pur- pose to which they can be put when covered with native forests. The interests of this part of the State would be greatly served if large areas could be permanently devoted to this use. The time will soon come in Ohio when forest planting will be begun, and here the beginnings will unquestionably be made.

The character of the land when its occupa- tion by civilization was begun in the last cen- tury was easily read by the character of its forest growths. The judgments of the first explorers in regard to the several districts were right in every respect but one. They could not do full justice to the swampy regions of that early day, but their first and second class lands fall into the same classifi- cations at the present time. In the interest- ing and instructive narrative of Col. James Smith's captivity among the Indians, we find excellent examples of this discriminating judgment in regard to the soils of Ohio as they appeared in 1755. The "first class" land of that narrative was the land occupied by the sugar-tree and walnut, and it holds exactly the same place to-day. The " second class " land was the white-oak forests of our high-lying drift-covered districts. The "third class" lands were the elm and red maple swamps that occupied the divides be- tween different river systems. By proper drainage, many of these last-named tracts have recently been turned into the garden soils of Ohio, but, for such a result, it was necessary to wait until a century of civilized occupation of the country had passed.

These facts show in clear light that the character of the soil depends upon the geo- logical and geographical conditions under which it exists and from which it has been derived.

THE CLIMATE OF OHIO.

From its geographical situation the climate of Ohio is necessarily one of extremes. The surface of the State is swept alternately by southwest return trades and northwest polar winds, and the alternations succeed each other in quick returning cycles. There is scarcely a week in the year that does not give exam.

THE GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF OHIO.

ples of both currents. All other winds that blow here are tributary to one or other of these great movements. The return trades or southwest winds are cyclonic in their char- acter ; the northwest winds constitute the anti-cyclone. The former depress the mer- cury in the barometer and raise it in the thermometer ; the latter reverse these re- sults. The rains of the State are brought in by southwest winds ; the few cases in which notable precipitation is derived from currents moving in any other direction than from the southwest really make no exception to the general statement, for in, all such instances the rain falls in front of a cyclone which is advancing from the Gulf of Mexico. The protracted northeast storms that visit the State at long intervals and the short south- east storms that occur still less frequently are in all cases parts of greater cyclonic move- ments of the air that originate in the south- west and sweep out to the ocean over the in- tervening regions.

Between the average summer and winter temperatures of the State there is a difference of at least 40º Fahrenheit. A central east and west belt of the State is bounded by the isotherms of 51º and 52°, the average winter temperature being 30° and the average sum- mer temperature being 73º. Southern Ohio has a mean annual temperature of 54° and Northern Ohio of 49°.

The annual range is not less than 100° ; the maximum range is at least 130° ; the extreme heat of summer reaching 100° in the shade, while the " cold waves" of winter sometimes depress the mercury to 30° below zero. Extreme changes are liable to occur in the course of a few hours, especially in winter when the return trades are overborne in a conflict, short, sharp and decisive, with the northwest currents. In such cases the tem- perature sometimes falls 60° in 24 hours, while changes of 20° or 30° in a day are not at all unusual.

The winters of Ohio are very changeable. Snow seldom remains thirty days at a time over the State, but an ice crop rarely fails in Northern Ohio, and not oftener than once in three or four years in other parts of the State. In the southern counties cattle, sheep and horses often thrive on pasture grounds through the entire winter.

In spite of these sudden and severe changes the climate of Ohio is proved by every test to be excellently adapted to both vegetable and animal life. In the case of man and of the domestic animals as well, it certainly favors symmetrical development and a high degree of vigor. There are for example no finer herds of neat stock or sheep than those which are reared here.

The forests of the State have been already described in brief terms. The cultivated pro- duets of Ohio include almost every crop that the latitude allows. In addition to maize, which nowhere displays more vigor or makes more generous returns, the smaller grains all attain a good degree of perfection. The ordinary fruits of orchard and garden are

produced in unmeasured abundance, being limited only or mainly by the insect enemies which we have allowed to despoil us of some of our most valued supplies. Melons of excel- lent quality are raised in almost every county of the State. The peach, alone of the fruits that are generally cultivated, is uncertain ; there is rarely, however, a complete failure on the uplands of Southern Ohio.

The vast body of water in Lake Erie affects in a very favorable way the climate of the northern margin of the State. The belt im- mediately adjoining the lake is famous for the fruits that it produces. Extensive orchards and vineyards, planted along the shores and on the islands adjacent, have proved very successful. The Catawba wine here grown ranks first among the native wines of Eastern North America.

The rainfall of the State is generous and admirably distributed. There is not a month in the year in which an average of more than two inches is not due upon every acre of the surface of Ohio.

The average total precipitation of South- ern Ohio is forty-six inches ; of Northern Ohio, thirty-two inches ; of a large belt in the centre of the State, occupying nearly one- half of its entire surface, forty inches. The tables of distribution show ten to twelve inches in spring, ten to fourteen inches in summer, eight to ten inches in autumn and seven to ten inches in winter. The annual range of the rainfall is, however, considerable. In some years and in some districts there is, of course, an insufficient supply, and in some years again there is a troublesome excess, but disastrous droughts on the large scale are unknown, and disastrous floods have hitherto been rare. They are possible only in very small portions of the State in any case. There is reason to believe, however, that the dis- posal of the rainfall has been so affected by our past interference with the natural condi- tions that we must for the future yield to the great rivers larger flood plains than were found necessary in the first hundred years of our occupancy of their valleys. Such a par- tial relinquishment of what have hitherto been the most valuable lands of the State, not only for agriculture, but also for town sites and consequently for manufactures and commerce, will involve immense sacrifices, but it is hard to see how greater losses can be avoided without making quite radical changes in this matter.

In February, 1883, and again in February, 1884, the Ohio river attained a height unpre- cedented in its former recorded history. In the first year ive water rose to a height of sixty-six feet four inches above the channel- bar at Cincinnati, and in the latter to a height of seventy-one feet and three-fourths of an inch above the bar. The last rise was nearly seven feet in excess of the highest mark re- corded previous to 1883. These great floods covered the sites of large and prosperous towns, swept away hundreds of dwellings, and inflicted deplorable losses on the residents of the great valley.

THE GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF OHIO.

Are flood's like these liable to recur at short intervals in the future ? The conditions under which both occurred were unusual. Consid- erable bodies of snow lying on frozen ground were swept away by warm rains before the ground was thawed enough to absorb and store the water. These were the immediate causes of the disastrous overflows in both instances, and it may well be urged that just such conjunctures are scarcely likely to recur for scores of years to come. But it is still true that we have been busy for a hundred years in cutting down forests, in draining swamps, in clearing and straightening the channels of minor streams, and finally, in underdraining our lands with thousands of miles of tile ; in other words, in facilitating by every means in our power the prompt re- moval of storm-water from the land to the nearest water-courses. Each and all of these operations tend directly and powerfully to produce just such floods as have been de- scribed, and it cannot be otherwise than that under their combined operations our rivers will shrink during summer droughts to smaller and still smaller volumes, and, under falling rain and melting snow, will swell to more threatening floods than we have hitherto known. The changes that we have made and are still carrying forward in the disposal of storm-water renders this result inevitable, and to the new conditions we must adjust our- selves as best we can.

Another division of the same subject is the increasing contamination of our rivers in their low-water stages. This contamination results from the base use to which we put these streams, great and small, in making them the sole receptacle of all the sewage and manu- facturing waste that are removed from cities

and towns. The amount of these impure additions is constantly increasing, the rate of increase being in fact much greater than the rate of growth of the towns. The necessity of removing these harmful products from the places where they take their origin is coming to be more generally recognized, and sewer- age systems are being established in towns that have heretofore done without them. It thus happens that, as the amount of water in the rivers grows less during summer droughts from the causes already enumerated, the pol- luted additions to the water are growing not only relatively but absolutely larger. When, now, we consider that these same rivers are the main, if not the only, sources of water supply for the towns located in their valleys, the gravity of the situation becomes apparent. It is easy to see that the double duty which we have imposed upon the rivers of supply- ing us with water and of carrying away the hateful and dangerous products of waste, cannot long be maintained. There is no question, however, as to which function is to be made the permanent one. The rivers cannot possibly be replaced as sources of water-supply, while on the other hand, it is not only possible but abundantly practicable to filter and disinfect the cewage, and, as a result of such correction, to return only pure water to the rivers. During the first century of Ohio history not a single town has under- taken to meet this urgent demand of sanitary science, but the signs are multiplying that before the first quarter of the new century goes by the redemption of the rivers of Ohio from the pollution which the civilized occu- pation of the State has brought upon them and their restoration to their original purity. will be at least well begun.

GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO.

BY PROF. G. FREDERICK WRIGHT, D. D., LL. D.

GEORGE FREDERICK WRIGHT was born at Whitehall, N. Y., January 22, 1838 ; graduated at Oberlin College, 1859, and Theological Seminary, Oherlin, O., 1862; was in the Sev- enth Ohio Volunteer Infantry five months of 1860; became pastor at Bakersfield, Vt., 1862; at Andover, Mass., 1872; Professor of New Testament Language and Literature in Oberlin Theological Seminary, 1881; was assistant geologist on Pennsylvania survey, 1881, and United States survey since 1884. He is the author of "The Logic of Christian Evidences," Andover, 1880, 4th ed. 1883; "Studies in Science and Religion," 1882; "The Relation of Death to Probation," Boston, 1882, 2d ed. 1883; "The Glacial Boundary in Ohio, In- diana and Kentucky," Cleveland, 1884; " The Divine Authority of the Bible," Boston, 1884; is an editor of the Bibliotheca Sacra."

THE earliest chapter in the history of man in Ohio begins with the close of the glacial period in the Missis- sippi valley. To understand this history it is necessary to devote a little time to the study of the glacial Ness the ca period. Nor will this be uninterest- ing to the thoughtful and observing G. FREDERICK WRIGHT. citizens of the State, for the subject is one which is not far off, but near at hand. As will be seen by a glance at the accompanying map, all but the southeastern portion of the State is glaciateď, that is, it is covered with the peculiar deposits and marks which show to the ob- servant eye that the country was at one time deeply covered with a moving sheet of ice. These marks are open to the inspection of any one who will read as he runs. The tracks of a glacier can as readily be recognized as those of a horse or an elephant.

The glacier which in a far distant period invaded Ohio can be tracked by three signs : (1) Scratches on the bed rock: (2) "Till;" (3) Boulders. Taking these in their order, we notice (1) that scratches on the bed rock in such a level region as Ohio could not be produced by any other means than glacial ice, and that a glacier is entirely competent to produce them. When water runs over a rocky bed it ordinarily wears it off unevenly. A rocky surface is hardly ever of uniform hardness throughout, so that, as gravel-stones and pebbles are pushed over it by running water, they wear down the soft parts faster than the hard parts, and an uneven surface is produced. This follows from the fluidity of water, and any one can verify the statement by observing the bed of a shallow stream in dry weather. But ice is so nearly a solid that it holds with a firm grasp the sand, gravel and larger rocky fragments which happen to be frozen into its bottom layer and shoves them along as a mechanic shoves a plane over a board or a graving tool over a surface of stone or metal. Thus the movement of a glacier produces on the surface of the rocks over which it moves a countless number of

* The biography is taken from the "Encyclopedia of Living Divines and Christian Workers" (Sup- plement to Schaff-Herzog, " Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge ").

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GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO.

parallel lines of a size corresponding to that of the rocky fragment shoved along underneath it. A boulder shoved along underneath a glacier may plow a furrow, while fine sand would make but the most minute lines, but all in nearly the same direction. In short, the bottom of a glacier is a mighty rasp, or rather a com-

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MAP SHOWING SOUTHERN BOUNDARY OF GLACIATED AREA OF OHIO.

The dotted portion shows the glaciated area. The accompanying list of counties is numbered to correspond with those in the plate:

1. Williams. 19. Clermont. 37. Union.

2. Defiance. 20. Lucas.

3. Paulding. 21. Wood. 39. Madison.

4. Van Wert. 22. Hancock. 40. Franklin. 58. Vinton.

5. Mercer. 23. Hardin.

41. Fayette.

59. Jackson.

76. Tuscarawas.

6. Darke. 24. Logan.

7. Preble.

25. Champaign.

43. Ross.

61. Cnyahoga.

78. Noble.

8. Butler.

26. Clarke.

44. Highland.

62. Medina. 63. Summit.

80. Trumbull.

10. Fulton.

28. Clinton.

46. Adams.

64. Wayne.

81. Mahoning.

11. Henry.

29. Brown.

47. Scioto.

65. Holmes.

82. Columbiana.

12. Putnam.

30. Ottawa.

48. Erie.

66. Coshocton.

83. Carroll.

13. Allen.

31. Sandusky. 32. Seneca.

50. Lorain.

68. Morgan.

85. Jefferson.

15. Shelby.

33. Wyandot.

51. Richland.

69. Athens.

86. Belmont.

16. Miami. 34. Crawford.

52. Ashland.

70. Meigs.

87. Monroe.

18. Warren.

36. Morrow.

54. Licking.

55. Fairfield.

56. Perry.

73. Geauga.

57. Hocking.

74. Portage.

75. Stark.

77. Guernsey.

9. Hamilton.

27. Greene.

45. Pike.

49. Huron.

67. Muskingum.

84. Harrison.

14. Anglaize.

17. Montgomery. 35. Marion.

53. Knox.

71. Gallia.

88. Washington.

bination of a plough, a rasp, a sand-paper and a pumice-stone, ploughing, scrap- ing, scratching and polishing the surface all at the same time.

Now these phenomena, so characteristic of the areas just in front of a receding glacier, are very abundant in certain portions of Ohio. The most celebrated locality in the State, and perhaps in the world, is to be found in the islands near Sandusky. These islands consist of a hard limestone rock, which stands the

72. Lake.

38. Delaware

42. Pickaway.

60. Lawrence.

79. Ashtabula.

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GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO.

weather well, so that the glacial marks upon them are better preserved than in some other localities, and the ice-movement over them was longer continued and more powerful than in some other places. On Kelley's Island may be seen fur- rows several inches and sometimes two feet deep, running for many rods in one direction. Whole acres when freshly uncovered are seen to be fluted by the parallel lines of these furrows, the whole surface being polished and scoured by the finer material shoved along in company with the larger fragments. The direction of these furrows and scratches is mainly a little south of west, or nearly that of the longest diameter of the lake itself, showing that for a time the ice moved in that direction.

But the greater part of Ohio is several hundred feet higher than Lake Erie, and yet similar glacial scratches are to be found all over the higher land to some distance south of the water-shed, and in the western part of the state clear down to the Ohio River. On this higher land the direction of the scratches is south and

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This plate (taken from the author's "Studies in Science and Religion") shows a portion of the glaciated area of North America. AA represents the boundary of the glaciated area. The continuous line is from actual survey in 1881. BB marks special glacial accumu- lations. CC represents Lake Agassiz, a temporary body of water formed by the damming up by ice of the streams flowing into Hudson's Bay, the outlet being, meanwhile, through the Minnesota. D is a driftless region, which ice surrounded without covering. The arrows indicate the direction of glacial scratches. The kames of New England, and the terraces upon the western rivers are imperfectly shown upon so small a map.

southeast, showing that there was an ice movement during the height of the glacial period which entirely disregarded the depression of Lake Erie.

The most southern points where these scratches are found in the State are in Butler and Highland counties. In Highland county they are abundant near Lexington and in Butler county near Woodsdale. Many of the counties in the northwestern part of the State are so deeply covered with soil that the scratched surfaces of their rocks are seldom seen. The northeastern counties are more thinly covered, or have more projecting ledges of rocks, so that glacial grooving and scratches are more easily found and have been more frequently observed there.

(2) The "till" of which we have spoken consists of the loose soil which in the glaciated region covers the bed rock. In places this is of great depth, and everywhere it has a peculiar composition. Outside of the glaciated region the soil is formed by the gradual disintegration or rotting of the rocks from their surface downwards, so that, except along streams, there is then no soil but such

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 13

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 1006

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006