By about 1900 control of the area had passed to the J. F. Morgan family. The homesteads had long since been deserted and the entire area was used for grazing (fide J. F. Morgan, in conversation, January 13, 1952). Parts of the bottomland were fenced and broken for cultivation in 1907, 1912, and 1915, and hilltop fields were first cultivated in 1909. Tree cutting was more or less continual. Many of the old stumps still present on the area are remnants of the trees cut in the "twenties" or even earlier. Several acres of hilltop and south slope in the northwest corner of the area were protected from livestock and maintained for harvesting of prairie hay. The hay was mowed annually, and the vegetation was burned at less frequent intervals, usually in early spring. This treatment served to kill encroaching woody vegetation and to maintain a prairie type.
In the mid-thirties control of the area passed to the University of Kansas. At that time a program of development was launched by the University and the U. S. Soil Conservation Service with relief labor (fide C. G. Bayles in conversation, November 10, 1953). The work included: filling gullies, digging diversion ditches and building check dams and terraces to prevent erosion; clearing extensive thickets; bindweed eradication from the cultivated areas; and fencing off the wooded hillsides from the valley and hilltop pastures for protection from livestock. This work extended over several years, and one main objective was to utilize the area for growing timber. However, plans to make extensive plantings of walnut and other valuable timber never materialized. In the forties the check dams fell into disrepair. The area was leased to a farmer and was again heavily overgrazed. In this period there was some tree-cutting by the University's Department of Buildings and Grounds and by farmers, but this cutting was not on a commercial scale and was mainly for firewood and fence posts. One of the chief results of fencing off the wooded hillsides was that shrubs and young trees, formerly held in check by livestock, were allowed to flourish. Understory thickets sprang up throughout most of the woodland, and especially in edge situations.
Late in 1948, after the area had been made a Reservation, livestock were excluded. In the years following, the parts of the closely grazed pastures adjacent to woodland passed through stages similar to those that had occurred 10 to 12 years earlier in the parts protected by fences. Young trees and shrubs sprang up in thickets, the numbers and kinds depending on amount of shade, seed sources, soil, moisture, and various other factors.
Although most of the tree-cutting was done prior to 1934, annual growth rings are discernible on many of the old stumps, indicating the age of the tree at the time it was cut. Occasionally the stumps produced sprouts which had grown into sizable trees by 1954. In such instances the year that the tree was cut and the year that it originally began growing could be determined from a study of the annual growth rings. In 54 instances ring counts were obtained from stumps or logs, or from trees that had been split and fallen in wind storms.
Stumps that were otherwise intact often had small central cavities an inch or more in diameter. For these it was necessary to estimate the numbers of missing rings in order to obtain a figure for the approximate total age of the tree at the time it was cut. Many of the logs and stumps were so much decayed that growth rings were no longer distinct, and on most there were a few rings that were not clearly defined. In the majority of instances the time of cutting could not be determined accurately, but it is known that there was little tree-cutting after 1934 on most parts of the area. Probably most of the stumps on the Reservation that were well enough preserved to provide counts were from 20 to 30 years old. Most of the counts of growth rings on chestnut oaks were obtained on a hillside adjoining the Reservation where the trees were cut in the early nineteen forties.
Width of the annual growth rings reflects rapidity of growth in the tree and is determined, in part, by the amount of annual rainfall, especially in this region on the western edge of the deciduous forests where moisture is the chief limiting factor. Periods of drought or of unusually heavy rainfall may result in growth rings smaller or larger than average. Because the trees draw moisture from the deeper soil layer there is a lag in their response to precipitation, and a single year that is much wetter or much drier than those preceding or following it may not stand out clearly in the annual rings. In individual trees the effect of precipitation is often obscured by the effects of crowding and shading by competitors, injury or disease. None of the trees examined for growth rings reflected the annual precipitation accurately for long periods though some indication of known drought periods or of series of wet years were usually discernible.
For 35 black oaks, chestnut oaks, and American elms, growth rings averaged 3.81 per inch of trunk diameter (according to size of the tree; 5.1 rings per inch in those trees 9 to 12 inches in diameter, 4.0 in those 13 to 15 inches, 3.6 in those 16 to 24 inches, and 2.8 in those of more than 24 inches). Data from a few complete counts and many incomplete counts indicate that in Gleditsia triacanthos growth is much more rapid, with only 2 to 3 rings per inch of trunk diameter, whereas in Juglans nigra, Celtis occidentalis, Carya ovata, and Fraxinus americana growth is much slower, with usually five or more growth rings per inch of trunk diameter. Individual trees deviate widely from the average for their species, and those in rich bottomland soil grow more rapidly than those in shallow soil of hilltops or those on rocky slopes. If such factors are taken into account the ages of trees may be estimated from the diameters of their trunks. In mature trees growth slows; age is likely to be underestimated rather than overestimated in those of exceptionally large size.
The belief that this and similar areas in northeastern Kansas were virtually treeless at the time of occupation by white settlers is shown to be wholly unfounded by the information obtained from growth rings. The ring counts show that many trees now growing on the area and others cut within the last 30 years, but still represented by stumps, were already present in the eighteen sixties when the area was first occupied. A few trees on the area probably are much older, dating back to the early eighteen hundreds. As there are no virgin stands of timber, and the more valuable trees have been removed by selective cutting at various times, it is to be expected that there are few or no trees on the area approaching the potential longevity for their species.
The many oaks and elms on the area that are more than two feet in trunk diameter mostly date back to the eighteen sixties or earlier. The distribution of the larger trees and stumps provides a clue as to the original distribution of forest and grassland on the area. There is no description available of the area that is now the Reservation in its original condition. However, Mrs. Anna Morgan Ward (1945) has recorded comments on the appearance of the country in the section of land adjoining the Reservation on the south, as it appeared when her family settled there in 1864. This land differed from that of the Reservation, as it consists of low rolling hills, well drained with predominately south exposure, and with sandy soil. It adjoins the present flood plain of the Kansas River, and consists partly of the old Menoken Terrace deposited in the Pleistocene. The following excerpts from Mrs. Ward's manuscript are selected as most descriptive of the original vegetation on this section of land.
[In southwest part of section near the Morgan house.] "... some hills that were covered with Jack Oak trees ... Here we found wild strawberries on the hillsides. And along the creeks we located gooseberry bushes, wild grapes, both summer and winter grapes, plums, and paw paws in the fall. We found a crabapple tree ... Plenty of walnuts and hazel nuts."