Stop 12

You are now on the “high prairie”. Notice that the grass around you is quite short (that is if it hasn’t been burned). Since water runs downhill it has the tendency to carry particles of soil along with it on its journey to the bottom of the hill.  That’s why the soil is deeper and moister at the bottom of the hill and shallow and dry at the top. This is all sorts of ramifications – the grass is thicker and taller at the bottom and short and sparse at the top. Much of the land at the bottom of the hills in the Flint Hills was actually plowed, because it could be plowed. That left the shallow, rocky soil of the hills to be unplowed. Knowing that, what would you say about the quality of the soil under the remaining unplowed tallgrass prairie?