A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 349 



protect more than 63 percent of her forest area, and after 18 years 

 North Carolina does not attempt to protect more than 39 percent. 

 In South Carolina only the barest start has yet been made toward 

 fire protection. Even within the protected areas the percentage of 

 burn in 1931 ranged from 1.4 in Virginia to 7.7 in South Carolina. 

 The standards set up in the section " Protection Against Fire" should 

 by all means be put into effect in the region, through the combined 

 efforts of the public and the landowners. 



Such simple restrictions upon cutting and grazing as are necessary 

 to prevent devastation of forest land (see the section "How to Stop 

 Forest Devastation"), and control of epidemic insects and diseases, 

 are obligations of ownership, and may be expected to contribute to 

 the beneficial influence of the South Atlantic forests on erosion and 

 streamflow. 



Restrictions are also necessary upon clearing of steep slopes because 

 such clearing is a very fruitful source of erosion and heavy surface 

 run-off. 



Again, as in the Northeast, there is a very great need for substantial 

 research into the relationship of forests and waters, including water 

 use by different species of trees and other natural vegetation; inter- 

 ception of rainfall by crowns; capacity of leaf litter to absorb and to 

 filter precipitation; nature and condition of the organic layers of the 

 soil hi relation to percolation and run-off ; effect upon wind movement 

 and evaporation of pure versus mixed forest, and of even-aged versus 

 all-aged stands; and control of drifting sands by tree growth. 



The most critical watershed and streamflow problem of the South 

 Atlantic drainages, however, is not that of land now in forest, but of 

 cleared land which has been abandoned for agricultural use, or which, 

 under present methods of farm management, is certain to erode until 

 so abandoned. The Bureau of Agricultural Economics estimates the 

 present area of abandoned farm land available for forestry in Virginia 

 and the Carplinas at slightly more than 5 million acres. Although 

 no direct evidence is available on the point, it is probable that ap- 

 proximately two thirds of this area, or roughly 3.3 million acres, is 

 eroding seriously. In so far as improved farm management can save 

 eroding lands still in agricultural use from further deterioration, and 

 can point the way to their continued use at a profit, the erosion 

 problem is not one for the forester. But if abandonment of agri- 

 cultural land continues here at the rate predicted by the Bureau for 

 the nation as a whole, by 1950 over 2} million acres probably half 

 of it eroded will be added to the present abandoned acreage, and 

 reforestation will be the only alternative to completely ignoring the 

 erosion menace. 



Prompt reforestation of these abandoned farm lands is necessary 

 to meet the menace. If the estimate of the local foresters that a 

 large part of eroded farm land will reforest naturally within 10 years 

 of abandonment are applied to the region, planting will have to be 

 done on about 2 million acres. It also seems probable that of this 

 huge area of abandoned farm lands, about 1 million acres will require 

 preliminary treatment, such as plowing in of gullies and building 

 dams. It is very difficult to see how the landowner can be persuaded 

 to undertake such work on any adequate scale. It is entirely out of 

 the question to interest a tenant in it, 



