A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 367 



OTHER AREAS 



Elsewhere in the St. Lawrence drainage, rather localized problems 

 exist. In the drainage to Lake Ontario in New York and to Lake 

 Erie in northeastern Ohio, erosion is taking place on cultivated lands 

 and local floods occasionally do damage. On areas that have not been 

 cleared for agriculture, the cover is usually sufficient to hold the soil 

 and to maintain favorable conditions of water flow. Cutting has little 

 disturbing effect on the cover, because of the sprouting capacity of the 

 hardwoods, and serious fires and extensive overgrazing are in general 

 absent. On abandoned farm lands the forest has great difficulty in 

 reestablishing itself naturally. 



The most wide-spread type of erosion, although probably the least 

 recognized, is slow sheet erosion on the soils of the Volusia series. 

 This is particularly severe on the cleared hill lands of western New 

 York, and is common also in northeastern Ohio. Studies by Pro- 

 fessor Barren and associated pasture specialists, of Cornell Univesity, 

 indicate that on these soils sheet erosion, acting since the land was 

 first cleared, is an important factor in decreasing soil fertility and lead- 

 ing to land abandonment. On many hill farms sheet erosion mani- 

 fests itself in an increasingly stony condition of the surface as the finer 

 top soil is gradually washed away. In extreme cases the surface soil 

 of the steeper slopes, largely in pastures, becomes too shallow for 

 further cultivation. 



In a study made by G. R. Stewart at Cornell University, the perme- 

 ability of fertile hardwood forest soil was compared with that of run- 

 down pastures on the same soil types. The forest soils were found 

 to be more permeable to water and more retentive of water. All grass 

 lands compared with the best forest soil showed a poorer physical 

 condition. The greatest difference was shown by the run-down 

 poverty-grass pastures located on the compact Volusia soils. Here 

 water passed into the soil very slowly. It is on such compact soils 

 that much farm abandonment occurs. Census data show marked 

 decline in the past two decades in the crop land of Ashtabula, Geauga, 

 Trumbull, Summit, and other counties in Ohio, in Erie and Crawford 

 Counties in Pennsylvania, and Chautauqua County in New York. 

 Compact soils are general in these counties. 



Another type of erosion on agricultural lands takes place on the 

 deeper soils. This consists of sudden breaks or gullies that may form 

 in a few days' time when the top soil is fairly well saturated with 

 water, as in the early spring. It is especially marked on the steeper 

 hillsides. This more serious erosion, according to Professor Barron, 

 probably grows out of sheet erosion and a decrease in the fertility of 

 the soil. It is reflected in a poor growth of grass in the spring. The 

 thin sod is easily broken by cattle and a small gully, once formed, 

 grows rapidly. Such gullying was found by the Northeastern Forest 

 Experiment Station to be not at all uncommon in the Genesee River 

 Valley, from the headwaters of the river to the lower levels adjacent to 

 Conesus Lake. Gullies of this type combine and grow steadily in each 

 season of heavy rainfall. A decline of from 15 to 20 percent in crop 

 land, reflecting this situation, is shown by census data for such New 

 York counties as Genesee, Wyoming, Cattaraugus, and Allegheny. 

 New York State has taken a positive step toward bettering conditions 

 on eroded lands by acquiring and reforesting such lands. New York 



