'A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 385 



in some localities as high as 24 percent of the area severely damaged 

 by gullying alone. In the basin of the Monongahela River, Glenn found 

 less erosion in 1911 than commonly occurs in the Appalachian Moun- 

 tains farther south, because of the practice of seeding the slopes to 

 grass. On the Green River drainage certain soils have been found to 

 erode very severely, 46 and great damage has followed the clearing and 

 use of these lands for agriculture. When erosion progresses far 

 enough, abandonment follows. On the mountainous lands of the 

 headwaters of the Kentucky River, tremendous erosion 47 was found 

 to follow clearing slopes for crop production. On the Tennessee 

 River, Dr. C. A. Moores, director of the Tennessee Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, reports that washing is very severe, involving 

 serious losses, which have, indeed, occurred over the whole State. 



Accepting conditions of watershed as continuing in their present 

 state, King concludes that higher flood stages will be developed in the 

 future, owing to the deposits in stream channels and on river flood 

 plains of material eroded from side hills and steep slopes. 



Close estimates have not been made of the amount of land in the 

 Ohio Basin which has been and now is badly damaged by erosion. In 

 this connection, Knight 48 states that between 10 and 15 million acres 

 of the 78 million acres in the Appalachian Mountain area have been 

 seriously eroded and approximately 2 million acres have been per- 

 manently ruined for farming by gullying. The total area of badly 

 and seriously eroded land is very large an immensely important 

 factor in the watershed problems of the Ohio River. 



POWER 



Because of the large proportion of the Nation's population and large 

 industrial activities which lie within its borders or adjacent to it, the 

 development and realization of long-lived sources of electric power 

 are of fundamental importance hi the Ohio Valley and constitute a 

 major watershed problem in the solution of which local topographic 

 features are favorable. From average State estimates by the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture in 191 1, it seems probable that in the neighborhood 

 of 2 million horsepower can be generated. 49 



Present hydroelectric installations comprise over 1,220,000 horse- 

 power. Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee River, costing about 

 $127,000,000, is the largest individual plant. Only a portion of the 

 available power in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North 

 Carolina has been harnessed. District Engineer H. E. Grosbach esti- 

 mates that Indiana normally produces 150,000-160,000 kilowatt-hours 

 yearly from plants run by water power, part of them being in the 

 northern part of the State, and that Kentucky has installations of 

 hydroelectric plants for 145,000 horsepower. 



Rates of streamflow are of primary importance to the power indus- 

 try. When streams are in flood the output is reduced; when streams 

 are low, insufficient water is available to maintain the output. Both 

 extremes of greater floods and lower streamflow work to the disadvan- 



Soil Survey of Muhlenberg County, Ky. U.S. Dept. Agr. 1924 



4 < Craig, R. B. Forestry in the economic life of Knott County, Ky. Ky. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 326. 

 1932. 



48 Knight, H. O. Soil conservation a major problem of agricultural readjustment. Proc. of Nat. Con. 

 on Land Util. Government Printing Office. 1932. 



49 Sec. of Agri. 1911. Electric Power Development in the U.S. S.Doc. 316, pt. II. 1911, table 2, 

 p. 14. 



