A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



389 



Loss of soil porosity, a major reason for the accelerated and at 

 times almost complete run-off from cleared lands, is shown by studies 67 

 in Ohio. These show that the top inch of forest soils absorbs 51 

 times as much water per minute as does the top inch of adjacent field 

 soils; that the forest soil at a 3-inch depth absorbs water 14 times as 

 fast as do field soils; and that forest soils at an 8-inch depth absorbs 

 water twice as fast as similar field soils. Studies in Mississippi and 

 Wisconsin on the relative volume of run-off from cleared bare soil and 

 from forested land fully substantiate the evidence of greatly increased 

 run-off following removal of forest growth. 



FIRE 



Forest fires have greatly deteriorated portions of the Ohio watershed. 

 Uncontrolled fires in the slashings following lumbering, and light 

 burning to encourage the growth of grasses and sprouts, have con- 

 tributed heavily to the creation of conditions unfavorable to regulated 

 stream flow. Brooks 68 states that the wholesale destruction by 

 fire of the protective softwoods forests and peaty soils began about the 

 time of the Civil War, when an opening was begun by a fire which 

 spread from the camp of Confederate Scouts on the Roaring Plains 

 of Randolph County, W.Va. Prior to 1915 very few records were 

 kept to show the extent of early forest fires in this basin. Prof. C. S. 

 Sargent in volume IX of the tenth census, records the burning of 

 2,183,393 acres in the States of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, 

 and West Virginia during 1880. In 1908, a particularly bad fire year, 

 3 percent of the estimated standing timber in West Virginia (some 

 944 million board feet) was destroyed according to the report of the 

 West Virginia Conservation Commission, as quoted by Brooks. 

 Every county in the State was visited by fire, and the total area 

 burned over by the 710 reported fires represented more than 10 per- 

 cent of the whole surface of the State and 20 percent of its forest area. 



The areas of watersheds now damaged by fire are very large. 

 Data compiled by the Forest Service on the areas of land burned over 

 since 1920 are given in table 9 for States lying almost wholly in the 

 Ohio River basin. Inability to subdivide States makes it inadvisable 

 to show areas being damaged by fire for other States. The causes of 

 fire are almost entirely man-made. 



TABLE 9. Areas of forest burned over, by years and States, Ohio River Basin, 



1921-31 



" Auten, J. T. Porosity and Water Absorption of Forest Soils. In press for Journal of Agricultural 

 Research, U.S.Dept.Agr., 1933. 

 " Brooks, A. B. Forestry and Wood Industries. W.Va. Geol. Survey. 5 : 51, 52, 1911. 



