392 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



tive agencies. In their present limited extent they can be classified 

 as having slight or at best only moderate influence on watershed prob- 

 lems within the glaciated province, and moderate influence on the 

 agricultural lands to the south and in the Appalachian Valley. (See 

 fig. 9 for relative influence of forests on watersheds.) 



Under constant grazing, these woodlots have steadily deteriorated 

 until the forest has become merely open parks, open-air pens, or feed 

 lots. Under such a condition the forest is of little value from a water- 

 shed standpoint, and there is reason to anticipate the destruction of 

 the woodlots themselves. 



Auten's work, already cited, in the Central States Forest Experi- 

 ment Station's study of soil conditions in grazed and ungrazed woods 

 in Ohio, showed that for 36 plots, the top 9 inches of soil in the grazed 

 area averaged 15 percent heavier than similar top soil from ungrazed 

 woods. This increase in density is a reflection of the greatly reduced 

 capacity of the grazed soils to absorb water. 



In Ohio, the survey of deep-well supplies following the 1930 drought, 

 by Waring and Stewart (already cited in the discussion of " Water 

 Supply"), revealed that, instead of being replenished by fall and 

 winter precipitation, the water level of the deep ground-water supplies 

 was either stationary or slowly receding. Obviously, water is not 

 getting into the soil in adequate quantities. Whether through loss of 

 forest cover and forest soil porosity, or through tiling and open drain- 

 age ditches which drain off rainfall immediately, the effect of lowered 

 water table is the same. 



The problems of run-off and erosion in the farming section are agri- 

 cultural problems and as such farm practice is responsible for them. 

 The judicious treatment of farm lands can very largely meet the 

 demands of watershed considerations in so far as they concern farming 

 sections. Owners of valuable farms can, by the best farm practices, 

 maintain their lands in a continuously productive state. Intelligence 

 and concern are essential to careful handling of these lands. 



FOREST LANDS 



The original forest exerted a very great influence on the streams 

 and rivers which had their source in the high Allegheny and Cumber- 

 land Plateaus and the Southern Appalachian Mountains. An esti- 

 mate of the influence of forests on stream flow in this basin, as shown 

 in figure 9, is given in terms of area in the following tabulation: 



Acres 



Total area of Ohio River Basin 130,420,480 



Total forest area 45, 391, 000 



Forest area of great influence 35, 919, 000 



Forest area of moderate influence 7, 569, 000 



Forest area of slight influence 1, 903, 000 



OWNERSHIP OF FOREST LAND 



By far the largest portion of forest lands in the Ohio basin is in 

 private ownership. In the aggregate, small owners control a large 

 area of forest, but there are also many large holdings, as coal, gas, 

 and oil corporations, as well as a few lumber companies. This private 

 ownership is unfavorable to conservative handling of these lands. 



The need for protection and management of watershed land at the 

 headwaters of the Ohio has been recognized by the Federal purchase 



