A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 393 



of certain lands in this basin. The Allegheny National Forest is on 

 the headwaters of the Allegheny River, a portion of the Monongahela 

 National Forest occurs on headwaters of the river of that name, parts 

 of the Unaka, Cherokee, Nantahala, Pisgah, and Alabama National 

 Forests are on portions of the headwaters of the Tennessee River, and 

 a portion of the Unaka National Forest takes in headwaters of the 

 New River. Because the present extent of these lands (about 2,400 

 square miles) is too limited to be most effective, the Forest Service 

 plans to add to them. Plans have also been approved by the National 

 Forest Reservation Commission for a national forest purchase unit 

 on the headwaters of the Kentucky River. 



Some States in the Ohio basin are also engaged in programs of 

 forest-land acquisition. Reference to the section of this report on 

 " State Accomplishments and Plans" will yield in tabular form the 

 acreages of State forests in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West 

 Virginia. 



A few progressive communities are protecting reservoir sites and 

 watersheds by forests. For example, Akron, Ohio, has 5,000 acres 

 in a municipal forest. Wellston, Ohio, has a 300-acre watershed above 

 its storage reservoir. Denuded lands on this area have been planted. 

 Other Ohio cities having municipal forests include Oberlin and Cin- 

 cinnati. The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, which supplies 

 water to Niles, Youngstow^n, and Girard, possesses 4,500 acres. 



MARGINAL FARM LAND 



A necessary step in the solution of watershed problems for the Ohio 

 River is the removal of submarginal and marginal land from the status 

 of farm land. Such land is not agricultural at the outset because of 

 many considerations, and continued use aggravates the problems of 

 watershed as well as of agriculture. For example, Sitterley's study 

 (already mentioned) in the southeastern section of Ohio shows a 

 shrinkage in improved lands in farms from 56 percent in 1900 to 26 

 percent in 1930. The number of farms has decreased 51 percent in 

 30 years. The population of Vinton County in this region shows a 

 decline of 40 percent. A similar study in another county found a 

 decrease of 20 percent in the acreage of land in farms since 1880 and 

 a decrease of 50 percent in the improved land in farms since 1900. 

 Only 15.7 percent of the total area of the county was in harvested 

 crops in 1929. 61 



It is evident that these areas of land are unable to support an 

 agricultural system, its population, and local government. These 

 studies are illustrative of about 14 counties in this vicinity, in which 

 a million acres of land are lying idle outside of farms and half a 

 million acres within the boundaries of farms. Much of the badly 

 eroded farm land has been abandoned to revert to forest. As high 

 as 50 percent of certain counties in southern Ohio might well be in 

 forest. The use of much marginal land for pasturing seems un- 

 likely. A specialist in crops and soils 62 at Ohio State University 

 states, ''Between 55 and 60 percent of the now so-called permanent 

 pastures in Ohio * * * should be returned to forests as the 

 cost of liming and fertilizing makes pasture production prohibitive." 



61 Sitterley, J. H., Moore, H. R., Falconer, J. I. Land Utilization in Lawrence County, Ohio. Ohio 

 Apr. Expt. Sta. Bui. 514. 1932. 



62 Bailey, M. V., Permanent Pastures. Ohio State Univ. Agr. Ext. Service Bui. 61. 



