A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 417 



Of the cultivated area, the data indicate that about 470,000 acres, 

 or 13 percent of the total, is badly sheet eroded and hence will quite 

 likely be worn out and abandoned within the next 10 or 15 years. 

 These eroded submarginal lands could very easily be converted into 

 forest or pasture if remedial steps were taken promptly at time of 

 abandonment. Unless a vegetative cover is quickly established, 

 uncontrolled run-off soon transforms these old fields into gullied 

 wastes which are difficult to reclaim. An additional 350,000 acres 

 of eroded pasture land will quickly revert to forest or other native 

 vegetation if protected from livestock. 



Of the total area of the Yazoo upland watershed, 23 percent, or 

 about 813,000 acres of once arable land, has been abandoned and is 

 now lying idle. Of this area about 500,000 acres is not seriously 

 eroded and is reverting naturally to forest and grasses. The remain- 

 ing 313,000 acres is, however, very badly gullieof and actively eroding. 

 The preliminary run-off studies in northern Mississippi indicate that 

 the areas which are or have been in cultivation are the outstanding 

 contributors of flashy run-off and suffer most of the soil losses. As 

 the badly eroded and impoverished abandoned lands will not revege- 

 tate except after a long period, it will be necessary to establish the 

 forest cover largely through artificial means. About 250,000 acres 

 probably need planting, many of which need special erosion-control 

 measures as well. 



The planting of these severely gullied lands offers many difficulties 

 that are at present being investigated. In certain cases, however, 

 such plantings have already proved successful and practicable. In 

 western Tennessee, black locust plantations have been established 

 on many eroded fields. These plantations in 10 to 15 years have not 

 only effectively stopped erosion but have developed such a cover that 

 soil and water conditions approach those of a much older forest. 



Plantations alone cannot stop the further extension of gullies. 

 They are too deep and the erosive processes are taking place too 

 rapidly. Special works, such as soil-saving dams and check dams, are 

 needed. Seeding and sodding of slopes will be required. Probably 

 150,000 acres in all will require special treatment. The upland types 

 receive little fire protection. Adequate fire control would permit 

 many abandoned lands to restock fairly promptly and would enable 

 the restocking lands to develop a denser cover. It would also permit 

 the formation of a good litter layer. 



Erosion on the areas in need of planting has already progressed 

 far beyond the stage where the land can be again reclaimed for culti- 

 vation. Furthermore, from 65 to 85 percent of the farm lands, 

 according to 1930 census figures, are in the hands of tenant farmers 

 who have little incentive for improving them inasmuch as the absentee 

 owners are, as a rule, indifferent to their destruction. At the present 

 rate of abandonment, it seems highly probable that in 10 or 15 years 

 less than 25 percent of the uplands area will be in cultivation, provided 

 that new areas are not cleared nor old fields again put into cultivation. 



At the present time practically all of the silt loam uplands are in 

 private hands. In view of local conditions and the abandonment of 

 agricultural lands, it appears unlikely that watershed conditions can 

 be corrected through the efforts of the private owners. These efforts 

 would place a heavy financial burden on the owner and most of them 

 do not hold out to him the possibility of monetary return. Public 



