1524 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Public acquisition and management of a large part of the eroding 

 farm lands and the major-influence forest land appears to be the only 

 adequate solution. Heavy Federal participation in this project is 

 fully justified by the effect of the present situation on the maintenance 

 of navigable rivers. 



CENTRAL STATES ABANDONED FARM LANDS 



Abandoned farm lands of the Central States region, although in 

 many sections intermingled with true forest land, constitute a water- 

 shed situation that requires special consideration. Conditions vary 

 greatly among different parts of the region. In general, the ungla- 

 ciated and therefore more hilly areas are most in need of attention. 

 Elsewhere in these States soil depletion and erosion may be a serious 

 matter but it is a problem for agriculture to solve, with forestry play- 

 ing only a minor part through reforestation of small critical areas 

 and throug;h better management of farm woodlands on many farms. 



The sections where conditions are most critical and where forestry 

 may aid materially (outside of the Mississippi River bluff lands, dis- 

 cussed separately) include West Virginia, western portions of Ken- 

 tucky and Tennessee, southern parts of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and 

 Missouri, and, to a lesser degree, northern Missouri, southern Iowa, 

 and eastern Nebraska and Kansas. 



Within the sections where erosion is most acute perhaps 15 million 

 acres of farm land has already been abandoned and the trend has 

 apparently only gotten under way. The major reasons for abandon- 

 ment, apart from the present economic situation as it applies to farm 

 lands, are (1) the clearing for agriculture of land that owing to steep 

 slopes or naturally shallow or highly erosible soils should have 

 remained in forest, and (2) failure to apply special treatment such as 

 contour plowing, terracing, and proper crop rotation to land, the 

 agricultural usefulness of which might thus have been preserved. 

 On many areas erosion continues unchecked after abandonment, 

 while on other areas idleness permits the establishment of a cover of 

 weeds, grass, brush, or trees sufficient to hold the soil. 



Decisive action is justified by average annual flood damage amount- 

 ing to more than $4,000,000 on the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers and 

 to much greater sums on the Mississippi River proper, by the silting 

 of navigable streams to correct which literally hundreds of millions of 

 dollars have been spent or are proposed for expenditure, and by the 

 serious domestic water supply problem encountered during periods 

 of drought. 



At present practically the whole area, except land that has reverted 

 to public ownership through tax foreclosure, is in private ownership. 

 Certainly private owners cannot logically be expected to spend money 

 to cure a condition on lands that they have abandoned, or when any 

 benefits resulting from the treatment would accrue to the public rather 

 than to the owners. Public financial aid or public acquisition is 

 indispensible to progress. In many instances the financial aid needed 

 would approach or might even exceed the value of the land itself. 

 Therefore a program of public acquisition seems to be the practical 

 way out. 



Owing to the interstate character of the main streams and their 

 relation to navigation and flood control the problem is national in 



