What too Rapid Run-off Can Do 



Top. — Bowlders for soil. This view of the Santa Ana River 

 in southern California shows how torrential run-off may 

 wash away the soil and leave the land covered with snags, 

 gravel, bowlders, and other infertile debris. The irregular 

 strip of cleared land winding up the brush-covered slopes 

 in the background at the right forms part of a system of 

 fire lines on the Angeles National Forest constructed to 

 prevent the spread of forest fires. 



Bottom. — Sand for alfalfa. The sand waste in the foreground 

 is typical of hundreds of acres of formerly good alfalfa 

 land along the San Diego River in southern California 

 which were seriously damaged by the flood of January, 

 1916. As a result of this flood, which came largely from 

 bumed-over areas in the Cleveland National Forest, the 

 stream in many places changed its course, considerably 

 enlarged its channel, and injured adjacent agricultural 

 lands both by washing them away and by burying them 

 under sand and other infertile material. The slides on 

 the sparsely covered hills in the background are most 

 numerous where fires considerably reduced the protective 

 cover of brush. 



