Those snno foresters sorJcod part of that litter in water for 

 a couple of days* They \7anted to sec just how much water it would 

 hold. They found that a ton of dried litter can absorb a ton n.nd 

 a half of water. But the nx-iount of water actually soaked up by the 

 pine needles or by the broad leaves of our hardwood trees is not 

 the whole story of water in the woods. 



Even after the loaves and other litter on the forest 

 have soaked up all the water they will hold, they will still serve 

 to :block the flow of water and filter out of it the soil particles 

 which would otherwise be washed away. The leaves beside adding 

 food to the soil also serve as soil-saving dams. 



All of us have seen a fevi: leaves caught in the path of a tiny 

 stream and half covered with soil captured from the running water. 

 To a greater or less degree, the leaves which cover the forest floor 

 act in much the same way. The litter is a vast filter for the water 

 which percolates through it. 



In fact, Hr, Mattoon holds that the mechanical effects of the 

 leaves in mulching the ground and checking rapid evaporation and mak- 

 ing a soil filter, are much more valuable than the actual chemicals 

 the decaying leaves return to the woods for fertilizer. 



They serve as a tremendous reservoir to store up and hold back 

 the flow of water and soil. In that way, the blanlcet of leaves in 

 the woods indirectly helps protect lands outside of the forest, or 

 cultivated land lying below the woods, from washing. It helps in 

 two ways. It helps by actually reducing the amount and the cratting 

 speed of the water which comes from wooded land. And by filtering 

 the water in the forest, it enables the water to sink into the soil 

 more readily instead of running off. 



Ifuddy water seals up the soil pores over which it passes. 

 !Tater filtered through the leaves and other forest litter is kept 

 clean and does not clog up the soil pores; and so has a better chance 

 to sinlc in. 



But those Aut\amn leaves lying there on the forest floor season 

 after season until they become an indistinguishable part of the 

 soil itself, add organic matter to the soil. They improve its 

 workability. These leaves and twigs and the like loosen the soil, 

 dc-conpact it. Tliey help pit the soil in condition for the trees 

 to get at the plajit food and make the soil easily penetrated by roots 

 from seedling trees, and the like. 



And so you see that in the v/cll-adverti scd fall, the leaf "may 

 be down, but it is never out", it keeps on helping in the gro\7th of 

 the woods. 



A:::TOUI'CS}vE!IT ; Every other Friday Station presents these results of 



visits with Uncle Sam's Naturalists, in the United States Department 



of Agriculture. Rcnembcr the day and hour v;^en our 7ilds Man will be back. 



