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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



less valuable now than forty or fifty years ago, there was pre- 

 pared for use in a certain litigation an extended discussion of 

 this question. The discussion in question applies particularly 

 to catchment areas in Wyoming county, the runoff data being 

 from gagings of Oatka creek for the years 1890-92. 



Wyoming county is an elevated region of the same general 

 character throughout. Formerly it was covered with heavy 

 pine, hemlock, oak, beech, maple, ash and elm forests. At the 

 present time the forest area is exceedingly small, and what there 

 is left of it is so scattered and so open as to exercise almost no 

 effect on stream flow. In order to illustrate the progressive 

 changes which may take place in the water-yielding capacity of 

 a given catchment area, the writer compiled from the census 

 reports for each decennial period from 1850 to 1890, inclusive, 

 the statistics as therein given for Wyoming county, the assump- 

 tion being that whatever was true of Wyoming county must be 

 substantially true of the Oatka creek catchment area of 27.5 

 square miles, situated in the central part of the county. The 

 census data give the total area, total improved area for a por- 

 tion of the period, tilled area and permanent meadows, total 

 unimproved area, woodland and forest area, and the miscel- 

 laneous unimproved area. As illustrating the changes which 

 have taken place in Wyoming county since 1850, the writer 

 merely cites from the tabulations that, with a total area of 

 387,840 acres, the total improved area was 223,533 acres in 

 1850, and 356,880 acres in 1890. The total unimproved area was 

 164,307 acres in 1850 and only 30,960 acres in 1890, of which 

 26,960 was woodland and forest and 4000 miscellaneous unim- 

 proved area. 



Again, the tables show that in 1850 there were 50,035 acres 

 in clover seed and grass seed, wheat, rye, corn, oats, peas, beans, 

 potatoes, barley and buckwheat, while in 1890 the same crops 

 showed 71,915 acres. In 1850 the area in oats amounted to 

 18,132 acres, while in 1890 it amounted to 29,083 acres. Barley 

 in 1850 covered 2409 acres, and in 1890, 14,164 acres. Again, the 

 area in hay amounted in 1850 to 62,563 acres, and in 1890 to 



