restricted to cutting ties. At one time this was an extensive industry, the ties being rafted down the streams and eventually sold at St. Louis. At the present time, with the aid of trucks, they are usually hauled to the railroad. The pine lands, after being cut over, have usually been severely burned. They were cut very close, only a few small pine trees were left, and in places there is a decided deficiency in young pine on account of the lack of seed trees and the destruction of seedlings by fire. This is at the extreme northern limit of shortleaf pine, to the west of the Mississippi River.

EFFECT OF FIRES

Fires after lumbering result in the suppression of young growth as well as in injury to the butts of larger trees. Such injury causes permanent defects which increase by extending up the stems of the trees as they become older. In many places the fires have tended to decrease the proportion of pine and to increase the number of hardwoods, which sprout more freely.

EFFECT OF GRAZING

The destruction of tree seedlings and extermination of forest herbage by close grazing has resulted in excessive erosion in woodland. Likewise, close grazing in pastures has resulted in much erosion from this class of land.

EFFECT OF DRAINAGE

Except for narrow areas of alluvial land there are no extensive areas of swamp lands on the basis of this stream. These lands have been drained largely by individual farmers as there are no large drainage projects. The alluvial lands are now largely cleared and constitute the best type of agricultural land on the basin. Their drainage may have tended to promote higher flood crests on the lower part of the basin through facilitating run-off.

GENERAL SUMMARY OF FOREST CONDITIONS

On the whole, the forest conditions on the basin are not satisfactory. Pine is the most valuable saw-log tree and pine lands are being cut too closely because the trees can be profitably utilized to a very small size. Where there are fires and where fires follow lumbering, pine replacement is frequently very scant. The hardwoods which constitute the larger part of the forest are deteriorating through the constant culling of the choicest species, white oak and walnut. As a result the less valuable black and blackjack oak are increasing in numbers. The soil conditions also are much below a desirable standard. On account of frequent fires, humus is either scant or almost wanting, and this results in a lowered absorptive capacity by the mineral soil and a reduced storage capacity for

storm water.

About 19 per cent of the area is in forest cover. Since nearly all of the woodland is on steep land and is used for woodland pasturage, it has a low protective value because of excessive grazing.

CRITICAL AREAS

The critical areas within this basin consist of the bluffs and breaks along the streams, especially where the slopes are in excess of 5 per cent and where the soils are silty. The critical areas occupy practically 40 per cent of the area of the basin. They include the greater portion of the land which is at present wooded. In addition they include a considerable area of steep land which has been cleared and which is at present in grass occupying the steeper slopes adjacent to the streams.

RECOMMENDATIONS

A greater part of the larger bodies of forested lands on this basin should be set aside as public forests. This would extend protection to a large part of the critical area within the basin. Part of this land is at present in tracts of considerable size held by lumber companies, but the larger portion of it is woodland on the rougher portions of farms. In the northern part of the basin, on account of the fact that farms are generally interspersed with this land and occupy nearly all of the alluvials and a considerable part of the hilly uplands, these conditions do not meet the requirements for national forests but are admirably suited for the location of State and county forest. In the southern and especially the southeastern part of the basin there are areas which, taken in connection with lands on the basin of other streams, are admirably suited for the location of national forests.

On the whole, the erosion problem of this basin is not so acute as on the loess soils on the north side of the Missouri River, but erosion still takes place. The important function of these forests will be the affording of better protection to the soil and the promoting of more thorough absorption of heavy concentrated showers. The accumulation of humus will supplement the storage capacity of the soil to the extent that humus can be developed within these forest types.

A great advantage will likewise accrue to the landowners. Throughout this basin the small farmers have worked in the woods during that part of the year when there was little farm work to be done. The maintenance of the forest on a high producing capacity will permit a continuation of this advantageous practice. The manufacture of ties offers opportunity to the small farmer for winter work. At the present time most of the pine timber has been cut from the basin and on account of close cutting and fires timber suitable for ties has been largely depleted.

Woodland pasturage should also be more carefully controlled in order to prevent deterioration of the range and reduce erosion, since a large part of such pasturage is located upon the steep slopes which are easily eroded. This and the prevention of fires are the desirable changes necessary in wood policy. In the northern part of the basin Federal action may be desirable in the extension of protection against fire through the cooperative provisions of the Clark-McNary Act. The larger areas of land in the southern part of the basin should become a part of national forests, occupying considerable additional areas of rough land on other parts of the Ozark Plateau.

STREAM CONDITIONS

The Central Missouri Power & Water Co. has preliminary permits from the Federal Power Commission for the construction of three hydroelectric plants between Jerome and Richfountain the total capacity of which will be about 100,000 horsepower. On account of the hilly surface and the width of the upper part of the basin, quite heavy floods occur at times; but, since the flood plain is quite narrow, not much damage is caused. The flow of the stream is kept fairly constant by numerous large springs. The run-off varies from 6.73 inches to 11.35 inches for the 5-year period of measurements. The extremes of flow varied from a maximum stage, 17.5 feet, during June, 1921, with a discharge of 25,900 second-feet, to a minimum discharge of 77 second-feet in September, 1922, or a ratio of 1 to 336. In August 1915, the river reached a stage of 25 feet with an estimated discharge of 45,000 second-feet.

GRAND RIVER

(Area 64)

LOCATION AND AREA

The Grand River is a comparatively small tributary coming in from the north and flowing into the Missouri about 200 miles above its mouth. Its basin, lying partly in southern Iowa and partly in

northern Missouri, has a drainage area of 7,831 square miles. It is formed by the union of the east and west forks and has for its principal tributaries the Thompson River and Medicine and Locust Creeks.

TOPOGRAPHY

The drainage basin is about 150 miles long. Very narrow at the upper end, it gradually widens to 90 miles near the middle, and decreases to a narrow strip at the mouth. The shape of the basin and the rolling surface of its upper part is conducive to heavy floods, the water of the several converging tributaries emptying nearly simultaneously. The surface of the upper part of the basin is rolling, broken in places to rather steep hills, but the tops of the ridges form nearly a flat plain near the mouth. The channels of the river and its tributaries were naturally crooked. In the upper part of the river the channels of some of the tributaries have been improved by straightening and dredging and this has given partial relief from floods in those places, but by bringing the water more quickly to the lower reaches of the river it has intensified the flooding in that section. Much more work needs to be done in order to protect the lower valley from overflow.

GEOLOGY AND SOIL

The basic geological formations have little influence upon the upland soils of the Grand River Basin which are largely from two sources of unconsolidated material. The limestone, shale, and sandstone formations of the Carboniferous age which form the basic rocks of the region are covered with the glacial mantle known as Kansas drift, a deposit which varies from a few to many feet in thickness and is characterized by the presence of clays, sands, and stones. The Kansas drift was subsequently covered by a layer of loess, fine grained silts, and sand silts deposited by wind action from areas of similar soils located elsewhere. On the shoulders of the hills the loess has been removed, exposing the underlying glacial drift. The alluvial deposits along Grand River are largely an outwash from these soils. The river hills are prevailingly red, silt-clay lands. They form a belt which varies in width from one-half to 4 miles, and lies just back of the river bottoms. Owing to its open structure and rolling surface, the soil of the river hills is easily drained and has been largely cleared. Because of this loose structure of soil and subsoil and the usually sloping surface erosion is often severe. "Gullies formed are usually deep with perpendicular walls exhibiting a checked and columnar structure peculiar to loess." Cuts of this character, 15 to 30 feet deep are common, and as a safeguard against erosion this soil should never be left in a loose or uncovered condition. The greater part of the level uplands, which were originally prairies, do not suffer from erosion, but the rolling lands in the northern part of the basin are subject to erosion, the amount varying with the degree of slope.

CLIMATE

The mean precipitation varies from 39 inches on the lower part of the basin to about 37 inches on the upper part, the unmelted snowfall averaging about 30 inches. The periods of heavy rainfall are from April to July. In the wet year of 1898 when the total rainfall amounted to more than 60 inches, as much as 11.88 inches fell during May. The amount of rainfall for the driest year of record was 19 inches. Though droughts of over three weeks' duration are rare and the basin is considered outside of the southern region of concentrated precipitation, an average of 50 heavy thunderstorms a year occur and it is when these are accompanied by heavy rainfall that excessive erosion takes place.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

The initial settlements on this basin were made about 1837. The pioneers came from forested States, and located largely on the wooded lands not only on account of their ignorance of the quality of the prairie soils but because of the presence of springs, and the ability to get water was limited to the more hilly lands. Large areas of the woodland were thus cleared in the early stages of the development of the basin. The first crops were largely corn. Although no longer commercially produced, tobacco was one of the early money crops because of the ease with which it could be transported. A large part of the basin is still cultivated in corn, planted in rotation, or in corn following corn. A considerable area is cultivated in soy beans and a smaller area in tobacco and other clean tilled crops, all of which offer the same opportunity for excessive erosion as is offered by corn. A large area of the land especially in the upper part of the basin is maintained in sod from which the erosion is very slight where not excessively pastured, as is frequently the case on woodland pasture. The present population of the basin is approximately 35 per square mile outside of towns. The total area of the basin is 5,012,000 acres; the improved area is 4,431,000 acres or 88.4 per cent, the area in woodland being 581,000 acres or 11.6 per cent of the total area.

CONDITION OF LANDS OTHER THAN FOREST

A considerable area of the basin is in sod and is so maintained either for grazing or for hay. A large part is devoted to cultivated crops, and because of the superior drainage condition the rolling lands are given preference. In too many instances instead of land being cultivated two years and then seeded to grass, cultivation of corn followed by a crop of small grain is succeeded again by a crop of corn, or corn follows corn without the alternation of a small-grain crop. As a rule, land from which small grain is taken in the summer is turned the following fall and left without cover crop for seeding to corn the succeeding spring. The drainage of the alluvial lands, especially in the upper part of the basin, has been largely effected through deepening and straightening the channels of the streams. This has resulted in accelerating the run-off from this portion of the basin and, by simultaneously precipitating flood waters from the different streams, has added to floods in the lower part of the basin and rendered the alluvial lands in that portion less valuable.