Franklin B. Hough “Decrease of Woodlands in Ohio” (1884), Report on Forestry

The Ohio State University Libraries Collection

Franklin B. Hough’s (1822-1885) analyses of the state’s assets represents some of the earliest attempts to record in detail the impact of forest clearing on Ohio’s surface cover. Hough described his methodology as “a convenient means of studying with some care and in detail by counties the progress of clearings, and in an inverse proportion the exhaustion of its woodlands.” Published at a time when a large majority of Ohio’s forests had been lost already, Hough’s widely referenced report renewed attention to the impact of agricultural activities on forest clearings in Ohio. Despite shortcomings in the statistical data and the analysis, Hough’s assessment regarding the decrease of the state’s forest cover from about 50 percent in 1853 to about 25 percent in 1881 turned out to be largely correct.