Forests presumably reduce flood flow and increase base flow. The debate about this forest hydrological hypothesis still goes on at the system scale of catchments. The investigations of Burger (1922) as well as newer aspects in soil hydrology at the process scale may help to differentiate: forest soils are more likely to control run-off than soils under any other land-use. However, not all the soils under forest bear the characteristics which support the forest hydrological hypothesis, and soils under various vegetation covers may show well developed properties to effectively mitigate peak run-off.