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Report of the Secretary of Agriculture in relation to the forests, rivers, and mountains of the southern Appalachian region

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  • 14 SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. NATURE AND EXTENT OF THIS INVESTIGATION. Acting under this authority I conducted such an investigation during the field season of 1900, and continued it again during the present year. The conclusions to which the results of this investigation have led me will be found at the end of this report (p. 38). AgriraHMeenan°J % tne liberal cooperation of the Department of the CLperate'in Ae Interi°r' through the United States Geological Survey, 1 investigation. was enaDled to make these investigations much broader and more thorough than would otherwise have been possible. The Geological Survey, in timely recognition of the importance of this movement, has, during the past two years, studied the topographic features and the water supplies of the region in relation to its forest development, and has also cooperated in the examination of the forests themselves. The investigations along the several lines have been participated in by the best men available in the Government service. 1 have myself twice visited this region, and have seen at first hand the destruction of the forests and the consequent enormous damage by floods; have examined some of its largest mountain masses, and have ('limbed its highest peak. The conclusions reached from this personal experience, as well as from the extensive expert investigations just mentioned, will be found briefly summarized at another place in this report (p. 38). investigationthe The experts in charge of this work examined not only the forests and the general forest conditions as they exist to-day, but also the causes which have led up to these conditions and the possibility of improving them either with or without Government ownership and supervision. They studied the influences of the forests on the preservation of the streams and soils of these mountains and on the preservation of the water powers and the farm lands along these streams, both within the mountain areas and across the bordering lowlands. In particular the region was studied as to its relative adaptability to future development along the lines of practical forestry and practical agriculture. Forest and The forests were carefully mapped as to their distri- agrieultural con- . , ' .' . dltions. bution and density and the relative proportion of the forest-covered and cleared lands. The investigation also included a study of the general character and distribution of all the available species of trees and shrubs of the
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