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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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  • SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 15 region, the stand of timber, the extent to which the timber has been and is now being cut or damaged by fire, the nature of the present holdings, and the prices at which these lands can be purchased. The agricultural investigation included the study of the cleared lands, methods of their clearing, the crops which they yield, and the extent to which these lands deteriorate by erosion and by the leaching out of their fertility both on the mountain slopes and in the valleys. The officers of the Geological Survey meanwhile made a careful study of the quantity of water flowing out through the various streams having their sources in this region, and of the effect of forest clearings on the regularity of their flow at different seasons. Fifty-four regular stations were maintained, covering every large stream which rises in these mountains. These streams flow through West investigation Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,of the stle&m'- Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, and rank among the important rivers of the country. At each station daily records of stream heights were kept, and measurements of the volume of flow were made from time to time. In addition to this, more than 1,000 miscellaneous gagings were made on the tributaries of the James, Roanoke, Yadkin, Catawba, Broad, Savannah, Chattahoochee, Coosa, Hiwassee, Tennessee, French Broad, Nolichucky, Watauga, Holston, and New (Kanawha) livers. (See PI. XII). A brief preliminary report embodying the more salient results of this investigation during the year 1900 was sent to Congress by the President in January, 1901. It was accompanied by a letter from President McKinley commendatory of the plan for an Appalachian forest reserve here suggested anew. The present report will be found to riNa*turL> o£ tnis contain the results of the investigations carried on during the past two years, together with some conclusions based upon them. The general statement is followed by a series of supplemental papers, each containing a more detailed account of the results of the examinations and inquiries along some one single line. The region examined during this investigation embraces The region ex- that part of the Appalachian Mountain system which begins in southern Virginia and includes portions of that State, of southeastern West Virginia, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, northwestern South Carolina, and northern Georgia, and especially that portion of this region usually
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).