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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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  • 30 SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. (See PI. LXXII.) Almost the same language might be used in describing the gorge cut by the Pigeon River across the Unaka Mountains southwest of Asheville; and there are a number of others cutting the Blue Ridge and Unakas at different points that are worthy of comparison with these. The same may be said of the gorges of the Tallulah and other streams in northern Georgia. But notwithstanding the steepness of the slopes of these gorges, even where the descent is almost precipitous, they are forest-covered except where the trees and shrubs have been destroyed by fire and the soil has been removed by the storms. (See Pis. XXIX and XLII.) irregularity of The perpetuation of the streams and the maintenance of gions'largely their regular flow, so as to prevent floods and maintain their water powers, are among the prime objects of forest preservation in the Southern Appalachians. Nothing illustrates the need of this more fully than the fact that on the neighboring streams, lying wholly within the Piedmont plateau, where the forests have been cleared from areas aggregating from 00 to 80 per cent of the whole, floods are frequent and excessive. During the seasons of protracted drought some of the smaller streams almost disappear, and the use of water power along their course is either abandoned or largelj' supplemented by steam power. To-day the larger valuable water powers in the South Atlantic region are mainly limited to the streams which have their sources among the Southern Appalachian Mountains; and the waters of these streams show a striking uniformity of flow as compared with the streams lying wholly within the adjacent lowland country, where forest clearing has been excessive. While the rainfall is somewhat greater in the mountain region, it is a question of the regularity rather than the volume of flow, and this depends upon the water storage. The soil in the one region is as deep as in the other, and the slopes being gentler in the low country, Forests regu-0^01' ^"^ ^^ e(lUa1' the Watel" WOuld sf)ilk »*<*> [t the ^reamsT flow °*more ^^J' In the mountain region itself the flow of the streams along which proportionately large clearings have been made has become decidedly more irregular, and the flood damages have greatly exceeded those along other streams where the forests have not been disturbed. The problem resolves itself into one of a forest cover for the soil. This is just what one would expect who has been, during a rainy season, in the heart of a mountain region where
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