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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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  • 32 SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. dicattagidheavy Here and there among the Southern Appalachians a land- necSsitv^f for3-8^^6 extending over an acre, or several acres, has started, eat cover. bearing on its surface a section of the forest, but the larger trees below have blocked its course within a few feet or a few yards of its original position. (See PL XXXII.) The trees on its surface were tilted, but the subsequent upward bending of their tops shows that the slip took place ten, fifty, or more than one hundred years ago. The abundance of such evidence shows that these rain storms among the primeval forests have been both frequent and heavy, but during the centuries these densely forest-covered slopes have not lost their soils nor the soils their fertility, nor foi^eoverea nas a furrow been washed. Trees of four centuries stand ceedingiy8sioWx"to-day in the very bottom of shallow ravines and minor depressions (see PI. XXXIII), eroded before these forests covered the mountains. Had these forests been removed a few of these groat rains that started these landslides would have cleaned the mountain slope of its recently formed soil, and would have swept the valley below. hav^tortorna1 These mountains will continue to be the home of storms. pro^amoun°,'-ne": heavy rains will continue to drench the slopes, if t,li,ls- cleared of their forests, with increasing violence. Whether in the future these rains shall be caught by fern and grass and humus, and received by a deep, porous soil, to be given out as needed to the vegetation above and the perpetual springs below, or whether it shall rush down bare, rocky slopes to till the gorges and carry destruction through the valleys beyond, depends upon whether or not these forests are preserved. receiuauoodfs°in ^e terribly destructive work of the heavy rains in wash- this region. [ug aWay the farm lands on the mountain slopes and in the valleys of this region, especially where the clearings have been greatest, has already been described. It should be understood clearly, however, that the dangers from these floods arc not limited to the region about the mountains. The floods from the May storm of the present year on the Blue Ridge, about the sources of the Catawba, swept the best of the farm lands along the course of that stream for upward of 200 miles, and cost the farmers more than a million and a half of dollars. An August storm in the same region added a loss of half a million more by further destruction on the Catawba lowlands. (See PI. XXXIV.) Similarly, the same May floods swept the valleys of the Yadkin in North Carolina, the New (Kanawha) in Virginia and West Virginia, and the upper tribu-
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