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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. 35 mountain slopes already cleared, are here properly national functions, for their results will be national in importance and extent. Furthermore, it is perfectly safe to assert that any satisfactory protection and development of these forests for the objects here contemplated is wholly beyond the agency of private individuals; and such persons would have no direct interest whatever in the protection and perpetuation of water-power, agriculture, and navigation along the lower courses of the streams whose headwaters they control. Nor can the States within whose territory these lands ownership and •> control by the now lie be expected to convert them into a forest reserve. st1\e not precti- * cable. The land is not owned by the States, but by private individuals. It is true that some of the wealthier States, like New York and Pennsylvania, are showing an intelligent and commendable interest in purchasing forest lands and establishing forest reserves for the protection of the sources of streams lying within their own boundaries and for the conservation of the forests. But the case is wholly different in the Southern Appalachian region. North Carolina can not, for example, fairly be expected to establish a forest reserve at great expense for the protection of streams which though rising within her borders lie mainly in other States. Nor could Alabama be expected to purchase lands in the State of Georgia for the protection of her great river which reaches the Gulf in Mobile Bay. Nor could West Virginia be expected to purchase lands in North Carolina for the protection of the sources of the Kanawha River, the largest lateral tributary of the Ohio. Furthermore, even were these States willing to enter ^'^^ to* upon such a plan, their financial condition is not such as ^"v jjjjjj jjjjj to make the undertaking possible. The combined income I^J^"^^ for a year of all the States within whose borders these lands lie would hardly be sufficient for their purchase. As shown, however, in the Appendix (p. 172), each of the States within whose borders these mountain lands are located has by legislative act expressed its hearty approval of this measure and its willingness to cede the control of these lands to the Federal Government. This is a national problem. The people of a number of ^f6^, 0* States are directly interested. The dangers growing out™|£°nal Prob- of the policy now in force are national in their character, as are also the benefits to be obtained by the policy now advised. This proposal for a national forest reserve has already been discussed and commended by our ablest men
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).