Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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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. 37 from $2 to $5 per acre. Further investigations during the present year confirm the correctness of this statement. There are also many additional tracts of forest lands ranging from 1,000 to 50,000 acres each that are for sale at reasonable prices. Within the present year a few tracts of from 10,000 to 30,000 acres sold at less than $2 per acre. Within the past decade the larger portion of this area could have been purchased in large tracts at prices ranging from $1 to $2 an acre; but in view of the growing demand for forest lands, prices have already advanced, and they may be expected to advance still more within the next few years. Within the past two decades the titles to many of the,^^^*^ large tracts of land in this region have been much intory- dispute, and the efforts to adjust them involved tedious processes in court; but I am informed by competent judges that in practically all of these cases adjustments have finally been reached. Any appropriation for the purchase of these lands should provide ample time for the searching of titles, although no serious difficulty is anticipated from this source. Referring again to my preliminary report, I may quote seTf-sustaining6 a statement which has been further confirmed by the re- mnadtelyw yieidUli suits of the present year that "it is fully shown by theprofit- investigation that such a reserve would be self-supporting from the sale of timber under a wisely directed, conservative policy." In the case of many of the European forests under government supervision a net annual income is derived from the sale of timber and other forest products of from $1 to more than $5 per acre. I do not, of course, suppose that under the different conditions existing in this country a national forest reserve such as proposed would yield such a result, yet I confidently expect that the reserve now proposed in the Southern Appalachians will in the course of a few years be self-supporting, and that subsequently, as the hard-wood timber supplies in other portions of the country become more scarce, the lumbering operations will yield a considerable net return to the Government. Meanwhile, the establishment of such a reserve will^y^"^"* remedy many of the evils now threatened in this region, and under the efficient management of the practical foresters now being trained in this Department its working Benefitso(thl9 will serve as a test and demonstration of the wisdom and forest reserve as an object lesson success of practical forest operations on a large scale; and wiiibegreat.
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).