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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  • LUMBERING IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS NOW AND UNDER GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP AND SUPERVISION. Bv Overton W. Price. The protection of the headwaters of important streams in order to prevent floods and perpetuate water powers, the preservation of a great natural health resort and of important agricultural resources, are perhaps the most valuable results tha^ would follow the creation and management of the proposed Appalachian Forest Reserve. The application of practical forestry in this region by the Federal Government would bear fruit also in the maintenance of a sustained supply of hard-wood timber, in the production of a steady and increasing income therefrom, and in providing a forcible object lesson to show the advantages of careful and conservative forest management. Lumbering is one of the principal industries of th<?J^^"^^lug Southern Appalachians. The agricultural resources of the and their results. region must remain limited because of its ruggedness and the low percentage of arable land. Its development as a grazing country is hampered by the lack of winter forage and the temporary life of the grass covering in the lower slopes. Its main resource of the future will be its hardwood forests, upon whose maintenance depends very largely the best and most permanent development of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. The existing suppty of merchantable timber bas already been seriously reduced, while repeated fires and unregulated grazing have in many localities greatly impaired the quality and health of the forest, as well as the chance of its successful reproduction. Although there is still enough wood left to till the local demand, the cost of logging it is constantly growing with the increasing distance between the market and the source of supply. Around each settlement there is a rapidly widening area which has been stripped of all merchantable timber under methods which too often render 61
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).