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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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  • 88 SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. The forest. lands below, which receive the material washed from them. (See PI. LXVI1.) The slight protection furnished by the frequently burned forests does not prevent the washing away of the humus from the woods, and being so light, it is carried far down the stream to still waters before it finds a lodging place. Substantially all the ridges and steeper slopes are forested more or less densely, while the creek bottoms are cleared. The cleared area on the Saluda comprises 6 per cent of that basin, while 20 per cent of the area of the Broad basins is cleared. In composition these forests are principally oaks and hickory, with a sprinkling of nearly all other species mentioned in the accompanying list (p. 93). In condition these forests are very inferior. There is very little log timber. Many of the trees are fire-scarred; many, though old, are small because tire and erosion of humus have retarded growth. Much of the area has a deficient stand, because fires have killed seedlings. To improve this forest it would be necessary to prevent fire and possibly to thin out defective trees and undesirable species. The species to be favored here are poplar, ash, walnut, shortleaf pine, post oak, and white oak, and, in the higher altitudes, white pine. CATAWBA RIVER BASIN. [321,440 acres; 82 per cent wooded.] Topography. This area, as here limited, includes the eastern or southern slope of the Blue Ridge, with its numerous spurs, from Blowing Rock southward to Edinondson Mountain, and is drained by the headwaters of the Catawba River, including Johnsand Linville rivers, and the north and south forks of the Catawba, directly through the Catawba River into the Atlantic. The elevated crest of the Blue Ridge, with few points on it at a lower elevation than 1,000 feet, and rising at Grandfather Mountain and Pinnacle to an elevation of more than 5,000 feet, forms the western and northern limits of the area; and from it extend steep, rugged spurs with a general north and south trend, gradually diminishing in altitude as they recede from the parent range, dividing the region into numerous parallel, narrow, often gorge-like, valleys. This type of valley reaches its culmination in the gorge of the Linville River, the wildest and most picturesque stream of the southern
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).