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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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  • 186 SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. Mountains, on the border between Tennessee and North Carolina— that are thoroughly suited to the purposes of a great game and forest preserve. Going up from the lowlands of Walhalla, S. C, to the high plateau surrounding Highlands, N. C, a stage trip of about 30 miles, the late Professor Gray, the eminent botanist of Harvard, tells us that he encountered a greater number of species of indigenous trees than could be observed in a trip from Turkey to England through Europe, or from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountain plateau. The region surrounding that described by Professor Gray, especially to the west, with the headwaters of the Tennessee, the French Broad, and the Savannah rivers, all within a few miles of each other, with fertile valleys and mountain elevations of 5,000 feet or more, and a density of verdure unapproached elsewhere, is an ideal spot for a preserve, where every sort of North American animal or fish would thrive, and where almost every tree or plant found within our borders, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, would grow uncared for. [The New York Sun.] A national forest reserve in the Appalachian belt can be established only by the purchase of land, for there is no public domain in that region. The bill now before Congress directs the Secretary of Agriculture to purchase not more than 2,000,000 acres of forest in the Southern Appalachians and appropriates $5,000,000 for that purpose. The lands must be situated within the States of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. The purpose of establishing the proposed reserve is to introduce scientific forestry methods, conserve the forests, and at the same time permit lumbering in this large area of hard woods. No one now doubts that it was wise policy to set apart the forest reserves which have been established since 1896 in eleven of our Western States and Territories. The idea was at first strongly opposed on the ground that the withdrawal of so much public land from purchase would retard the development of the States concerned and delay the discovery of new sources of mineral wealth. These misgivings, however, were not justified by our policy with regard to the reserves. The Geological Survey has been engaged since the summer of 1897 in studying the timber, mineral, and agricultural resources of these regions. All of them may be developed as fast as capital and labor seek employment there. In some of the reserves, as in the Black Hills, for example, large industries have long been established. But these large areas can no longer be stripped of all their timber without a thought of tree replanting. The propagation of timber must hereafter go hand in hand with its utilization; and destruction by forest tires that have swept large areas will at least be diminished by proper regulations.
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