Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (21) View all

Secretary of Agriculture report on watersheds

items 23 of 41 items
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  • APPALACHIAN AND WHITE MOUNTAIN WATERSHEDS. 23 FOREST. The Southern Appalachian forests fall naturally into three types— cove, slope, and ridge—each with peculiar characteristics. The soil in the coves is usually deep, moist, and fertile. The naturally good conditions are supplemented where unaffected by fire by a deep, partially decomposed layer of humus, which increases the moisture- holding capacity and prevents erosion. Yellow poplar, maple, and hemlock are strictly limited to the coves. Black walnut and black cherry once occupied the cove land also. It is in the coves that the Southern Appalachian forest attains the greatest variety and luxuriance. It is here that growth is most rapid and the best quality of timber is produced. The situation is also best for lumbering, hence it was that the first cuttings of the Appalachian forests were in this type. The slopes have a better-drained soil than the coves, but one which is less fertile. The maple, hemlock, and poplar of the coves give way on the lower slopes to oak, chestnut, and hickory, where these species have their most perfect development. White oak extends all the way from the coves to the summits of the ridges, but on the slopes it does best. The ridges have a dry, stony soil and an exposed situation which distinctly affects the kind and quality of their timber. The more valuable trees of this type are chestnut, chestnut oak, black and red oaks, and sometimes white oak and white pine. The severe conditions result in scrubbier timber than is found on the slopes and unfit the ridge lands to be handled profitably for the production of saw timber. The lumbering of the ridges for the production of telephone poles, railroad ties, tanbark, and extract wood is profitable, but on account of the slow growth of the timber on the ridges the lumberman generally does not consider it profitable to cut conservatively and protect the young growth for a second crop. DAMAGE THROUGH CLEARING. Originally the forest covered almost the entire Southern Appalachian region. Due to clearing for agriculture, the forest is now confined to the mountains and to the valley lands which are stony, cut into steep hills, or wanting in fertile soil. All the best valleys are cleared. The fields in many places extend far up the mountain sides, frequently even to the summits. In clearing land, only the undergrowth and small trees as a rule are removed. The large trees are killed by girdling and left standing. One frequently sees fields worn out and abandoned before the girdled trees have fallen. New ground is usually cleared beside the abandoned field and the same destructive process repeated. In places may be seen three successive clearings—new, still cultivated, and abandoned—with the dead trees still standing on all of them. Clearing virgin forests for farms is going on steadily from year to year to replace worn-out, eroded, and abandoned lands. Always the movement is toward the higher lands, those lower down having finished their course. Many small tracts, reaching thousands of acres in the aggregate, unsuited for either tillage or grazing, have been cleared, especially
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).