Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (21) View all

Secretary of Agriculture report on watersheds

items 27 of 41 items
  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-14407.jpg
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  • APPALACHIAN AND WHITE MOUNTAIN WATERSHEDS. 27 AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES. The entire region is essentially a forest country. That the land is, for the most part, better suited to forest production than to agricultural use is evidenced by the once cultivated lands which have now come up to forests of second-growth spruce and pine. Where repeated fires have not kept back the young growth these give good Eromise for the future. Thousands of acres of once cleared land have een abandoned throughout the White Mountains, and a smaller area of land is now farmed than fifty years ago. Only along the intervales and valley bottoms is good farming land found. The farm land in the Saco drainage basin, which contains the largest area of cultivated land in the White Mountain region proper, lies chiefly in the eastern and southern portions. The soil is sandy and ?oor, and except right along the streams the farming is not good, he principal crops are clover and timothy hay, oats, rye, wheat, corn and potatoes, peas and beans. There are a few orchards, usually overgrown and neglected. North of the White Mountains proper practically no land has been cleared for agricultural purposes, and in the greater part of this country there are no settlements of any kind save the logging camps and an occasional hunter's cabin or summer hotel or camp. FOREST. Originally the entire northern region, including the White Mountains proper, was covered with a dense forest of conifers. It was primarily a spruce country, and the spruce here attained fine dimensions. White pine, too, covered large areas and was mixed with spruce over much of the region. Balsam occurred in mixture on the upper slopes and the lower, moister localities. There was originally very little fine hardwood forest except south of the main ranges of the White Mountains. In the White Mountains proper, red spruce and balsam are the prevailing species, and reach the highest elevations on the mountains. North of the White Mountains these trees with white cedar, and around the Connecticut Lakes with white spruce, are the chief conifers. Lumbering has brought about a great change in the species. Hemlock and white pine, once common at low elevations and along the valleys, are now of but little importance in the forest. Yellow birch, sugar maple, and beech are the commonest of the hardwoods and have greatly increased in numbers on the cut-over land. But little of the original forest is now left. Where there was formerly a heavy stand of spruce and balsam there is now a hardwood forest with a little spruce in mixture. Where fires have occurred there is a tangle of wild red cherry, yellow birch, and aspen. Hardwoods occur on the lower slopes and deeper, better soils. Here yellow birch, sugar maple, and beech are now the characteristic trees, with considerable spruce in mixture. The spruce forms a better timber tree on these slopes than in any other situations. These hardwood slopes rarely extend above an altitude of 2,400 feet. The forest is, as a rule, dense and clean, with a heavy shade. The ground cover consists chiefly of witch hobble, mountain maple, and moun-
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).