AbAndoned Pasture on Tributaries of Cane Creek. Several Small and Several Very Deep Gullies Are on This Land 



Mitchell County, North Carolina 



were such as wojM exist on the stee]) 

 :'l()l)e. Re])resentative Weeks of Massa- 

 elmsetts. wlio had taken charije of the 

 hearini;- (hn'ing the nv rning when Mr. 

 Currier liad to attend a hearin_Q; of his 

 own eommittee, su^g'ested that so far 

 as the nature of the land was con- 

 cerned, its selection depended upon the 

 judgment of the Geological Survey. A 

 general diseussiiin arose at this point, 

 participated in by Messrs. Scott. Lamb. 

 Currier, Plumley, and Roth, in regard 

 to erosion, slopes, and farming. When 

 Professor Roth was again allowed to 

 proceed he urged that it is worth some- 

 thing to know that the people of Eu- 

 rope, who have fought this question all 

 over, believe in the influence of the 

 forests u])()n stream-How. and without 

 exceptitjn have laws regarding the 

 maintenance of protective forests. He 

 also called attention to the fact that 

 Congress, in iSijj. was largely infln- 



cnced 1)\- the fact that the western for- 

 ests were generall\- believed to have a 

 beneficial infiuence up!)n the How of 

 water of the western states, making 

 them im])ortant in the irrigation work, 

 lie then ])ointed out tlie fact that u]ion 

 the main issues there was general 

 agreement among scientists, engineers, 

 and others, as well as among the people 

 of our country ; that it was generally 

 believed that forests were especially im- 

 portant in holding the soil on the slopes 

 of the mountains, keeping it in a re- 

 tentive condition and retarding the rain- 

 fall by preventing gullying, the gullies 

 being in the nature of under-drains or 

 ditches in wliich the water rapidly col- 

 lects and rushes awa\-. He called at- 

 tention to the fact that the forests a: 

 the present time apjieared to be the 

 only feasible and economic means of 

 regulating the fiow of our navigable 

 rivers: for artificial reservoirs, the only 



141 



