90 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



owners will this privately owned land 

 be so managed as to reduce to a mini- 

 mum the danger which follows all 

 Itimbering operations in this region. 



As long as fourteen years ago the 

 seriousness of the damage which was 

 being done in the southern Appalachians 

 was realized and at that time a thorough 

 investigation was made of the forests, 

 rivers and mountains of that region, 

 by the United States Government. The 

 then Secretary of Agriciilture, James 

 Wilson, twice visited the section and 

 observed at first hand the destruction 

 of the forests and the consequent 

 enormous damage by floods. He ex- 

 amined many of the largest mountains, 

 himself, and climbed Mt. Mitchell, the 

 highest peak of the range. 



The late Overton W. Price, associate 

 forester of the United States Forest 

 Service under Gifford Pinchot, was 

 one of the men who made the 1901 

 investigation, and, at that time, he 

 said : ' ' The protection of the headwaters 

 of important streams in order to prevent 



floods and perpetuate water powers, the 

 preservation of a great natural health 

 resort and of important agricultural 

 resources are perhaps the most valuable 

 results which would follow the creation 

 and proper management of the Appa 

 lachian forests." 



Few men in the United States know 

 more about the topography and the 

 geology of the southern Appalachian 

 mountains than Arthur Keith, one of 

 the experts in the United States Geolog- 

 ical Survey, who has gone over almost 

 every square mile of the country in the 

 southern Appalachian region. In 

 speaking of the great value of the forests 

 in protecting the land, Mr. Keith has 

 said: 



"The chief agent which checks the 

 removal of the soil by rains in this 

 mountain country is the forest cover. 

 Even though the penetrating roots and 

 acids due to vegetation produce rock 

 decomposition, these same roots, how- 

 ever, hold the loose material in place and 

 hinder its tendencv to slide down hill. 



Bound for a Load of Logs, 

 empty cars of a logging train on their way to the mt. mitchell lumbering operations. 



