

Lesson From Islorth Carolina 



No well-informed person now denies that it hurts a region to strip 

 it of timber, bare the soil, and turn the elements loose to work their 

 will upon. It was not many years ago that persons could be found 

 who maintained that forests had little or no influence in regulating 

 streams. Some of the arguments against that untenable doctrine died 

 hard; but facts Tvere against them, and they finally faUed to get fur- 

 ther hearing from the public. Since then there has been general 

 recognition of the fact that the forest cover and the vegetable blanket 

 of a region cannot be destroyed without suifering serious consequences. 



One of the best examples of vegetable cover's effect on the soil's 

 value is found in the Piedmont region of North Cai-olina. The people 

 there are spending 

 millions of dollars 

 to restore the fer- 

 tility of the farm 

 lands vphich have 

 been well nigh 

 ruined by soil ■wash- 

 ing. In early times 

 the bottom lands 

 along the creeks 

 and rivers were ex- 

 tremely valuable for 

 agricultural crops, 

 principally for corn 

 and hay. The up- 

 lands were cleared 

 and were devoted to 

 growing cotton, to- 

 bacco, and other 

 crops suited to that 

 kind of soil. That 

 was one of the rich- 

 est agricultural re- 

 gions of the United 

 States. 



Year by year the 

 rains beat upon the 

 bared fields and 

 slopes, where no 

 measures were taken 

 to check erosion. 

 The North Carolina 

 Geological Survey 



The Black Walnut log man, and the Birdeyc Walnut and fancy liijur^d veneer man, 

 now meet and exchange happy congratulations npon the fact that iralnut, «.« a superior 

 cabinet and finishing wood, in again returning to itn own. They listen with pleasure to 

 the favorable comments everyuliere expressed, proclaiming icalmii, as of old, the peer of 

 all icoods, the king of broivn woods, yes, the wood of the hour. .So plentiful, too, that 

 manufacturers are assured an ample supply for all their needs for many years to come, 

 50,000,000 feet or more, according to demand, being a conscrrnlire esiinmte of the yearly 



output of the country. 



The staje geologist, J. H. i'ratt, and the state forester, J. S. Holmes, 

 are leading the movement for reclamation. The valleys are being 

 drained, channels for the rivers and creeks are being excavated, and 

 the pestiferous, mosquito-infested swamps are disappearing, and the 

 dried land is again fit for cultivation. It is wonderfully fertile. The 

 accumulations of sediment in washings from the uplands have formed 

 a deeii soil on the floors of the valleys which were so long overflowed 

 on account of the choking of the drainage channels. It costs the 

 owners from fifteen to forty dollars an acre to have the land reclaimed; 

 but either that had to be done or the land totally abandoned. 



The uplands have been hurt by too much drainage, and the problem 



is to lessen it, and 

 stop the excessive 

 washing. It is 

 planned that slopes 

 and old fields which 

 are excessively gul- 

 lied and eroded be 

 turned into forest, 

 and allowed to grow 

 timber perpetually. 

 Shortleaf pine and 

 black locust are'rec- 

 onimended for that 

 piupose. Such land 

 will grow valuable 

 crops of timber, 

 Vjut should never 

 again be cleared for 

 fields. Other slopes 

 which are not so 

 steep or so badly 

 washed are recom- 

 mended for perma- 

 nent pastures or 

 meadows. Erosion 

 is not apt to attack 

 asodded slope. Other 

 areas on rolling 

 ground and moder- 

 ate slopes are to be 

 set apart for farm 

 crops, but plowing 

 should be deep in 



has estimated, in a sample area of oue hundred thousand acres, 

 that the washings of the soil — and the most fertile part of the 

 soil — amounts to eight hundred pounds per year. That much is lost 

 for all time from the upland fields, and it has constituted a drain 

 which no land could long endure without becoming impoverished. The 

 inevitable result arrived, and was seen in the gullied and abandoned 

 fields where formerly the finest crops grew. 



That is only half of the result. The rich bottom lands were too flat 

 for erosion, but they met with disaster also. The thousands of tons 

 of soil which annually washed down from the uplands reached the 

 creeks and rivers flowing through the valleys. The currents were not 

 strong enough to carry the sediment out to sea, and it lodged in the 

 channels, fiJled them year by year, and turned the water from the 

 former channels out upon the farms. Corn fields became swamps, and 

 meadows were converted into ponds. Reeds, rushes, and worthless 

 thickets, etc., encroached upon the diminii-hing farm areas until farm 

 after farm, and finally most parts of the valleys, were abandoned. 

 The farmers individually could do nothing. The problem was too 

 large. The situation developed gi-adually. The full extent of the 

 disaster did not strike aO at once, or in all places at once. It was an 

 encroachment which acted so slowly that public attention was not 

 fixed upon it until the ruin was widespread. 



The people of that part of North Carolina liave at last taken action. 



order that the rain may soak into the soil instead of rushing off 

 in such volume as to form gullies, and the soil should be enriched 

 and bound together by occasional crops of clover or other legumes. 

 These measures which are being recommended and in part carried 

 out will redeem most of the land which has been injured, and will 

 safeguard it against similar injury in the future. 



The war of the substitutes is a battle which is waging in fierceness 

 almost equaling that which characterizes the more bloody encounters 

 abroad. It is a battle which has every likelihood of being waged 

 on this basis indefinitely, and the opposing forces must each have 

 their advances and their losses. It is entirely likely that lumber 

 will lose a number of markets in part at least, which heretofore it 

 has considered as its own by right of custom. However, this belief is 

 rapidly being dissipated by the actual substitution of competitive 

 materials, and from a strategic point of view there is but one logical 

 I ourso to take. All lumber products are hopelessly and admittedly 

 faced by competition of substitutes, which either rightfully or wrong- 

 fully have gained popular demand. It is useless to continue the battle 

 when the money might much better be spent in finding other uses for 

 lumber which heretofore have not been taken full advantage of. 



While your thoughts are naturally directed to distant fields of 

 conquest, don't overlook the opportunities at home. 



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