NEWS AND NOTKS. 



THE PROPOSED APPAI^ACHIAN RESERVE. 



The Lumber Trade Jour7ial of New Orleans in an editorial of 

 November 15th, has the following to say regarding the project of 

 the Appalachian Forest Reserve : 



" A systematic campaign is on foot to induce the federal con- 

 gress to provide a fund for the future national control of what is 

 proposed to be called the Appalachian Forest Reserve, embracing 

 portions of the Carolinas and Tennessee. In a report to the 

 president of the United States by the Hon. James Wilson, sec e- 

 tary of agriculture, covering a topographical description of the 

 region in question and its physical aspects, the following conclu- 

 sions are made : 



" The preservation of the forests, of the streams and of the agri- 

 cultural interests here described can be successfully accomplished 

 only by the purchase and creation of a national forest reserve. 

 The states of the Southern Appalachian region own little or no 

 land, and their revenues are inadequate to carr}^ out this plan. 

 Federal action is obviously necessary, is fully justified by reason 

 of public necessity, and may be expected to have most fortunate 

 results. 



' ' The ' public necessity ' relied upon to procure the desired 

 legislation has relation principally to the effect of such con- 

 templated preservation upon the streams as a means of prevent- 

 ing further devastation of the adjacent slopes and valleys under 

 cultivation hy floods otherwise sure to afflict that region. The 

 report under review estimates losses to farmers from floods along 

 the streams traversing the Appalachian quarter as having ap- 

 proximated $10,000,000 in a single year. From this alleged cir- 

 cumstance it is inferred that the devastation thus wrought has 

 accrued from the previous cutting off of timber from lands 

 drained by these streams. 



" Whether the exigency recited in the report is of a character 

 to warrant the public expenditnre recommended or not, the posi- 

 tive facts in the premises do not appear upon the face of the doc- 

 ument under review to be sufficient. 



"If, as recited, the damage from floods during the "present 

 year" has amounted to $10,000,000, how much of it is due to 



