INFLUENCES OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS 405 



for their energies except the manufacture of moonshine Hquor and 

 the maintenance of community feuds. 



Next is the matter of local improvements. It would seem that 

 we should first consider road building, but until now we have done so 

 little road building, because of the lack of funds, that the good results 

 which might be expected if roads could be built have not been realized. 

 When the Government began purchases in the Southern Appalachians 

 I know of only two well-located and well-constructed mountain roads. 

 One was the well-known Yonalossee road between Linville and Blow- 

 ing Rock, N. C, the other was the Vanderbilt private road up Mt. 

 Pisgah. Few roads have been built by the Forest Service, but consid- 

 erable aid and encouragement has been given to road building and 

 much road repair work has been done. I believe it fair to say that the 

 situation with respect to roads is better on the Forests now than it 

 would have been had these lands remained in private hands. 



When we consider trails and telephones we note a complete change. 

 Whereas the mountains were practically inaccessible before, they are 

 now penetrated by hundreds of miles of well-graded trails which can 

 safely be negotiated by any one at all used to mountain travel. Tele- 

 phone construction has been pushed to such an extent that phones 

 are almost as common in and around the new forests as they are in the 

 better-developed sections of the country. With the direction one may 

 get from local people, especially from local forest officers, with tele- 

 phones available for keeping in touch with the outside world, with 

 the trails fairly well equipped with sign-boards, one may travel on 

 foot or horseback to many sections of inspiring mountain scenery 

 which were entirely inaccessible before. 



Another thing w^hich the Forest Service has fostered and aided 

 wherever possible, although we could not put funds into it, is the 

 improvement of school houses. All of these improvements fit in with 

 the reorganized communities of which I have already tried to give 

 a picture. They play an important part in community development 

 and well-being just as they do in the protection and use of the Gov- 

 ernment lands. 



Before leaving this subject of the local influences of the Forest I 

 should not fail to note the fact that in acquiring these lands at first 

 there is a loss to the counties in taxes. This, however, is overcome 

 as soon as business sets up on the Forests in a moderate degree, be- 

 cause the local counties participate in the returns from these lands in 

 the same proportion as counties elsewhere participate in the returns 

 from the National Forests. 



