134 FOBEST LANDS FOE THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS. 



The main centers for such mountainous and nonagricultural lands in the Southern 

 Appalachians are, first, the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains of North 

 Carolina and Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia; second, the Allegheny Moun- 

 tains of eastern and southern West Virginia and western Virginia, and, third, the 

 Cumberland Mountains of eastern Kentucky, Tennessee, and northern Alabama. 

 These lands include the main mountain ranges, and the roughest, wildest land of the 

 region. Naturally, they embrace a smaller proportion of agricultural lands than 

 other, parts of the region, and those which they do embrace have for the most part 

 been eliminated, as will be seen from the irregular boundaries on the map. Regard- 

 less of these eliminations they still include some small bodies of agricultural lands. 



These areas, though they contain only 40 per cent of the timbered land of the 

 Southern Appalachians, include almost all of the virgin timber lands, because the 

 virgin timber which remains is mostly situated on the high mountains. Even though 

 these lands do produce an inferior grade of timber, their sole use must be for timber 

 production. There is no other crop which will hold the gravelly, stony soil in place 

 and keep it from clogging the channels of streams and covering the agricultural 

 valleys which lie below. These nonagricultural and mountainous lands, approxi- 

 mating 23,000,000 acres, give rise to all the important streams which have their 

 source in the Southern Appalachians. They are therefore the vital portions of these 

 mountains. Whatever work is done to protect the Southern Appalachians must 

 center in these areas. The proportion to which these lands fall into different States 

 and watersheds is shown in the following tables: 



TABLE 4. Area, by States, of nonagricultural and mountainous lands in the Southern 

 Appalachians. 



TABLE 5. Area, by watersheds, of nonagricultural and mountainous lands in the 

 Southern Appalachians. 



While the lands shown on the map are all in need of protection, they are not all 

 of equal inportance when all economic points of view are considered. 



The lands to be classed as of first importance include the mountain ridges mainly, 

 but extend considerable distances down the slopes in those localities where the soil 

 is particularly subject to erosion and on the watersheds of streams of greatest impor- 

 tance for water power or navigation. The area of such lands does not exceed 

 5,000,000 acres. 



The same class of land for the White Mountain region is shown in Map II. It 

 lies in both New Hampshire and Maine. Excluding the numerous bodies of water, 

 their area in New Hampshire is 1,457,000 acres, and in Maine 700,000 acres, mak- 



