INJURY TO THE FOREST. 19 



LUMBERING. 



In many places the mountain forests surviving the fires have been protected 

 by the difficulty of access. In recent years, however, the advancing price of 

 lumber has stimulated lumbering, and now some of the remoter mountain coves 

 are furnishing choice lumber for the principal markets of the Eastern States and 

 of Europe. 



Lumber is manufactured principally by small portable mills, most of which 

 use steam power. There are a few mills having a capacity of 50,000 feet a day 

 or more, as at Lenoir, Pinola, and Nantahala, N. C; Elizabethton, Johnson, 

 Crandall, and Sutherland, Tenn. 



Tanneries using chestnut, oak, and hemlock bark are located at Lenoir, 

 Morganton, Asheville, Marion, Hazelwood, Waynesville, Andrews, and Murphy, 

 N. C. ; Maryville, Sevierville, Newport, and Johnson, Tenn., and Damascus, Va. 



At present lumbering and bark peeling are culling processes. In most places 

 the continuity of the forest has not been broken, as only the most valuable of 

 the trees have been taken out and serious fires have not often followed. Fires 

 are much less prevalent and destructive in this region than in the coniferous 

 forests, and wherever thej' have b^en kept out the forest has quickly covered the 

 ground again after lumbering. 



The lumberman is increasing his activities at a rapid rate and is yearlj^ g'oing 

 farther into the forests. The removal of trees utilized by the lumberman does 

 not damage the forest as much as does the destruction of other trees and 

 seedlings of valuable species in lumbering operations. Furthermore, the tops 

 and other brush scattered through the forest increase the danger of severe 

 forest fires. By irregular cutting conservative forest management is rendered 

 impracticable. 



CLEARED LAND. 



Surpassmg both fire and lumbering in the completeness and permanency of 

 the damage done is the clearing for ordinar}^ agricultural purposes of mountain 

 lands which are not worth cultivating and should forever remain in forest. The 

 clearing of lands in this region for agricultural purposes has progressed slowly 

 but steadil}'^ during the past century, as the population increased. When it is 

 considered that the settlement of this region has been in progress for more than 

 a century, the area devoted to agriculture is small. The reason for this is found 

 in the unprofitableness of cultivating lands with such steep slopes. The cleared 

 lands are mostly alluvial bottoms along the streams, rounded valley hills, lower 

 mountain ridges, and lower slopes of the larger mountains below an elevation of 

 4,000 feet. 



In some localities, especially in the region around Roan Mountain and the 



