20 THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN FORESTS. 



Blue Ridge, north of Gillespie Gap, there are large areas of cleared land at an 

 elevation of from 3,500 to 5,000 feet, but these are largely grass farms, and are 

 not subject to continuous tillage like the corn lands below, and hence do not 

 deteriorate so rapidl3^ Some of the cultivated fields slope at an angle of 30 to 40, 

 and some of them are even too steep for the mountain steer and bull-tongue plow. 



By far the greater part of the timber that has been cut has been burned 

 during the process of clearing land; another large portion has been used for 

 fencing and buildings, while only a small proportion has reached the general 

 market. 



Estimates of these amounts can be only approximations based on the average 

 original stand on the land now adjoining cleared and culled land and on the reports 

 of old settlers. On this insecure basis the opinion is ventured that no less than 

 10 billion feet of log timber such as is now valuable in the lumber market have 

 been burned, while about 5 billion feet have been used for fences and buildings, 

 and only about 3 billion feet have reached the market. Besides this consumption 

 of log timber about 1,272,000 corde of small wood are annually consumed for fuel. 



In clearing the land for cultivation the standing trees are girdled and killed 

 so that neither their shade nor their growing roots will injure the crops. Some 

 of the trees thus killed are used for fencing and fuel, but the greater number of 

 them fall in a few years and are burned. Corn or buckwheat is usually grown on 

 these newly cleared fields during the first season. Following this, corn may be 

 planted one or two years more, then small grain, either wheat, rye, or oats, for one 

 or two years; then grass for a few years; finally worthless weeds take possession, 

 and then the land is abandoned. When first cleared most of this mountain land is 

 covered with a layer of humus several inches thick, and the soil below is black 

 and porous owing to the large percentage of vegetable matter. But on cultiva- 

 tion and exposure to the sun and washing rains this organic matter rapidly 

 disappears and the soil loses its fertility, as most of it is washed away, the 

 remainder shrinks and consolidates, thus losing much of its power to absorb 

 water rapidly. 



A few years of cultivation usually brings the fields on these mountain slopes 

 to the end of their usefulness for agricultural purposes. This may be followed 

 by a few years of pasturage, and then come abandonment and ruin. Over the 

 eroded foothills, along the eastern base of the Blue Ridge and the western base 

 of the Unakas, a growth of young pines may cover the mountain slope, but over 

 the more elevated portion of the Appalachian Mountain region erosion is so rapid 

 that the slow-growing hard-wood forests do not readily regain their footing. 



There are yet many places where the gentler slopes might perhaps be cleared 

 to meet the local agricultural demands of the region, but unquestionably the 



