THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN FORESTS. 



Bj^ H. B. Ayres and W. W. Ashe. 



I]STRODUCTIOX. 



In examining so large an area it was found that the best results could be 

 obtained by traversing the roads and trails and making side trips wherever 

 necessary to cover intermediate territory. 



Upon the topographic maps of the Geological Survey were drawn the outlines 

 of cleared land and the several classes of forest land as they were passed. At 

 the same time ocular estimates of the average stand and the proportion of the 

 species composing it were made, checked occasionally by actual measurements on 

 small representative areas. After the outlines of the several classes of land were 

 drawn the areas were computed from the map, and the yield obtained by 

 multiplying the number of acres of each class b}^ the average stand. The yield 

 is stated in feet B. M. of log timber, and cords of small wood (which includes all 

 wood not classed as log timber). 



The estimates of log timber were based upon the closest cutting in practice 

 in the United States, and include a great deal of material that is not now salable 

 on the stump, because of the difficult}' of transportation. In fact, a very small 

 proportion of the amount estimated (probably not over 10 per cent) is merchantable 

 under present conditions, though all would be merchantable if cheap transportation 

 should make it accessible. 



LOCATION. 



The portion of the Appalachian region under consideration extends from 

 Virginia south westward, and comprises parts of North and South Carolina, Ten- 

 nessee, and Georgia, between the Piedmont Plateau on the southeast and the 

 Appalachian Valle^^ on the northwest. In consists of two parallel mountain chains, 

 the Unaka on the northwest and the Blue Ridge on the southeast, and the inter- 

 mediate mountains and valleys, some parallel and others at right angles to the 



Blue Ridge. 



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