HIWA8SEE RIVER BASIN. 241 



Agriculture. Corn is the principal grain crop. Grass does well on low 

 alluvial lands and in mountain coves, but burns out on the foothills. There are 

 some line farms on Valley River, Peachtree, Tusquitee, Shooting-, Tiger, and 

 Hightower creeks, but large areas of hill land are worn out and abandoned to 

 broom grass. 



Erosion. This basin, or part of it, seems unusually liable to floods, as is 

 shown by the cutting of banks and the washing of fields. About the head of 

 Peachtree Creek, in 1900, several "waterspouts'" are said to have occurred at 

 one time, and the waters from these, combining, formed a torrent that swept 

 across fields and roads, doing great damage. Ev'idences of similar floods and of 

 great erosion on old fields are to be found in almost every mile of travel. 



The uselessness of clearing the ridge lands has been discovered by the 

 farmers, and no advances of cleared land have recently been made toward the 

 mountains, but many old fields lie wasted and wearing away, scantily patched 

 with broom grass, persimmon, and sassafras. 



The /(/rest. The mountains and spurs are principally forest covered, although 

 here and there clearings have been made in coves and along the tributary creeks. 

 The larger creek valleys and the river valley are principally cleared. The basin 

 contains 286,856 M feet B. M. and 2,557,536 cords of small wood. 



In this region is found a suggestion of the difference between the forest of 



the highlands northwest of the Blue Ridge and that of the southern slope of the 



Blue Ridge. In passing from the highlands the region of most vigorous tree 



growth is left and the pine regions are approached. Oaks and hickories are 



more numerous, but are shorter and smaller. Hemlock and white pine are less 



abundant, the birches and hard maples become rare, and the southern red maple, 



pitch pine, and shortleaf pine more abundant. The proportions of timber species 



are as follows: 



Proportiowt of timber species in Hiwassee River basin. 



Per cent. 

 Oaks 55 



Linn 1 



Maple 1 



Shortleaf pine 1 



Chestnut 18 



Black pine 1 



Black gum 2 



Hickory 5 



Other species 14 



White pine 1 



Beech 1 



10336 No. 3705 16 



