THE FORESTER. July, 



forest reserve. In favor of selecting for their associates ; but higher still one passes 

 this purpose an area in western North through groves of Balsams and Fir trees. At 

 Carolina and the adjacent States, it may the tops of the higher mountains even these 

 be said that here we find the highest and last have generally disappeared, giving 

 most massive of the Appalachian Moun- place to grass and the rose-colored Rhodo- 

 tains, nearly half a hundred peaks rising dendron. Interspersed among these trees 

 more than six thousand feet in height; in the coves, on the crags, and up the 

 the finest remnants of the original hard- mountain slopes, one finds the Rhododen- 

 wood forests, still unaltered by man; and dron, the Kalmias, and hundreds of other 

 the deepest gorges, resulting in the beautiful shrubs and a rich variety of deli- 

 most varied and beautiful scenery. The cate flowering plants. 



region is accessible through the winter as This rich inheritance is being rapidly 



well as in the summer seasons, and can be destroyed. Let us, at least, set aside a 



reached within a twenty-four hours' ride limited portion of it for the pleasure and 



by more than one-half of the total popula- instruction of generations that are to come 



tion of the United States. It is unsur- after us. As illustrating the importance 



passed in healthfulness by any other in the of prompt action in the establishment of 



country; in it we have the headwaters of this Appalachian forest reserve it may be 



streams which have to do with manufac- said that never before has the activity of 



turing enterprises and with navigation in the lumbermen and timber speculators been 



the two Virginias, the two Carolinas, so great in that region as at present. The 



Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky great forests of the North and East have 



and Ohio. been cut away to such an extent that the 



Only those who have studied this south- attention of lumbermen in all this portion 



ern Appalachian region have any intelli- of the country is now being turned toward 



gent conception of the richness and variety the great hardwood forest of this southern 



of its forest and floral growth. Botanists region. A few decades hence hardly a 



are agreed that it is unequaled elsewhere in remnant of this forest will be left that will 



America. Here the forests of New Eng- not then have been visited and altered by 



land meet those of the extreme southern the lumbermen. 



states; so that, ascending from the tops of In considering the question of a National 

 the gorges to the tops of the higher moun- Park among the southern Appalachians, it 

 tains one sees much the same variety of should be borne in mind that the parks 

 plants as he would in traveling from Ala- now under control of the government (the 

 bama to Canada. In the cool moist coves Yosemite and Yellowstone) are inacces- 

 <>t this mountain region the hardwood for- sible to the vast majority of the people of 

 est trees reach their maximum develop- this country during all seasons of the year, 

 ment. Oaks from five to seven feet in on account of their distance from the cen- 

 diameter, Chestnuts still larger, and Tulip ters of population and the expense of 

 Poplars from six to ten feet in diameter reaching them, and that they are accessible 

 are associated with Beeches, Birches, Lin- to the traveling few during only the sum- 

 Maples, and numerous other species mer season. The proposed Appalachian 

 vim h have foundconditions most favorable Park will be within a few hundred miles 

 to their growth. Here they have lived to- of all that portion of the United States 

 for centuries without man's inter- east of the Mississippi River, and it will be 

 In the gorges of deeper valleys open to visitors throughout the entire year, 

 the trees and shrubs which are The vital question is : How can such a 

 >imnon over I lu- Piedmont plains, which park or forest reserve, as is desired in the 

 south and west. Ascend- southern Appalachian region, be secured. 

 mountains along the lower slopes If the land belonged to the Government, 

 through the splendid growth of the problem would be one of easy solution, 

 Poplars ; above these but the lands which are available for such 

 , Hemlocks and a purpose are owned by private individ- 



