1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



105 



THE MAY 



FLOOD (190L) IN THE SOUTHERN APPA- 

 LACHIAN REGION. 



L 



IN THE CATAWBA RIVER VALLEY, NORTH CAROLINA. 



By Wade H. Harris, 



Of the Charlotte (N. C.) Observer. 



THE disastrous freshets in the val- 

 ley of the Catawba River during 

 the past year have set the people to 

 thinking, and they will hail with delight 

 any practical scheme that may be ad- 

 vocated to lessen the danger from these 

 floods in the future. The matter has 

 been very thorotighly disctissed since the 

 heaviest flood of the series occurred, last 

 May, and the conclusion has been 

 reached that the destrtictiveness of the 

 flood is to be attributed not so much to 

 the amotmt of rainfall as to the destruc- 

 tion of the forests along the headwaters 

 of the Catawba and its tributaries. The 

 contention is made by people who have 

 lived along the Catawba River all their 

 lives, that while the recent rainfall has 

 not been unprecedented, the destruction 



wrought by the freshets last year is 

 without a parallel. 



The characteristics of the Catawba 

 River floods have luidergone a sudden 

 and alarming change. In previous years 

 all floods along this river rose slowly. 

 The water stagnated like a mill-pond 

 over the bottom lands and, gently re- 

 ceding, left a deep, rich deposit on the 

 alread}^ fertile bottoms. The floods 

 have changed, therefore, from an agency 

 of good to the farmers to one of abso- 

 lute destruction a quick, tumultuous 

 rise of waters and a swiftlj' rushing 

 current that tears up the soil down to 

 the rocks and hard clay and leaves bar- 

 ren wastes. This extraordinary' and 

 deplorable change in the characteristics 

 of the floods has followed the laying 



A FIvOODED FARM. 



ORCHARDS AND FIELDS UNDER WATER, 

 OUTBUILDINGS THREATENED. 



WITH RESIDENCE AND 



