1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



107 



all undergrowth. When 

 the rains fall on such land 

 there is nothing to retard 

 the current of the water. 

 With great force it strikes 

 the river. The velocity of 

 the Catawba is increased 

 b}' the mad violence of the 

 water, and the current de- 

 velops a wonderful and 

 dangerous power. Every 

 man who lives by the river 

 says without hesitation 

 that the cutting away of 

 the timber is entirely re- 

 sponsible for the serious 

 floods. ' ' 



There have been two 

 notable floods in the Ca- 

 tawba River in the past. 

 The first was in 1S4S, and 

 the second 

 In neither 



was n\ 1876. 

 instance was 



EIGHT FEET OF 

 CLAY. 



there any damage to farm 

 lands. The water rose 

 slowly and receded gently, 

 leaving the river bottoms 

 richer by a deposit of 

 fertile sediment. There is no govern- 

 ment record of the rainfall during those 

 periods, but Catawba River land-ow^ners 

 say that there was as much water in the 

 bottoms during the freshet of 1876 as 

 there was last May. 



The official reports of the Weather 

 Bureau are interesting as bearing out 

 the theory that the destructiveness of 

 the floods of recent years is due to for- 

 est denudation. The heaviest rainfall 

 of last May was 8.86 inches, at Marion, 

 on the 19th and 21st. At Morganton 

 it was 4.50 inches and at Charlotte 3.60 

 inches. On September 22 and 23, 1898, 

 the rainfall at Marion was 7. 1 1 inches, 

 at Morganton 4.77, and at Lenoir 6 

 inches. On October 21 and 22, 1900, 

 the rainfall at Marion w^as 7.97 inches, 

 and at Linville 9.50 in one day (October 

 21). The rainfall at Morganton was 

 5 inches on October 11, 1897; 8.67 

 inches on July 3-8, 1896; 5 inches on 

 October 13, 1893; 6.60 inches on Sep- 

 tember 9-13, 1893, and 5.80 inches on 

 September 22, 1892. Morganton is 

 about central of the Catawba head- 



SOIL GONE. A "cow ROOT" IN THE HARD 

 THE TOP WAS FORMERLY AT THE 

 SURFACE OF THE LAND. 



waters, and the rainfall there is about 

 an average of the moimtain sections. 



Bearing out the theory of forest pro- 

 tection for the prevention of floods is 

 the experience of Dr. P. L. Murphy, 

 superintendent of the state hospital at 

 Morganton, and it is a practical illus- 

 tration of how the proper care of forest 

 growth affects the flow of water in a 

 -Stream. The state hospital obtains its 

 water supply from a stream in the South 

 Mountains, known as Black Fox Creek, 

 and owns 400 acres of land, including 

 its head springs and watershed. For 

 twenty 3^ears past no timber has been 

 cut on this reservation, there have been 

 no forest fires, and the ground is thickly 

 covered with leaves, mold, and under- 

 growth. Near by is another stream of 

 the same size, but the hills that shelter 

 its head springs have been denuded of 

 timber, and the leaves liave been fre- 

 quently burned. Dr. Murphy had the 

 volume of water in each stream accu- 

 rately measured last year, in Maj- and 

 again in August. Between those pe- 

 riods the Black Fox Creek had lost onlv 



