408 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



September 



led our ablest business men and scien- 

 tists to ask for its preservation by the 

 Government for the advancement of 

 science and for the instruction and 

 pleasure of the people of our own and 

 of future generations. And it is the 

 concentration here of so many valuable 



The conclusions of the Secretary of 

 Agriculture are summarized as fol- 

 lows in his report : 



"i. The Southern Appalachian re- 

 gion embraces the highest peaks and 

 largest mountain masses east of the 

 Rockies. It is the great physiographic 





Flood Damages to Railway on Nolichucky River, East Tennessee, May, 1901. 



species with such favorable conditions 

 of growth which has led forest experts 

 and lumbermen alike to assert that of 

 all the continent this region is best 

 suited to the purposes and plans of a 

 national forest reserve in the hard- 

 wood region. 



feature of the eastern half of the con- 

 tinent, and no such lofty mountains 

 are covered with hard-wood forests in 

 all North America. 



"2. Upon these mountains descends 

 the heaviest rainfall of the United 

 States, except that of the North Pacific 



