1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



469 



plantations of this sort. On the whole, 

 the prospect offers encouragement for 

 Minnesota tree planters. The ques- 

 tion of the supply of material with 

 which to plant is bound to solve itself. 

 It will perhaps be a number of years 



before farmers can buy the most de- 

 sirable kinds of forest trees and can 

 be sure that what they are buying is 

 true to name, but the time is certainly 

 coming when such conditions can be 

 guaranteed to Minnesota planters. 



LUMBERING IN THE SOUTHERN 



APPALACHIANS 



Now and Under Government Ownership and Supervision 



BY 

 OVERTON W. PRICE 



Associate Forester, U. S Forest Service 



"""THE protection of the headwaters 

 of important streams in order to 

 prevent floods and perpetuate water 

 powers, the preservation of a great 

 natural health resort and of important 

 agricultural resources, are perhaps the 

 most valuable results that would fol- 

 low the creation and management of 

 the proposed Southern Appalachian 

 Forest Reserve. The application of 

 practical forestry in this region by the 

 federal government would bear fruit 

 also in the maintenance of a sus- 

 tained supply of hard-wood timber, in 

 the production of a steady and increas- 

 ing income therefrom, and in provid- 

 ing a forcible object-lesson to show 

 the advantages of careful and conserv- 

 ative forest management. 



Lumbering is one of the principal 

 industries of the Southern Appala- 

 chians. The agricultural resources of 

 the region must remain limited be- 

 cause of its ruggedness and the low 

 percentage of arable land. Its devel- 

 opment as a grazing country is ham- 

 pered by the lack of winter forage 

 and the temporary life of the grass 

 covering in the lower slopes. Its main 

 resource of the future will be its hard- 

 wood forests, upon whose maintenance 

 depends very largely the best and most 

 permanent development of western 

 North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. 

 The existing supply of merchantable 



timber has already been seriously re- 

 duced, while repeated fires and unreg- 

 ulated grazing have in many localities 

 greatly impaired the quality and health 

 of the forest, as well as the chance of 

 its successful reproduction. Although 

 there is still enough wood left to fill 

 the local demand, the cost of logging 

 it is constantly growing with the in- 

 creasing distance between the market 

 and the source of supply. Around 

 each settlement there is a rapidly wid- 

 ening area which has been stripped of 

 all merchantable timber under methods 

 which too often render it practically 

 valueless for the production of a sec- 

 ond crop. In many localities serious 

 harm has already been done, which 

 only time and care can remove. A con- 

 tinuance of such methods will within 

 the near future destroy this great nat- 

 ural resource of the Southern Appa- 

 lachians the lumbering of its valuable 

 hardwoods to supply a steady and 

 growing demand. 



The application of practical forestry 

 to the proposed reserve would not only 

 preserve the productive capacity of the 

 forest within its boundaries, but it 

 would also provide a proof of the re- 

 sults of conservative forest manage- 

 ment which would be of value in in- 

 ducing private owners of forest land 

 in this region to adopt the same meas- 

 ures. There is no surer or quicker 



