1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



475 



The fires are started by the settlers 

 upon the area which is to serve as a 

 sheep or cattle range the following 

 season, and are permitted to burn un- 

 checked. The result is that, except 

 where confined by roads, streams, or 

 clearings, they often spread from the 

 woodlots of the foothills, in which they 

 are set, to the forests of the moun- 

 tains, there to burn unmolested until 

 rain, snow, or lack of inflammable ma- 

 terial puts them out. 



good results of its preservation from 

 fire would be two-fold. In addition to 

 the evident benefits of efficient fire pro- 

 tection upon the forest would be the 

 forcible example provided to prove 

 that the forest untouched by fire yields 

 in the long run better and more plen- 

 tiful pasturage than if it be annually 

 burned over. The modifications of 

 present methods of grazing in 

 the Southern Appalachians, like the 

 modification of present lumbering 



Destruction of Forests on Mountain Ridges for Pasturing Purposes 



The hardwood forests of the South- 

 ern Appalachians are by no means so 

 inflammable as the coniferous forests 

 of the north and west. Forest fires 

 in this region are seldom more than 

 ground fires, and only under the in- 

 fluence of exceedingly high winds in 

 a dry season become uncontrollable. 

 With an active and adequate force of 

 rangers and a thorough system of 

 trails, the protection of the proposed 

 reserve would be practicable. The 



methods, will follow proof of its ad- 

 vantages much more rapidly than it 

 would follow propaganda. The one 

 is no less important to the best devel- 

 opment of this region than the other. 

 The advantages of both could in iu> 

 way be better established than by tlu-ir 

 practical illustration in the proposed 

 reserve. 



The mountain forests of the South 

 i-rn Appalachians arc silviculturally 

 the most complex in the Ignited States. 



