498 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



November 



P'1 



forests had paid for their national ad- 

 ministration by the state, they paid into 

 the general treasury of Prussia, as a 

 part of the annual revenue, 56,000,000 

 marks. 



But the results of the control of the 

 American forests is sought, not for a 

 poor matter of revenue, but as a mat- 

 ter of policy extending forward, if you 

 please, for a hundred years. 



The necessity in the case of the 

 White Mountain Reservation is even 

 stronger. The present processes of 

 lumbering strip every inch of the coun- 

 try of every shrub and tree which is 

 larger than a blackberry bush. This 

 means that in the snows of winter and 

 the consequent freshets of spring the 

 soil itself is carried away. The harvest 

 from that soil in the year 2,060, if you 

 carry them on in such recklessness as 

 now reigns, will be a harvest of black- 

 berries instead of a harvest of white 

 pine. You cannot sit back in your 

 chair and say that the twenty-first cen- 



tury may take care of itself. On the 

 other hand, you are making sure that 

 the twentieth century shall not take 

 care of itself. You are making it im- 

 possible to reproduce the magnificent 

 pine forests which once covered the 

 Presidential Range. 



The proposal which will be definite- 

 ly brought before the new Congress is 

 a provision for the gradual purchase 

 of the Appalachian Reserve at the 

 South and of the New Hampshire Re- 

 serve around the White Mountains. 

 The New Hampshire Reserve as sur- 

 veyed by an intelligent commission un- 

 der the direction of the United States 

 Forest Service, might amount in the 

 whole to fifty square miles. No possi- 

 ble expenditure could be of greater 

 benefit, not simply to the states of New 

 England, but to the nation. And every- 

 one must see that such preservation 

 and cultivation as is proposed is much 

 safer in the hands of the national au- 

 thorities than it would be under any 

 local charge. 





WATER POWERS OF THE SOUTHERN 

 APPALACHIAN REGION* 



BY 

 H. A. PRESSEY 



Hydrographer, U. S. Geological Survey 



HP HE Southern Appalachian Moun- 

 * tains, located in the States of Vir- 

 ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, 

 Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama, 

 stand out from and above the sur- 

 rounding country as an elevated phy- 

 siographic unit. They rise above the 

 Piedmont Plateau, which borders them 

 on the east and south, and above the 

 valley of East Tennessee, which lies 

 on their western flanks, to a height of 

 from 2,000 to nearly 6,000 feet above 

 sea level. 



This is pre-eminently a region of 

 mountains. The slopes are mostly 

 covered with deep soil, which is kept 

 in an open, porous condition by the 

 humus that enters into its composition 

 and is spread over the surface, and 

 which is held in place by the myriads 

 of roots of trees and shrubs and grass- 

 es growing upon it. In this region 

 the raindrops are battered to pieces 

 by the twigs and leaves and the water 

 is caught by the grasses, shrubs, and 

 ferns below and soaks through the 



*NoTE.-VThis article is based on data collected during the field seasons of 1900 and 

 ]!t(il, and included in a report to Congress on Forest Conditions in the Southern Appa- 

 lachian Mountains. 



