34 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



January 



powers aggregating 10,000 horse pow- 

 er or more. There is no natural re- 

 source of the southern states that 

 needs more careful fostering and_ at- 

 tention than water powers. 



The region proposed to be set aside 

 as the Southern Appalachian Forest 

 Reserve is well watered, and from it 

 several of the largest rivers of the 

 country receive their supply. The 

 chief rivers in the states of Virginia. 

 North Carolina, South Carolina, Geor- 

 gia, Alabama, Tennessee, and West 

 Virginia rise in these mountains. One 

 of the principal tributaries of the Ohio 

 and one of the largest feeders of the 

 Mississippi head here also. So that 

 this region may justly be considered 

 one of the important watersheds of the 

 United States. The Yadkin, Catawba. 

 Broad, Saluda, and Chatooga flow into 

 the Atlantic; the Chattahoochee and 

 the Coosa flow into the gulf. New 

 River flows to the north and enters the 

 Kanawha, whose waters finally reach 

 the Mississippi through the Ohio; 

 while the Tennessee with its large trib- 

 utaries, the Holston, the Nolichcucky, 

 and the French Broad, flow to the west 

 through the state of Tennessee, finally 

 entering the Mississippi. The Cheoah, 

 the Nantahala, the Oconalufty, and the 

 Tuckasegee, all large streams, join 

 their waters to the Tennessee and flow 

 in a narrow and rocky gorge through 

 the Great Smoky Mountains, while 

 the Hiwassee unites with that river in 

 the state of Tennessee beyond the 

 mountains. 



At various points along their courses 

 all of the sti earns possess magnificent 

 water powers which present conditions 

 favorable to development, and which 

 at some future time will be made to 

 supply the varied and growing indus- 

 tries of the nearby region with the 

 power necessary for their continuance 

 and growth. 



The value of these water powers is 

 limited by their low water flow. De- 

 forestation means the destruction of 

 the only source of natural storage in 

 the region, and that the rainfall will 

 reach the stream almost as soon as it 



falls, so that in the dry season there 

 will be no reserve supply to aug- 

 ment the low-water flow, which is 

 drawn principally from the sub-sur- 

 face sources. 



The area embraced in the proposed 

 Southern Appalachian reserve belongs 

 to that portion of the eastern -United 

 States characterized by the greatest 

 annual rainfall, there being places 

 along the southeastern slopes of the 

 Blue Ridge which receive an annual 

 precipitatidh not exceeded elsewhere in 

 the United States; except along the 

 northwest Pacific coasts The average 

 rainfall for a period of more than ten 

 years at various places in the Southern 

 Appalachian Mountains-., in northern 

 Georgia and western North Carolina 

 and South Carolina has been nearly 73 

 inches, while at times the precipitation 

 for a single month has been between 

 20 and 30 inches, the greatest amount 

 falling in the" three summer months 

 and the least in autumn, the amounts 

 in winter and spring being about the 

 same. 



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 

 covering humus into the soil and rock 

 fissures underneath. 



The portion that is neither used by 

 the vegetation nor evaporated from 

 the surface emerges about the moun- 

 tain slopes weeks or months after its 

 fall in countless springs, that feed with 

 striking regularity the many brooks, 

 creeks, and rivers which thus have 

 their sources here. These conditions 

 combine to make this one of the best 

 watered regions on the continent. 



After a storm, the streams rising in 

 the deforested areas are extremely tur- 



