BEARING OF THE PROPOSED APPALA^ 



CHIAN FOREST RESERVE ON 



NAVIGATION 



By W J McGEE, LL.D., Expert, Bureau of Soils, Department of Agriculture 

 (Secretary U. S. Inland Waterways Commission) 



THE states whose rivers will be di- homo for 20,000,000 sturdy and indi- 



rectly influenced by the Appa- pendent people, and are capable of su-- 



lachian Forest Reserve when es- tainin^ many times that number. 



tablished are Alabama, Georgia, Ken- < n the 45,000.000,000,000 cubic f< 



tucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, of water annually distilled from t he- 



South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, clouds, perhaps a half is returned to the 



and West Virginia, with northern Flor- air through evap< >ration ; this temper- 



ida. Their area is 400,000 square miles, the atmosphere and act- as a blanket 



The rivers comprise the principal tribu- retaining the warmth of the day 



taries of the Ohio, including the Cum- throughout the night; a part of it forms 



berland and Tennessee; the Mobile sys- dew which sustain- vegetation, while a 



tern, including especially the Alabama larger part drifts away to maintain 



and Tom Bigbee, with their leading af- that atmospheric condition and circu- 



fluents ; the Appalachicola system, of lation on which the habitability of the 



which the chief members is the Shap- region depends no less than the direct 



pahooche ; the Ocmulgee, Altamaha, precipitaton. About a quarter of the 



and Ogechee systems; the Savannah aggregate rainfall is absorbed by the 



and Coosawhatchie, Fdistow, Santee, earth or consumed in chemic change-. 



and Pee Dee systems; the Cape Fear, chielly c<nnected with growing ])lan't-. 



with some of its affluents, the Xoose, The remaining quarter gathers into 



Tar, and Roanoke, with connected streams, of which the larger are navi- 



waters ; the lames and Rappahannock ; gable; and all part:> of each river >y>- 



together with the great bordering riv- tern from it- source- in the forest-clad 



ers, especially the Mississippi and Ohio, Appalachian ranges t- its mouth are 



which extend the influence into all the interdependent f the IO.OOO.OOO.OOO,- 



adjaccnt stai ooo or 12,000.000,000,000 cubic feet of 



The mean annual precipitation with- water annually (lowing from this 



in the states directly influenced by the greater Appalachian region into the sea. 



Appalachian forests is about fifty More than half flows through navigable 



inches; the total quantity per year ; s channels it forms the sole and entire 



about 45,000,000,000,000 cubic feet. basis of inter-late and intra-tate water- 



Tin's boon from the skies is the chief way commerce throughout what may 



value of the region; it controls produc- be called tin- \\ater\\a\ states; and it 



tion ; it determines the value of form virtually control-, the interstate coin- 



lands; it fixe.- -ites of towns and facto- merce on the bordering rivers the 



ries ; it forms ways for water traffic and < >hi" and the Mi i--ippi. Many prim- 



governs other lines of commerce. itive peoples \\orshiped rivers and im- 



\Yithout it the reiM< >n would be a bare puted to them supernatural attribu; 



and uninhabitable de-ert ; with it the even within our own times some regard 



far-reaching hills and dales have mi them as my-teri"iis in their movements 



661 



