84 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A Slope of Mi. Mitchell. 



HERE IS A CLOSE VIEW OF LOGGED LAND WHICH HAS BEEN BURNED OVER. NOTE THE SIZE OF THE TIMBER. 

 DITION OF THE LOG IN THE RIGHT FOREGROUND INDICATES THE FIERCENESS OF THE FIRE. 



THE CON- 



The beauty and grandeur of this section 

 of North Carolina has long made the 

 region a mecca for tourists and each year 

 the country is becoming more popular 

 as a great National recreation ground. 



Mt. Mitchell is about 30 miles north- 

 east of Asheville, air line, and it is but 

 natural that the citizens of this North 

 Carolina city have been the first to 

 protest against the lumbering operations 

 which are resulting in denuding the 

 mountainous slopes. At a meeting of 

 the Asheville Board of Trade on Novem- 

 ber 28th last the leading citizens of the 

 community discussed the serious situa- 

 tion which has been brought about by 

 the cutting which has now been going 

 on for several years, starting with the 

 logging of the spruce forests from a 

 large area on Clingman's Peak and now 

 extending to the slopes of Mt. Mitchell. 



The operations include the cutting 

 of all spruce and balsam trees down to 

 four inches in diameter. The cutting 

 was confined to a large tract of 6,000 

 acres until recently but has now been 

 extended to an additional 8,000 acres 

 on the west slope of the mountain and 

 the areas to be covered in the whole 



operation will aggregate 15,000 to 

 20,000 acres, and perhaps more. This 

 means that much of the surface of the 

 mountain sides will be denuded, leaving 

 the cut-over area ready both for forest 

 fires and the wash of the heavy rains 

 which occur in this mountain region. 



The relation between forest and 

 stream flow is now well understood by 

 most of the people of the whole United 

 States, and especially by citizens of the 

 Appalachian region, who have struggled 

 for years to promote the preservation 

 of mountain forests either by the State 

 or National government in order to 

 conserve and protect stream flow. Even 

 the children of North Carolina un- 

 derstand how the heavily wooded 

 mountain sides, covered with soil formed 

 by the successive piling up of humus 

 season after season, for hundreds of 

 years, act as a great sponge to soak up 

 the rains and allow the water to flow 

 gradually into the streams which affect 

 the conditions and life of hundreds of 

 thousands of people living along the 

 valleys. 



The mineral soil in the Mt. Mitchell 

 area is Carolina gneiss formation, so 



