44 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Mountains. The rivers running from there through 

 North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia used to 

 be all clear mountain streams, and in times of flood 

 there was simply a flow of water and after it passed 

 away that was the end of it. Now they have their 

 times of higher flood and their times of greater drought 

 and the river beds and mill dams are all being ruined 

 by the silt that is washed down. We seem to have a 

 very much more fluid soil when it gets wet than a great 

 deal of that we have in the North, and the extent of 

 this destruction is becoming apparent all through the 

 South. On the Catawba River what were a few years 

 ago good farm lands are now covered with eight, ten, 

 or twelve feet of sand and gravel. Two years ago 

 there was a flood along the French Broad River and 

 the destruction was very great. It reached Knoxville, 

 and it was the first time that anybody in Tennessee 

 had become interested in the preservation of these 

 forests. 



We have standing on the Appalachian Mountains, 

 the Blue Ridge and the great Smoky ranges from 

 southern Virginia through to northern Alabama, the 

 last remains of the hardwood forests of the East. The 

 Blue Ridge is pretty well cleared. We have been try- 

 ing, through our Appalachian Forest Reserve Associa- 

 tion, to create an interest in Congress that would save 

 the balance of this country from being cleared. Con- 

 gress has appropriated over four and one-half million 

 dollars in the past three years for the improvement of 

 the rivers in this section, and unless these forests are 

 preserved, most of this money is wasted. The Great 

 Smoky range, the boundary line between North Caro- 

 lina and Tennessee, has been inaccessible as compared 

 with the Blue Ridge, and is little cleared. I do not 

 know how much you know of the particulars of that 

 country. We have as rough mountains as they have in 



