24 



APPALACHIAN AND WHITE MOUNTAIN WATERSHEDS. 



along the Blue Ridge. Most of them are depreciatmg from erosion. 

 While no longer in forest, they are fundamentally forest lands, and 

 their earning power can only be reestablished by replacing the forest 

 to which they are naturally adapted. While scarcely any of the 

 remaining timbered land is as valuable for agriculture as for timber, 

 vmder the present system a large portion of it is certain to be cleared. 



LUMBERING AXD FIRE. 



The following table shows the area of forest in the mountainous 

 part of each State, with the area and percentage of cut-over and 

 virgin land : 



Table 3. — Forested area of the Southern Appalachian region. 



Total 

 forested 



Unlumljered and 

 lightly culled. 



Lumbered and 

 second growth. 



Alabama 



Georgia 



Kentucky 



Maryland 



North Carolina 

 South Carolina 



Tennessee 



Virginia 



West Virginia. 



Total 



A cres. 



3,730,000 



2, 730, 000 



11,785,000 



716,000 



4,771,000 



831,000 



16,483,000 



7,265,000 

 10,272,000 



Acres. 



509,000 



432,000 



1,185,000 



30,000 



1, 628, 000 



142,000 



2,684,000 



1,000,000 



2,250,000 



58,583,000 I 9,760,000 



Per cent. 

 14 

 16 

 10 

 4 

 34 

 17 

 16 

 14 

 22 



Acres. 

 3,221,000 

 2,298,000 

 10,560,000 

 686,000 

 3,183,000 

 689,000 

 13,899,000 

 6,266,000 

 8,022,000 



17 



48,823,000 



84 

 90 

 96 

 66 

 83 

 84 

 86 

 78 



Of the 58,583,000 acres of timberland, 17 per cent is uncut, while 

 83 per cent is cut over. The tincut timber as a rule is in the higher, 

 more inaccessible parts of the mountains. Occupying the ridges and 

 higher slopes, it is unequal in quality and stand to the timber of the 

 lower slopes and coves. The cut-over lands are in all stages and 

 conditions of reproduction and growth. From some of it has been 

 removed only the best species, such as walnut and poplar. From 

 most of it the chestnut and oak, which form the main body of the 

 forest, have also been cut. 



Over practically all of it, whether cut over or not, fires have burned 

 repeatedly and destroyed a large proportion of the young trees, 

 which, if allowed to grow, would now represent growth of from one 

 to fiftj' years. In like manner the undergrowth and the humus, both 

 vital parts of the forest, have suffered great injury. Following fire, 

 insects have at times wrought great local damage. 



Lumbering is going on more extensively in the hardwood forests 

 of the Southern Appalachians than ever before. While in the past 

 seven years the hardwood cut has decreased in West Virginia, Ken- 

 tucky, and Tennessee, the diminution of cutting has been chiefly in 

 the more level parts of these States. In the mountains, where heavy 

 cutting has not been going on for so long, the cut is probably as 

 heavy or heavier than ever. In North Carolina cutting in the 

 mountains has been heavy enough to increase the output of the 

 entire State. 



There has been little tendency on the part of the lumberman to 

 conservative cutting. The usual belief is that, because of the danger 



