PREFACE. 



The act of the North Carolina General Assembly of 1905 creating the 

 North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey defines as one of the 

 principal objects of the Survey "the examination and classification of 

 * * * the forests * * * of the State with special reference to their 

 bearing on the occupations of the people." This same act authorizes 

 "the State Geologist to arrange for and accept such aid and cooperation 

 from the several United States Government Bureaus as may assist in 

 carrying out the provisions of this chapter." 



In accordance with these provisions, in the summer of 1909 the State 

 Geologist made arrangements with the Forest Service of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture for a cooperative study of the forest 

 conditions of North Carolina. The mountain region naturally called for 

 first attention in a study of this kind, because of its large proportion of 

 forest land and because of the tremendous present and future impor- 

 tance of its forests to the people of that region and to the State as a 

 whole. The value of the forests extends also to neighboring States, 

 through which the streams rising in these mountains flow, and even to 

 those farther off, that depend on the Southern Appalachian region for 

 their supply of hardwoods. A very large proportion of this area consists 

 of absolute forest land, and, in the future, when the greater part of the 

 more level land to the east will be cleared and used for agriculture, these 

 mountainsides will be called upon to furnish the hardwood timber 

 needed to supply the varied industries of the State. 



The results of former investigations are embodied in various State 

 and Federal reports*, but this one takes up a new phase of this subject, 



*North Carolina Geological Survey Bulletin 6, Forests and Forest Trees of North Carolina. 



Sen. Doc. 84. Message of the President of the United States Transmitting a Report of the Secretary 

 of Agriculture in relation to the Forests, Rivers, and Mountains of the Southern Appalachian Region. 

 Published 1902. 



Professional Paper No. 37, Geological Survey. The Southern Appalachian Forests. H. B. Ayres 

 and W. W. Ashe. Published 1905. 



Professional Paper No. 72, Geological Survey. Denudation and Erosion in the Southern Appalach- 

 ian Region and the Monongahela Basin. LeoDidas C. Glenn. Published 1911. 



Sen. Doc. 91. Report of the Secretary of Agriculture on the Southern Appalachian and White Moun- 

 tain watersheds. Published 1908. 



Circular 105, Forest Service. White Oak in the Southern Appalachians. W. B. Greeley and W. W. 

 Ashe. Published July 25, 1907. 



Circular 116, Forest Service. The Waning Hardwood Supply and the Appalachian Forests. William 

 L. Hall. Published September 24, 1907. 



Circular 118, Forest Service. Management of Second Growth in the Southern Appalachians. Ra- 

 phael Zon. Published December 16, 1907. 



Circular 135, Forest Service. Chestnut Oak in the Southern Appalachians. H. D. Foster and W. 

 W. Ashe. Published August 31, 1908. 



Circular 143, Forest Service. The relation of the Southern Appalachian Mountains to Inland 

 Water Navigation. M. O. Leighton and A. H. Horton. Published March 7, 1908. 



Circular 144, Forest Service. The Relation of the Southern Appalachian Mountains to the Develop- 

 ment of Water Power. M. O. Leighton, M. R. Hall, and R. H. Bolster Published March 20, 1908. 



Department of Agriculture Yearbook Extract 214. Practical Forestry in the Southern Appalachians. 

 Overton W. Price. Reprint from Yearbook of 1900. 



