26 



SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



niiitely 2 feet in 10), while 24 per cent (.see Pi. XII) 

 of it has been (!le!ired. In this rej^'ion land with slopes 

 exceedin<>' this can not be successfully cultivated for any 

 considerable time, I)ecause its surface is rapidly washed 

 into the rivers below by the heavy rains, and the same 

 agency rapidly leaches out and cari-ies to the sea its more 

 soluble and fertile in^'redients. The valle}' lands have 

 already been largely cleared, and the farmers are now 

 following up the mountain slopes. In man}' cases their 

 cleared patches have Avell nigh reached the mountain sum- 

 mits. This process is going on with greater ra])idity, 

 because each short-lived hillside field must soon be aban- 

 doned. The underbrush is destroyed, the trees are girdled, 

 and for one, two, or three yoava such a field is planted in 

 corn, then a year in grain, then one or two years in grass; 

 then the grass gives place to weeds, and the weeds to gul- 

 lies. (See Pis. XX and XXI.) 

 mountain siop°es Such a field has Usually passed through its cycle in five 

 boneVt^ '^penna- years and another must Tie cleared to take its place. 

 sumn^'\n^urier ^'^^"^'^^ which Is the growth of several centuries perishes 

 in less than a decade; a soil which is the accumulation of 

 a thousand years has been cleared, cultivated, abandoned, 

 and is on the downward road to the sea within less thtui a 

 decade. Such is the brief life history of maii}^ thousands 

 of small mountain fields in this Southern Appalachian 

 region. But even the native farmer is beginning to real- 

 ize that the clearing of these moui * lin slopes is producing 

 floods that wash awa}' the valley farms, and that the time 

 must come when he will have successively cleared and 

 destroyed all his available mountain land. (See PI. 

 XXXIV). 



Some serious Fortunately the intellio-ence of the country is awaken- 



results from ttiis . ^ . ii "• 



forest clearing, mg to Other and larger results that arc tollowmg this pol- 

 icy. The soil thus removed ma}^ stop long enough on its 

 way to the sea to silt up the streams as thej^ cross the low- 

 lands or may fill up the harbors as the streams reach the 

 coast. Every acre of mountain slope thus cleared is a step 

 in the more rapid destruction of the forests, of the soils, of 

 the rivers, and of the "eternal mountains" themselves — 

 the destruction of conditions which the combined wealth, 

 intelligence, and time of man can not restore in a region 

 which now possesses infinite possibilities for the benefit 

 of the whole nation. 



1 



