28 



SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



cmpoiicy.^ I'egio" increases. It is therefore only a i{uestion of time, 

 to be measured not in centuries hul in years, when, unless 

 this policy is changed, thci'c will be no forests in this region 

 except on the small remnants — say 10 per cent of the 

 whole — where the mountain slopes are too precipitous and 

 rocky to make the cultivation of the lands possible, even 

 by an Appalachian mountaineer and his hoe. 

 Policy uiidir jf q,) ^[jq othcr haiul, the i)olicv now ad\'ocated is 



proposed Gov- ' ' l 



eriunoiu ma n- .^(-iQp(;(,(] and all thcse stecpcT mountain slopes are incor- 

 porated into a forest reserve, owned and controlled 1)}^ the 

 Government, the vallev lands will l)e protected from floods, 

 and to the cultivation of these areas can be added that of 

 the gentler slopes, the whole to l)e terraced and kept in a 

 high state of cultivation l)y the native farmer, who will 

 retain ownership then as now. (See Pis. IX & and XX1II«.) 

 cipie*fn°Go?ern- '^^^ guiding principle of the Government in the creation 

 ment of this forcst rcscrvc should be to protect the farmer in 



his occupation and to insure the use of agricultural lands 

 for agricultural purposes; but also, and primaril}', to main- 

 tain forever the forest cover of these gi'eat and beautiful 

 mountains, which can be perpetuated in no other way. 

 Under such a system the agriculture of this region will 

 be maintained on a permanentl}'' satisf actor}- basis. Under 

 the present policy it is advancing to certain ruin. 



rOBEST CLEARINGS, THE RIVERS, AND FLOODS. 



This region is Probably no region in the United States is better watered 



the source of j >r> 



many rivers. or better drained than this; nor is there an}^ other region 

 which can boast of being the source of so many streams. 

 (See PI. XII.) From about its northern end the New 

 River (Kanawha) flows northward and westward and 

 becomes a prominent tributary of the Ohio; along its 

 southeastern front the James, the Roanoke, the Yadkin, 

 the Catawba, the Broad, and the Savannah reach the 

 Atlantic; near its southern end the Chattahoochee and the 

 Alabama flow directly into the Gulf of Mexico; along its 

 western the Hiwassee, the Tuckaseegee, the French Broad, 

 the Nolichucky, the Watauga, and the Holston drain 

 westward through the Tennessee into the Mississippi. 



Each of these greater rivers as it crosses the Coastal 

 Plain region toward the sea is navigable for light-draft 

 vessels. Each throughout its lower course is bordered 

 by fertile agricultural lands, which in the past contributed 

 largely to the nation's supply of corn, but during recent 



