88 



SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN KHOION. 



this will encourage both individuals and States to adopt 

 such methods of forest nianaocinent on their own lands as 

 will not only protect the forests in existence, but also re- 

 store them on lands which should never have been cleared, 

 op^ucntif'nori^- ^ '^'^^ informed by the geologists who are familiar w ith 

 terfered with, (^^ijjg Southern Appalachian region that the development 

 of its mineral deposits would neither interfere with nor 

 be interfered with by the creation and proper handling of 

 such a forest I'escrve. 

 mei^u not m"e?- '^^^ Settlements now existing within the limits of the 

 fered with. proposed reserve would not be interfered with, nor would 

 their existence there, nor their legitimate enlargement, 

 intei'fere with the purposes to be accomplished in the 

 establishment of the reserve. 

 boundMy°"n o w would not be wisB at the present time to make public 

 given. ^jjg exact location of lands which ma}^ be thought 1)est 



adapted for incorporation in such a forest reserve, but the 

 general boundaries of the region within which it is pro- 

 posed to purchase these lands are indicated on the accom- 

 panying maps (see Pis. II, IV, and XII). I am of the 

 opinion that the reserve should ultimately include not less 

 than 4,000,000 acres. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



The results of these investigations of the forests and 

 forest conditions of the Southern Appalachian I'egion lead 

 unmistakably to the following conclusions: 



1. The Southern Appalachian region embraces the high- 

 est peaks and largest mountain masses east of the Rockies. 

 It is the great physiographic feature of the eastern half 

 of the continent, and no such lofty mountains are covered 

 with hard-w'ood forests in all North America. 



2. Upon these mountains descends the heaviest rainfall 

 of the United States, except that of the North Pacitic 

 coast. It is often of extreme violence, as much as 8 

 inches having fallen in eleven hours, 31 inches in one 

 month, and 106 inches in a year. 



3. The soil, once denuded of its forests and swept by 

 torrential rains, rapidly loses first its humus, then its rich 

 upper strata, and finally is washed in enormous volume 

 into the streams, to burv such of the fertile lowlands as 

 are not eroded by the floods, to obstruct the rivers, and to 

 fill up the, harbors on the coast. More good soil is now 

 washed from these cleai-ed mountain-side fields during a 

 single heav}' rain than during centuries under forest cover. 



