LUMBERING IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS NOW AND 

 UNDER GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP AND SUPERVISION. 



By Overton W. Prick. 



The protection of the headwaters of important streams in 

 order to prevent floods and perpetuate water powers, the 

 preservation of a great natural health resort and of impor- 

 tant agricultural resources, are perhaps the most valuable 

 results that would follow the creation and management of 

 the proposed Appalachian Forest Reserve. The applica- 

 tion of practical forestrj- in this region bv the Federal 

 Government would bear fruit also in the maintenance of 

 a sustained supply of hard-wood timber, in the production 

 of a steady and increasing income therefrom, and in pro- 

 viding a forcible object lesson to show the advantages of 

 careful and conservative forest management. 



Lumbering is one of the principal industries of the ^^^^'^j^J^^^^^^Jj^ 

 Southern Appalachians. The agricultural resources of the and their results, 

 region must remain limited because of its ruggedness and 

 the low percentage of arable land. Its development as a 

 grazing country is hampered b\' the lack of winter forage 

 and the temporar}' life of the grass covering in the lower 

 slopes. Its main resource of the future will be its hard- 

 wood forests, upon whose maintenance depends ver}' 

 largely the best and most permanent development of west- 

 ern North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. The existing 

 supply of merchantable timber has already been seriously 

 redaced, while repeated fires and unregulated grazing have 

 in many localities greatly impaired the quality and health 

 of the forest, as well as the chance of its successful repro- 

 duction. Although there is still enough wood left to fill 

 the local demand, the cost of logging it is constantly 

 growing with the increasing distance between the market 

 and the source of supply. Around each settlement there 

 is a rapidly widening area which has been stripped of all 

 merchantable timber under methods which too often render 



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