84 



SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN KKGION. 



Sprouts and set^d lings will start freely, and the forest 

 would o-row well as soon as tho forest soil reached natural 

 condition ayain. 



But few cattle are i-anged in the mountains now, as the 

 grazing- has been too much reduced by repeated fires. 



TALLULAH-CHATTOOGA RIVER BASIN. 



Topography. 



Soil. 



Agriculture. 



Jirosion. 



[:M8,.').'SH acrt's; s'.i pi.T (■(■lit wooded.] 



This tract covers the entii-e basin of these rivers above 

 their junction and drains into the Atlantic through Savan- 

 nah River. Lying on the southeastern slope of the Blue 

 Ridge, the altitude varies from 5,500 feet on Standing 

 Indian, 5,100 feet on Ridgepole, 4,769 on Scaly Mountain, 

 and 4,931 feet on White Sides to 1,000 feet at the junc- 

 tion of the Tallulah and Chattooga rivers. Many of the 

 peaks and spurs are extremely bold, and there are numer- 

 ous deep gorges and canyons. Along the creeks, espe- 

 cially along the Upper Tallulah and its tributaries, are 

 alluvial bottoms of considerable area. Nearh' all of the 

 cleared land (11 per cent of entire tract) of this system 

 is on creek lx)ttoms. 



Derived from gneiss and granite, the soil is generall}- 

 of good phj^sical composition, except in the foothills, 

 where a stiff red clay predominates, which erodes readily 

 and is hard to cultivate. 



The bottom lands are loam}' and fairly fertile, but the 

 ridges have been so much burned and washed that on them 

 the soil is light colored, thin, and poor. 



Corn is the principle crop. Grass, except in the higher 

 altitudes, does not hold. Sweet potatoes, cane, and cotton 

 are grown along the southern limit of this tract. Peaches 

 do well in the lower altitudes, and apples are grown on the 

 mountains. 



The impervious clays of the foothills are frequently 

 found barren and gullied, because left uncovered. The 

 mountain i idges, having many stones and pebbles in their 

 soil, resist erosion much better than the clays, but this 

 advantage is counteracted by the steepness of their slopes, 

 and the bed of every rivulet is eroded to the underlying- 

 rock. The creek bottoms are hardly less liable to damage. 

 Sudden downpours of rain (11 inches have been known to 

 fall in forty-eight hours) often cause such rises in the 

 creeks as to cover the fields with gravel or cut them away. 



