Estimating this power at $30 per year for each horsepower developed we have a total of over $30,000,000, the existence of which depends upon the regulation of the streams, and this in turn, as will be shown, upon the preservation of the forest areas.

Of course it is possible only to approximate this question. But it is certain, however, that on all of these streams large amounts of power could be easily and cheaply obtained. The average fall of the streams is great, being noticeably large at many places, while the low-water ffow, owing to the heavy rainfall and the storage effects of the great forests, is comparatively large. From the records of the United States Geological Survey a comparative list has been prepared, showing that the minimum flow of the rivers throughout the Carolinas and Georgia is larger per square mile of territory drained than on the rivers either of the New England or the Middle States. The lowest flow ever recorded on the Yadkin, the Catawba, the Broad of South Carolina, the Broad of Georgia, and the Savannah is 0.2 cubic foot per second per square mile, while the records show less than one-half this amount in the Susquehanna. It is estimated that 500,000 horsepower has been developed or is being developed along these streams.

The following table, taken from the Charlotte (N. C.) Observer of January 23, 1906, shows the amount of power now being used to operate cotton mills in the Piedmont regions of the Carolinas and Georgia:

Only the cotton mills are considered in this table. If we include the other milling interests of this region and the varied interests of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, and Alabama, which are not here enumerated, the grand totals would be greatly increased. All of these interests are vitally involved in the preservation of the Appalachian forests.

FORESTS.

This region contains the largest and most valuable hard-wood forests in the United States. On its slopes were born the hard-wood forests, which, disappearing on the north by contact with the ice and on the south, east, and west from the encroachment of the sea, found here those favorable conditions of soil, elevation, and climate which contributed to their successful growth and continuance. One hundred and thirty-seven species of trees and a still greater number of shrubs and smaller plants have been examined and classified by Government experts. Among these the most valuable, from a commercial standpoint, are the black walnut, cherry, yellow poplar, chesnut, oak, beach, ash, magnolia, and mulberry. The oak, of which the principal species are the white, red, yellow, chestnut, Spanish, and spotted oak, constitute by far the greater portion of the timber trees. They are found mostly on the southward slope of ridges and on the lower slopes, where they grade into the pine forests of the plains. Next in abundance is the chestnut, which constitutes 17 per cent of the forest. Hemlock

is found on the well-watered portions of the northern slopes and is most abundant at altitudes of from 3,000 to 5,000 feet. White pine is found as a valuable timber tree over the entire area, but is most abundant in the Unaka Mountains and the cross ranges. Poplar has a wide distribution, while the buckeye, beech, birch, maple, cucumber, and linn are most abundant on the northern slopes.

FUTURE OF THIS REGION.

This region is rich in minerals. It has limited but definite agricultural possibilities. The water-power possibilities, as shown above, are also of great importance, but the most important single resource of this section is its timber. The original forest was wonderful in the extent and variety, the density, size, and quality of its timber trees. Under present methods and conditions, however, this resource is being rapidly and dangerously depleted, and the three agencies that are contributing to its downfall are lumbering, forest fires, and clearings for farm purposes.

LUMBERING.

Lumbering operations are widespread, and, though primitive, the methods show a reckless disregard for future growth. A clean lumber job is seldom seen. Trees are felled without regard to the young growth. The logs are "snaked" down the hillsides with mule teams, breaking down the young seedlings and wearing deep trails in the sides of the hills, which are soon converted by the heavy rains into yawning gullies. The tops of the trees and the branches are left on the ground to rot and become the breeding places of innumerable insects which attack the living growth. Under Government control this industry, directed into proper channels, would insure the preservation of the forests, furnish a valuable object lesson to private ownership, and contribute materially to the support of the reservation.

FIRES.

The dried branches and tops of felled trees also furnish ready material for the spread of the great forest fires which constitute the second agency contributing to the destruction of the forests. Fires, of course, have been prevalent since the days of Indian occupation, but it is only in recent years that they have been attended with such disastrous results. Grazing is an important industry in this region and the idea is prevalent that pasture lands are improved by being burned over yearly. Fires are started also by farmers to help in clearing new patches of land, and no attempt being made to check them, they creep through the forests year after year, scorching the butts and roots of trees, destroying the seedlings, and burning up the forest litter and humus. The effect of these fires is seldom appreciated, inasmuch as they do not often kill the larger trees. But where the spring fires are of yearly occurrence it is impossible for the seedlings to grow. Under such conditions a forest can not reproduce itself. As the trees die out or are cut for lumber, they are replaced by worthless shrubs and brush that sprouts from the roots.

CLEARINGS.

Greater than either of these agencies in contributing to the destruction of the forests is the damage done by clearing, for agricultural purposes, lands which are not fit for farming lands, but should remain forever in forest. From year to year the farmer, abandoning his worn-out fields, moves up the side of the hills, clearing additional patches which can not at best last more than four or five years. After the trees have been deadened and the shrubs removed, corn may be planted on the patch for a year or two, then grain for a year, grass for a year or two, then it may be used as a pasture for a year or two, after which its usefulness is over. During this time the color of the soil has gradually changed from a dark gray or black to red, as it loses its organic matter. Becoming more and more impervious to water, it yields to erosion, and the field is given over to weeds and gullies.

The tan-bark industry is also a growing industry in this region. Every year thousands of cords of bark are shipped from this section, stripped from the trees, which are either left standing to die or are left on the ground to rot.

FLOODS.

Thus the lumbermen, the forest fires, and the farmers have cooperated to destroy these forests. Already serious damage has been done, and a continuance of present methods and conditions must inevitably, in the near future, result in the destruction of this great natural resource of the Southern Appalachians. But these agencies have not only contributed to the downfall of the forests; they have made possible the serious floods that have of late years characterized the rivers that flow out of this region. In the virgin forests the ground is covered with a blanket of decayed vegetable matter, often a foot or more thick, the mulch of the forests, which acts as a sponge to absorb the water that falls upon it. The branches of the trees break the force of the rainfall, and their roots, extending deep down into the soil, when decayed, furnish a network of underground channels which take up the water, and weeks later send it out as innumerable springs at the foot of the hills. Here, where the rainfall sometimes reaches a total of 105 inches in a year, nature has provided this sponge, which acts as a great reservoir, storing up the water and feeding it out slowly and regularly to the streams that have their source in these mountains. But where the fires have consumed this humus or sponge, and where the soil has lost its organic matter, as in the abandoned hillside clearings, no check is opposed to the force of the waters, which, sweeping down the steep hillsides, flood the rivers, sweeping away bridges, dams, and mills, destroying public roads and fertile valleys and filling up navigable streams with the silt brought down with it. It is estimated that the direct loss by flood in this region from April 1, 1901, to April 1, 1902, amounted to $18,000,000, and as the forest destruction continues these floods will become more and more disastrous. The destruction of the sponge reservoir also affects seriously the low-water flow of the streams and threatens to destroy the value for water power. The protection and preservation of the great natural resources of this region resolves itself then into this-the protection and preser vation of the forests.

CONCLUSION.

The application of practical forestry to this region would not only preserve the productive capacity of the forests, but would protect the water power as well and would go far toward preventing the frequent recurrence of disastrous floods. Protection from fire is practicable without great expense, the hard-wood forests of this region being by no means so inflammable as the coniferous forests of the North and West. Under favorable conditions the reproductive power of these forests is remarkable, and a reservation would soon become self-supporting from the sale of timber. As a health resort, no region offers more natural facilities. Within twenty-four hours of 60,000,000 people it would become one of the great vacation grounds of the nation. The various States in which it is proposed to locate this reserve have already by legislative acts conferred upon the United States Government the right to acquire titles to these lands and exempted them from taxation. They can not, on account of the proposed location of the reserve in more than one State and their own lack of funds, be expected to go much further. Nor can we look to the individual landowners for any improvement in present methods. Only cooperation on a large scale, such as Government ownership would insure, can stop this unwise cutting, regulate clearings, prevent disastrous fires, and preserve to the nation the great natural advantages and resources of this wonderful region.

HISTORY OF SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN RESERVE LEGISLATION.

April 21, 1900.-Bill by Senator Pritchard providing an appropriation of $5,000 for a preliminary investigation. April 26, 1900.-Bill passed the Senate and became a law on July 1. January 1, 1901.-Report of the Secretary of Agriculture regarding the preliminary investigation made sent to Congress.

January 19, 1901.-President McKinley presents above report with a special message recommending its favorable consideration by Congress.

January 10, 1901.-Bill by Senator Pritchard providing an appropriation of $5,000,000 for the establishment of the Southern Appalachian Reserve.

January 28, 1901.-Favorable report on bill providing an appropriation of $5,000,000 from the Committee on Agriculture.

December 10, 1901.-President Roosevelt transmits report of the Secretary of Agriculture on the forests, rivers, and mountains of the Southern Appalachian region to Congress with recommendation that Congress consider it favorably.

In addition to the foregoing a bill in 1904 passed the United States Senate but the House took no action on it.

THE WHITE MOUNTAIN FOREST RESERVE.

The White Mountain region, in which by far the larger part of the proposed White Mountain Forest Reserve will lie, covers an area of approximately 812,000 acres, most of the land being far "better suited to forest production than to agricultural use." The three principal ranges of mountains contain nine or more peaks over 5,000 feet in height. In the Franconia Range, to the southwest Mount Lafayette

towers 5,259 feet, flanked by mountains of nearly equal altitude. Mount Washington (6,293 feet), the second highest peak east of the Mississippi River, occupies a conspicuous position in the lofty Presidential Range in the center, while the Carter Range, to the northeast, although not so high as either of the other ranges, contains peaks of very considerable elevation.

Formerly this entire region, with the exception of the summits of the highest mountains, was covered with a dense unbroken forest that stretched without interruption to the northern limits of the State, and even now the greater part of the region is forested, though clearings have been made along the railroads and in the river valleys. It must not be supposed, however, that all of this growth is timber or even destined to become timber in the course of time, for careless lumbering and repeated fires have in some places worked havoc with the forest cover, and the growth there is of a worthless character.

THE FORESTS.

The lower slopes of the mountains, up to an altitude of 1,800 feet, and rarely extending beyond 2,400 feet, are covered with a growth of hard woods typical of the region and latitude-the hard and soft maple, yellow and white birch, and beech, to name only a few of the more common. From 1,800 to 3,500 feet the red spruce, the most valuable of all forest trees in northern New Hampshire, predominates, though mixed with balsam (fir) and some of the hardier broad-leafed species. From 3,500 to 4,200 feet the conifers, with occasionally a birch, are alone able to make successful growth, while above 4,200 feet we find only a scrubby stand of balsam, prostrate shrubs, and bare rock.

The character of the growth depends somewhat on the aspect of the mountains and their gradient, but in general the four forest belts above named are traceable throughout this region.

More than 180 different species of woody plants grow in New Hampshire, many of these of great commercial value, but the forests in the north of the State are preeminently forests of conifers, unlike the timber lands of the proposed Southern Appalachian Forest Reserve, where hard woods predominate. Of the conifers, the red spruce, as above stated, is by far the most valuable. It represents 82.5 per cent of the total cut of all species. Balsam and white spruce (the latter in the extreme north), tamarack, white cedar, hemlock, and white pine (in the south) are the other soft woods that make up the bulk of the forest. In Albany and Waterville, on the southern edge of the region under discussion, the stand of spruce is the heaviest in New Hampshire, being 90 per cent spruce and 8 per cent birch on the lower levels. Here, in the Connecticut Lake region on the north, in the upper part of the Magalloway River basin (the best timbered watershed in the State), and on the northern and eastern slopes of the Presidential Range, are the only considerable tracts of virgin forest now standing. The total area is not far from 200,000 acres.

The total stand of soft woods in northern New Hampshire is estimated at 4,764,000 feet, board measure.

SCENERY AND CLIMATE.

To attempt to describe the scenery of the White Mountains--the "Switzerland of America"-would not only be superfluous, but would