~ MW iV eT FORESTRY IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS, BY a) SOVERTON W PRICE, Superintendent of Working Plans, Division of Forestry. i ow Be - “y * SS Bare CONTENTS. Tinted Nora s ae te ee ee ae ne ee ae aa a a eee See General description of the region TVET OIE hs OS Se SEA eee ees Meee A eee Ske a See See ee ea TROT 2ST i a SEI a eit ae gn BS een ee ena Seine Verret eee mare ee ene ee NS oem see Sse The localsystem --=:------- Damage to the forest ...-..-- Damage by fires.......----- Ee CE Ae Ae oe os a wet Suggestions for management - - - - Cut-over land Virgin forests She Sin Se ee eicee Need of practical forestry ------- Pratt XXX VIII XXXIX xO; XLi XLII XLII FEE USTRALTIONS. ADO OSS ALTHO 2 Bs eR ei, ee . Yellow Poplar and Hemlock on north slope - ------------ ~Ascharscteristic mountam stream .........-..-2.--22+-=- PPASTITOUMUAIMENOAMr aes slew eee. oe Teton na seeee oe . A deadening. . The Chestnut ohn - WOOT sili ge, Lowry eo ae & ’ BLig tty hoa iy i ete bri “2 ‘es ; . wea cpa nett) ate Th ee PRACTICAL FORESTRY IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS. By Overton W. Price, Superintendent of Working Plans, Division of Forestry. INTRODUCTION. The’ Southern Appalachians offer an excellent field for practical forestry. The need of systematic and conservative forest manage- ment is beginning to be keenly felt, both for the timber tract and the wood lot. The present desultory form of lumbering, which dates from the settlement of the region, has resulted in a serious reduction of the existing supply of timber. The unnecessary damage which has accompanied this lumbering, together with the repeated fires and excessive grazing to which the forest-has been largely subjected, has greatly retarded the production of a second crop. Although there is still enough wood to fill the wants of the settlers, the cost of obtain- ing it is constantly increasing with the growing distance between the supply and the market. Around the towns and villages the belt of woodlands from which all merchantable timber has been culled widens every year, while fire and grazing often prevent young trees from springing up on the cut-over area. The rapid increase now going on in the values of timber and in the cost of firewood is premature in so densely forested a country, and is the direct result of wasteful methods in the utilization of its resources. A continuance of these methods will necessarily result in a serious check to the general prosperity of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, where the inhabitants have already to contend with the remoteness and ruggedness of the region, and with an exceedingly low percentage of arable land. These methods will, moreover, not only render it costly to obtain wood for home consumption, but will entirely destroy what is still the most important source of revenue in the Southern Appalachians—the lumbering of its valuable hardwoods to supply a steady and increasing demand in distant markets. It is intended in this paper merely to outline the nature of the problem at hand and to suggest certain general lines of treatment that might be followed. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE REGION. The mountain region of western North Carolina and eastern Tennes- see comprises an area of 15,000 square miles. It includes the Blue 357 358 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. Ridge on the east and the Smoky Mountains on the west, with the high and broken plateau which lies between them. Many spurs and ridges run off at right angles from these two ranges upon the plateau, and make of it the loftiest and most rugged section east of the Rocky Mountains. The more important of these cross chains are the Black Mountains, a spur of the Blue Ridge, which contain Mitchell Peak, 6,711 feet high; the Balsam Mountains, with a mean elevation of over 5,000 feet; and the Cowee Mountains, one of the longest of the cross ranges. Beginning on the east with the spurs of the Blue Ridge, which lose themselves in the Piedmont district, the elevation increases and the character of the mountain region grows more rugged westward toward the Smokies, in which the Appalachian system culminates. The slates, granite, and gneiss, with their intermediate forms, are the chief underlying rocks. Of these, the gneiss is most common. It is usually soft, and disintegrates rapidly, forming a sandy loam which, although not particularly rich, is loose, fresh, and of great depth, except where the grade is such as to cause excessive erosion. Where gneiss is the surface formation the slopes are generally smooth and rounded as a result of its rapid weathering. Where the slowly disintegrating granite forms the outcrop the topography is rugged and the slopes steep and bowlder-strewn, and sometimes craggy and precipitous, particularly those which face toward the south. With the exception of the natural meadows which occupy the sum- mits of some of the higher peaks, the mountains are covered with forest growth. The valleys are almost entirely under cultivation. Upland farming is carried on upon the foothills, and occasionally, for lack of better ground, upon mountain slopes so steep that their thorough cultivation is impossible. THE FOREST. It has often been said that it is in this region that the forest trees of the North mingle with those of the South, and the statement gives but an incomplete idea of the great variety of trees which is here the result of wide local differences in soil and climate. Western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee contain over one hundred kinds of native trees. Of these, some, such as the Black Spruce and Balsam, which find in the Smokies at an elevation of 4,000 feet and over conditions similar to those of their northern habitat, are either too rare or too difficult of access to be often of commercial importance. Others, such as the Black Gum, Sourwood, Dogwood, Buckeye, and Aspen, are valueless for timber, and are used for firewood only when no better kinds are to be had. (PI. XXXVIII.) Others again, among which are the Striped Maple, the Haw, and the Silverbell Tree, have as yet no merchantable value. Among the commercial trees the more important hardwoods are the Yellow Poplar, the Oaks, Hickories, Chestnut, Birch, Ash, Cherry, Yearbook U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1900. PLATE XXXVIII. DOGWOOD IN FLOWER. Yearbook U S Dept of Agriculture, 1900 PLATE XXXIX. YELLOW POPLAR AND HEMLOCK ON NORTH SLOPE. [Photograph by H. B. Ayres.] PRACTICAL FORESTRY IN SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS. 359 Basswood, Black Walnut, and Maple. The merchantable softwoods, of which there are comparatively few, are chiefly Shortleaf Pine, White Pine, and Hemlock. They seldom predominate in the mixture, but occur by groups and single trees, the Shortleaf Pine in the larger val- leys and on the foothills, the White Pine confined chiefly to coves and intermediate low ridges in the Blue Ridge, and the Hemlock along the streams and on the lower slopes of the mountain valleys. The latter, although much less common than farther north in the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia, on account of the increased number of faster-growing trees with which it has to contend, probably reaches in this region a larger size than anywhere else within its habitat. é FOREST TYPES. The many kinds of trees native to this portion of the Southern Appalachians, and the fact that most of them have a wide local range, renders the forest exceedingly varied and makes it difficult to classify it into types except in a very broad and general way. The Oaks, among which the White Oak is most frequent, form the chief part of the forest growth up to an elevation of about 2,500 feet. With them are mixed the Shortleaf Pine, the Hickories, and a host of subordinate kinds, among which the Black Gum and Red Maple are most common in moist situations, the Basswood, Birches, Ashes, Yellow Poplar, and Cucumber Tree on fresh soils, and the Chestnut, Locust, Dogwood, and Sourwood on south slopes and in dry localities generally. At an elevation of 2,500 to 3,500 feet the number of the Oaks decreases and Yellow Poplar, Hemlock, Birch, Beech, Ash, Black Walnut, and Cherry reach their best development and predominate especially in coves and hollows with a northerly aspect. (Pl. XXXIX.) Above 3,500 feet the forest falls off both in the number of different kinds of trees and in their size and quality. The Chestnut, Chestnut Oak, and Red Oak are the characteristic trees of this belt and occur almost pure on dry, steep slopes and ridges. Finally, at about 4,000 feet, dense woods of Black Spruce and Balsam Fir cover the ground to the exclusion of all other trees and reach to the mountain tops, except on the ‘‘ balds,” the local term for those mountains, the crests of which are occupied by natural meadows. The general type of these forests, except where modified by lum- bering or fire, or by both, is that of the virgin forest, exceedingly irregular in age and density. On the lower slopes, where the Oak prevails and where logging for timber and firewood has long been carried on, and which also have suffered from excessive grazing and repeated fires, the forest consists largely of second growth, seldom over forty years old. Above this second growth, in which a constant struggle goes on between the Oaks and the Shortleaf Pine, the latter holding its own almost everywhere and having the upper hand on the - 360 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. poor soils, stand mostly old oak and pine, which generally owe their presence to the fact that they are unfit for lumber. The result is a very irregular two-storied forest, the old oak and pine forming the upper story and the second growth the lower, the latter varying greatly in age in different localities, according to the dates of the lumbering, and often in the same locality, where there have been repeated cut- tings, each one of which has induced a new growth of seedlings and stump shoots. Higher up in the mountains, where there has been less fire and lumbering, is perhaps the most perfect form of the mixed virgin forest to be found in this country. Trees of all ages occur together, and there is seldom, except where a space has been laid bare by wind and seeded up, any approach to an even-aged growth. It is here that the struggle for existence has been carried on without intervention and that trees of each kind have held their own in the mixture through the characteristics which have been given them for that purpose—one by plentiful crops of seed, another by capacity to endure great shade, another by its rapid growth or its adaptability to many different soils and situations. The result has been a forest containing a wonderful variety of types and forms of mixture. Some of the trees, particu- larly the Yellow Poplar and Hemlock, show a marked tendency to distribution by groups and patches. The Ash, Basswood, Beech, and most of the others, however, are distributed evenly throughout those localities which are favorable to them. This region shows a variety in the undergrowth which corresponds to the richness of its silva. Among the most characteristic shrubs and those which influence chiefly the reproduction of the forest are the Rhododendron and Kalmia, or Mountain Laurel, which in the higher mountains not infrequently form a distinct and almost impenetrable second story under the forest trees. After these the more important of the shrubs and shrub-like trees are the Serviceberry, Sumach, Magnolia, Holly, Sassafras, Haw, Stagbush, and Hazel. LUMBERING. There are two distinct types of lumbering in the Southern Appala- chians, similar in the extent of the harm done to the forest, but differ- ing widely in the manner in which they are carried out. The one is the slipshod, desultory form which has been practiced by the farmers of this region since its settlement in order to eke out the generally scanty profits from their farms. Although their output is small individually, their combined efforts, extending over many years, have resulted in the culling of the best timber over a large portion of the more accessible forests. The scattered distribution of the mer- chantable trees, however, has rendered the lumbering comparatively light except where firewood has been cut as well as saw logs. PRACTICAL FORESTRY IN SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS. 3861 The other dates from the time when, some fifteen years ago, with the failing supply of timber in Maine, Michigan, and the north woods generally, began the exodus of many Northern lumbermen to the hardwood forests of the Virginias, Georgia, and Tennessee, and to the pineries and cypress swamps in the far South. With their arrival began lumbering on a large scale in the Southern Appalachians, together with the investment of commensurate capital in logging out- fits, the thorough repair and extension of logging roads, and the appli- cation of those skillful and businesslike methods which constitute clean lumbering. The active and systematic manner in which these men conducted a lumber job and the margin of profit which they wrung from it were a revelation to the natives, but have not yet resulted in any appreciable improvement in their methods. It is nevertheless to be remembered that several factors have tended to make a poor lumberman of the farmer of western North Carolina or eastern Tennessee. He is often hampered by lack of the capital nec- essary to make the most of lumbering in this region, and he is gener- ally wanting in the knowledge requisite to the best use of it. He has had always to contend with the difficulty of obtaining expert loggers to carry out the work, and is generally obliged, through the scarcity of available white men, to employ negroes, who seldom do well in the lumber woods, for the reason that they are usually strongly averse to the mode of life required of them. Nevertheless, the nearness of large bodies of merchantable timber, among which are valuable kinds, such as the Cherry, Black Walnut, Hickory, and Yellow Poplar, has usually made a fair profit possible under even the most thriftless log- ging methods. The unnecessary damage to the forest and the total lack of provision for a future crop, characteristic of lumbering generally in the South- ern Appalachians, is deplorable. Itis.a form of waste, however, which can not be eliminated by criticism, but can best be checked by proof of the advantages of more conservative methods, through their appli- cation to a portion of these forests, either by the Government upon its own lands or in cooperation with private owners. There is, however, much immediate loss incurred by a species of - slovenliness which is as foreign to clean lumbering as it is to practical forestry, and is entirely without excuse. Entire trees found to be unsound at the base are often left upon the ground to rot, rather than butt off the decayed portion. Not infrequently sound trees of a mer- chantable diameter are carelessly left uncut upon the lumbered area. There is great waste in high stumps and in lack of judgment in sawing up the trees, while careless felling leaves many a lodged tree in the woods or smashes the more brittle kinds, particularly the Yellow Poplar. 362 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. THE LOCAL SYSTEM. The local system of lumbering is exceedingly simple. The trees are felled and sawn into logs where they lie, and these are snaked, or skidded, by horses, or, more often, by cattle, to the roadside or the river bank. Logging streams are rare, however, in the Southern Appalachians, and the customary way of getting the logs to the mill or to the railroad is by wagon over the rough mountain roads. (Pls. XLand XLI.) It is a somewhat primitive system throughout, but it is the one most generally suited to the nature of the country and to the distribution of the merchantable timber, which does not often favor the employment of those labor-saving devices which have been found profitable in logging elsewhere. The lack of sufficient snow usually prevents the use of sleds instead of logging wagons. The topography is often better adapted to timber slides or to donkey engines and wire cables for bringing the logs to the roads than to snaking with teams. The merchantable timber, however, is generally so scattered that the amount which could be transported by one slide or from one spot by an engine and cable is seldom suflicient to render them profitable. These and similar appliances suitable to a rough mountain country, but to the success of which a dense mer- chantable stand, or, in other words, a large amount of timber upon a small area, is necessary, have here usually been found impracticable. DAMAGE TO THE FOREST. The harm done to the forest is very great in proportion to the quantity of timber cut. This is due largely to the size of the trees and to the fact that little care is taken in the fellings. The damage to young growth is aggravated by the absence of snow and by the fact that the fellings are not infrequently made when the trees are in full leaf. The breaking down and wounding of seedlings and young trees by the snaking of the logs to the roadside or the river is in large part unavoidable. There are often, however, many more snakeways, or skidways, than are necessary, and the application of a little system in laying them out would save time and young growth on a lumber job. On the higher and steeper slopes it is often the habit, and one which ‘an not be criticised too strongly, except in those rare cases where it is absolutely necessary on account of the gradient, to roll the logs from top to bottom, merely starting them with the cant hook.