Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1911-02-10
Erosion In the Southern Appa-
Iachiaus

southern Appalachisns, BY L. c.
Glenn, professor of geology in Van
derbilt University, just published by
the United States Geological Survey,
is timely contribution to subject
now engaging wide public attention.
1t places in the hands of those inter
ested in the best utilization of the
great Appalachian watershed the
most authentic and detailed informa-
tion yet presented on the subject,
representing as it does the results of
expert field investigation.
The purpose of Prof. Glenn's study
was to note the extent and the effect,
and so far as possible the causes, of
erosion in the region examined and to
determine the means of preventing
the widespread evil results of unwise
agriculture and numbering. Accord
ingly, he travelled from stream val
ley to stream valley through the
southern mountains, noting and re-
cording with great eXactness hillside
and mountain side wash and wear,
soil removal by Outlying and soil bur,
ial by overwash, stream clogging and
stream overflow, the filling of mill
ponds and the wrecking of dams and
bridges, and numerous other evils
that are attributed by many observ-
ers, in large part, to reckless defor-
esation and injudicious attempt to
cultivate slopes that are not adapted
to agriculture.
Prof. Glenn's studies included
parts of eight NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.,
Virginia, West Virginia, North Car
DINA, South Carolina, Georgia, Tenn
essee and Alabama. In the course of
the study it was noted that steep
slopes formed of certain rocks could
be safely cultivated, but that others,
no sleeper, composed of other, differ
ent rocks were cultivated with disas-
trous results. Observations were
made of countless gaping chasms
started in steep hillsides by the drag
of logs "snaked" down from timber
ed hilltops-chasms that cave and
throw down timber and cause the
wash of masses of gravel and cobble-
stones over fertile valley lands be-
low. Bars and shadows formed in
navigable streams by sand and gravel
loosened far upstream by agricultural
and forestry malpractice were noted
at hundreds of places and are specific
ally mentioned in the report.
According toiProf, Glenn the prob
lens thus studied geologically must
find their solution in methods that re-
late largely to forestry and agricul-
ture. The agricultural problem in
wolves the selection of the areas best
suited for agriculture because of fer
tility and character of soil and moder-
ate slope of surface and the study of
the ways in which such areas may
best be handled to prevent their own
destruction through erosion, as we'll
as the destruction of fother lands and
property by the waste material they
deposit and the floods they help to
generate.
Much of the area is not properly
agricultural land and should not be
cleared and forced into agricultural
use, because that forcing means quick
destruction both of the area itself and
of the lower lying areas on the same
streamways. Such misuse means also
slower but none the less sure inter-
ference with navigation on the more
remote parts of the major stream sys-
TENS. 40
The forester would protect steep
slopes by keeping them clothed with
timber, coax back tree growth on de-
nuded areas, keep down forest fires,
protect and perpetuate the supply of
hard wood, protect the game and fish,
and enhance the beauty and charm of
che region as a health and pleasure
resort, as we'll as prevent the naviga-
BILE streams that flow from these
mountains from filling up with the
sand silt whose removal is now cost
ing annually large sums of money.
Prof. Glenn gives also an account
of study made in the basin of
Monongahela River in West Virginia
and Pennsylvania soon after the
great flood of March, 1907, which
destroyed millions of dollars worth OF
property.
The report is published as PROBES.
sional Paper IL of the United States
Geological Survey, and can be hat
free by applying to the Director o.
the Survey at Washington. 1t con
sists of 1873 pages and is illustrates
by maps and half tone plates.