The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-04-14
THE FOREST OF SUNBURST'
Territory Thus Designated Lies
In The DenseSt Portion of
The Forest Area In Western
North Car0lina-The Oldest
Forest Land On The Cont
nent
(By X. S. CARRAWAY.)

New York. April - Amerl-
can Geographical Society and the AS
ISOLATION of American Geographers
held their annual joint meeting at the
society's building on Upper Broadway
this week. and one of the most in
teresting apers read before he mem
bers was hat Of Prof. Collier Cobb.
of the University of North Carolina,
who chose as a subject The Forest
OF S~unburst.' Prof. Cobb said in
part:
"~Seventy-six per cent. Of western
North Carolina is still under forest
cover. or a little more than three mil
lion acres Of forest land is found in
sixteen counties. The For
est OF Sunburst lies in the densest
portion of his forest area, occupying
the slopes of Pisgah Range and the
high balsams and the valleys and
coves included between them. thus
covering the whole Of the upper por-
tor OF the basin OF Pigeon River and
its tributaries.
The mountains Of North Carolina
are the oldest forest land on the con-
tinent. and the otanist and plant
geographers are agreed that the de-
ciduou forests OF eastern North
America have been derived from that
forest which reaches its greatest de-
Veiopment i'll this mountainous region
OF western North Carolina.
while the hard woods of the
northern United States have migrated
from the mountains since the last
glacial period. it seems equally GER
tain that the coniferous growth on
the Balsams and other high noun
tains was forced south at the time OF
the greatest extension Of the ice sheet
n is able to survive now only in
the cooler atmosphere of our high
mountains.
The mean annual temperature il
these mountains is forty-eight de-
grees. and, in the valleys they en-.
close. ffty-four degrees Fahrenheit
while the rainfall OF the region, mos
OF which comes in the growing sea.
son. is Sc evenly inches. being create,
than that for any other portion O
the United States, except the Puge
Sound region.
This forest region was but sparsel,
inhabited a century and a half ago
though a few men OF the better elias
had moved from the lowlands int,
the Mountains. None of the poo
whites ventured across the Blu
Ridge. and the term 'mountail
whites applied to these highlanders
in distinction from the so-called poo
whites is wholly misleading, sine
the m-ountaineerS were never of thi
class.
The First FrOnticrsmcn.
The first frontierSmen in his for
est region were those from Swiss an
German PalatineS, who began flock
ing into Pennsylvania late III tn
seventeenth century They settle
originally to the westward Of tn
Quakers in the fertile limestone bell
at the foot Of the Blue Ridge and tn
Alleghenies. Here they formed tn
Quaker's buffer against the Indian
and for some time, theirs were tt
nSfcrnynp oct Saft1amapt IF prif icI, cnl
jects in America. These German
were Of the Reformed or Luthera
faith. They were strongly democrat
in a social sense, and detested SLAYER
They were model farmers, and mar
OF them were skilled workmen
trades.
These were later followed
Scotch-Irish. who came from list
county. Ireland. when their leas
from James | had expired. and tn,
were prosecuted and eyicted. Frou,
tells us that. in the two years tn
followed the Antrim evictions. 800
ProteStants left Ulster for a la
where there was 10 legal robbery. al
where those who Sowed the seed cou
reap the harvest
These people settled on the froT
Ter of the British colonies in Amerit
all the way from Central Massach
sets To the Valley of Virginia. bel
IN fcnnSy lNaUlh just pc Gnu Tic w
man settlements Immediately tn
began fighting the Indians, and era
ually extended their conquest do'
into the Piedmont and mountain
gions OF the South. From Lancast
York. and Berks county. Pa. a
the ancestors of the men who Ia
counted for most in tbs section fro
Daniel Boone and Daptd Crockett
John G. Calhoun and William