Amicus Curiae Brief — Georgia v. Tennessee Copper Co.
Supreme Court brief1906
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Office Supreme Cou, u.
ee ens Sipe aed
JAMES D. MAHER,
OLERK.
No. 1——,, Original.
Inthe Supreme Court of the Wnited States,
OctroBerR TERM, 1917.
Tue Srate or Georaia, PLaINtirr,
v.
Tur TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND THE DvUcK-
TOWN SULPHUR, CoPPER AND [RON COMPANY,
LIMITED, DEFENDANTS.
BRIEF OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL AS AMICUS CURIZ
AND IN BEHALF OF THE UNITED STATES.
WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1918
Inthe Supreme Gourtof the United States,
OcroBER TERM, 1917.
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, PLAINTIFF, |
v. ue
- ' | No. 1—,
Tue TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND } Tectia
| Original.
The Ducktown Sulphur, Copper and |
Iron Company, Limited, defendants.
BRIEF OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL AS AMICUS CURIZ
AND IN BEHALF OF THE UNITED STATES.
The United States has not heretofore had an
interest in this litigation. But early in the present
year the need of the Government for copper and
sulphuric acid in carrying on its war operations
became so urgent that the chairman of the War
Industries Board of the Council of National Defense,
acting for himself and the Secretary of the Navy,
addressed a letter to the Attorney General requesting
him to endeavor to secure such a modification of the
injunction in this case as would enable the defendant
company, The Ducktown Sulphur, Copper and Iron
Company, Limited, to increase its output of both of
the above-named products, saying:
There is a grave shortage in sulphuric-acid
production, and we have been utilizing the
59096—18
»)
entire copper production of the United States
in our military program. Both of these ma-
terials are fundamental in the manufacture of
our war munitions, and anything that can be
done to stimulate their production will be of
benefit.
The United States not being a party to the pend-
ing litigation, the Attorney General could not ask for
a modification of the injunction, but, believing that
the officials of the State of Georgia would riot object
to a reasonable and temporary modification of the
injunction, he advised that they be requested not to
4 oppose an application to that effect.
And on Apri! 19 last the Acting Seeretary of the
Navy addressed to the Attorney General the fol-
i lowing communication:
In accordance with the suggestion stated
in your letter to Mr. B. M. Baruch, Chairman
of the War Industries Board, February 7, 1918,
concerning the sulphuric acid and copper pro-
duction of The Ducktown Sulphur, Copper and
Iron Company, a letter was forwarded to the
Attorney General of the State of Georgia in
accordance with the attached copy, to which
no rep'y has been received.
Since it is desired to stimulate the pro
duction of sulphuric acid and copper at this
time, it is desired to inquire whether there
q
a
3
3
i
4
‘ is any further action which might consistently
be taken to secure the modification of the in-
{ junction which limits the production of these
materials by The Ducktown Sulphur, Copper
and Iron Company.
Oe penny ke we
3
Accordingly, the defendant, The Ducktown Sul-
phur, Copper and Iron Company, Limited, having filed
a motion to modify the injunction, it is deemed proper
to present the interest of the United States in the
matter; and a copy of this brief having been furnished
to the attorney general of Georgia, the following
propositions are submitted in support of the defend-
ant’s motion:
(1) If the officials of the State of Georgia do not
appear to oppose the motion, it should be assumed
that they have patriotically yielded to the appeal
made to them by the Secretary of the Navy, and the
modification asked should be made as of course.
(2) If opposition is interposed, it should be over-
ruled, because any possible damage that could result
from the slight modification asked ought not to
weigh against the need of the Nation, in its hour of
peril, to use its resources for the common good and
the safety of the country.
Respectfully submitted.
JoHN W. Davis,
Solicitor General.
May, 1918.
O
Supreme Court of the United States.
October Term, aoe 5; 19j2.
-—
No. @#F- Original.
THE Ss ATE OF GEORGIA, sy its AtrorRNEY-GENERAL,
. JOHN C. HART, Pvarntirr,
US.
THE TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND THE
DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
COMPANY (LIMITED), Derenpanrts.
IN EQUITY.
EVIDENCE PRODUCED BY COMPLAINANT ON FINAL
HEARING.
Joun C. Hart,
Attorney-General of Georgia.
Ligon JOHNSON,
Solicitor for Complainant,
~ ATLANTA, GA.
THE FRANLIN-TURNER COMPANY, ATLANTA, GA.
INDEX.
Abandoned lands, in the region affected by fumes. 94 to 97.
Admissions by defendants :
Of original injury and agreement to abate same. 1 to 4.
Of reason for installing new process (profits). 100, 101, 103, 104.
Of causes occasioning the erection of the high stack. 103, 104.
Of ability to remedy injury by precipitating gas into sulphuric
acid. 103.
Atmosphere rendered foul by fumes and dense and dark, see affidavits
under “General Injury,’ also photographic effect of fumes in pic-
ture exhibits of Jones and Edwards and R. I. Smith.
Chemical effect of fumes and destruction of vegetation by sulphur
dioxid. 5 to 23.
Comfort of inhabitants and enjoyment of property in said region de-
nied by fumes. See affidavits under ‘General Injury,” “Injury by
Single Visitation of Fumes” and ‘‘Health.”
Commission, second report of Georgia’s, on condition of Ducktown re-
gion in 1906, after operation of new furnaces and tall stack. 63.
Employees, defendan’s’ witrfesses identified as. 399 to 408, 423, 424, 827
to 833.
Experts produced by Complainants
Chemists— ;
J. K. Haywood, 5.
J. K. Haywood (2). 9.
Jobu M. McCandless. 18
Furesters—
J.S. Holmes. 38.
A.B. Patterson, 41
D A Jones. 47.
L. D. Rogers, 44.
FE. Buffington, 57.
A. E. Starpe, 59.
M L Mauney, 61
C. A. Keefer, 66.
II INDEX.
Entomologists—
W.F. Fiske, 24.
R. I. Smith, 27.
R. I. Smith (2), 82.
Wilmon Newell, 35.
Geologist—
W.S. Yeates, 91.
Erosion of soil as a result of the destruction of vegetation, 76 to 8°,
84 to 93. Also photographic views, plates, I, IXd, XX, XXI, XXII,
XXIII, XXIV, XXXIV, XXXV, and XXXVI of exhibit ‘‘South-
ern Appalachian Region,” and photographic exhibits by R. I. Smith
and A. B. Patterson.
Fertilizer, manufacture and use of sulphuric acid in, 111 to 134.
Floods resulting from the destruction of forests and vegetation, 76 to 91.
See also plates 15, XXXIV, XXXV and XXXVI, ‘The Southern
Appalachian Region.”
Forest fires, influences inducing same, showing the increased suscepti-
bility of Ducktown region by destruction of leafage and vegetation
inthe dry midsummer, 87, 263, 266, 284, and affidavits under ‘‘Gen-
eral Injury.”
Forest Influences (generally), 76 to 91.
Forests, Character of, in counties affected by fumes. see Exhibit For-
est Map, Bureau of Forestry, also affidavits of experts ‘‘Foresters,”’
and United States Bulletins specified pn pages 83, 86 to 91.
General Injury:
Destruction of crops, gardens, orchards and forest, ruin of farming
and lumbering industries, abandunment of farms and lands, in-
juries to roads and highways, destruction of vocation and means
of livelihood of the inhabitants of the Ducktown region up to
the winter of 1905, testimony of 1,500 witnesses, 138 to 445.
Vast increase of all injuries and territory subject thereto after six
months operation of the new furnaces and tall stack of the Ten-
nessee Copper Company, testimony of over 2,000 witnesses, 452
to 844.
Health, effect of fumes on, 146, 174, 204, 210, 300, 301, 408, 428.
See also judicial declaration by the Supreme Court of Tennessee in
case of Madison vs. Copper Co., 113 Tenn. 340.
Injury by single visitation of fumes before tall stack and new furnaces
completed, 140, 145, 166, 172, 188, 198, 216, 223, 242, 245, 278, 289, 293,
295, 312.
ae : OLLI —_—
—
INDEX. Ill
Injury by a single visitation of the fumes during the summer of 1906,
after operation of new stack and furnaces. 551 to 573, 622 to 640,
679 to 724, 734 to 744, 750 to 820.
Lands, loss of value of, throughout territory subject to fumes, see affi-
davits under ‘‘Abandoned Lands” and ‘‘General Injury.”
Means of sustenance and livelihood destroyed, see “Abandoned Lands”
and affidavits under “General Injury” declaring the ruin of farms
and destruction of farming and lumbering pursuits.
Pasture, the mountain region unavailable for pasture lands, 87.
Phosphate rock, production of, in States adjacent to Tennessee, 119
to 120. .
Valueless except in conjunction with equal or greater weight of
sulphuric acid, 111 to 119. :
Incinerating plant removed from interior to point on Georgia line, map
showing former location, 102,
Affidavits declaring removal, 232, 316, 337, 349.
Revenue, loss of, see “Abandoned Farms,’’ “Lands, Loss of Value,’
and also decrease in taxes specified on page 97.
Roads and Highways, injuries to generally, see affidavits ‘General In-
jury,”
Testimony of Road Commissioners, 148, 198, 223, 258, 271, 300, 302.
Specific affidavits by citizens, 205, 210, 245, 310, 317, 368, 384,
337 to 445.
Picture Exhibits R. I. Smith, showing soil erosion, and United
States Governmental report ‘Southern Appalachian Region’’
and plates therein.
Sulphur dioxid, definition and description, 105.
Cost per ton to produce for precipitation into acid, 111 to 119.
Precipitation of into sulphuric acid, 15, 103, 104.
Sulphuric acid :
Uses of, 105, 106.
Partial consumption of, 106 to 184.
In fertilizers, 111 to 134.
Price per ton, 135.
Gross possible production by defendants, 136.
Taxes paid by defendants’ witnesses, alleged citizens of Georgia, 406,
407, 416, 417, 420, 421, 838, 834, 835.
————
IV INDEX.
United States, Departmental Bulletins:
“Injury to Vegetation by Smelter Fumes,” Bulletin 89 Department
of Agriculture, Bureau of Chemistry, 13.
‘‘Forest Influences,” Bulletin 7, Department of Agriculture, 76.
“Water Supply and Irrigation,” papers 62 and 80, Geological Sur-
vey, 82, 83.
“Washed Soils,” Farmers’ Bulletin No. 20, Department of “Agricul-
turh, 84, 85. 86.
“Southern Appalachian Region,” joint report of Bureau of Forestry
and Geological Survey, being Senate Document 84, 57th Congress,
Ist session, 86 to 91.
“Qopper,” for years 1900-1905, Geological Survey, 98 to 101.
‘Production of Phosphate Rock,” 1905, Geological Survey, 119, 120.
Water Supply, effect of destruction of forest and vegetation upon, 76
to 91.
Valleys, farm lands in outlying, ruined by floods, erosion and debris
where vegetation destroyed, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 85, 87, 88, 89, 90 91;
see also plates, I, IXb, XX, XXIII, XXIV, XXXIV, XXXV,
XXXVI, Exhibit “‘Southern Appalachian Region.”
TESTIMONY and EXHIBITS
COMPLAINANT
No. 5 ORIGINAL. be
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1906.
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY-
GENERAL, JoHN C. Hart,
Plaintiff,
US. :
In Equity.
—~_-—— .
THE TENNESSEE CoppER CoMPANY AND THE
DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, CopPpER AND IRON
CoMPANY (LIMITED),
De/endants.
TESTIMONY AND EXHIBITS OF THE COMPLAIN-
ANT, THE STATE OF GEORGIA, UPON FINAL
HEARING.
LETTER OF DEFENDANTS PROPOSING TO ABAN-
DON OLD METHOD FOR ONE CLAIMED TO
REMEDY THE NUISANCE.
February 9, 1904.
Gov. Jos. M. Terrell, Atlanta, Ga.
Dear Sir: Referring to the proceeding instituted by the
State of Georgia v. The State of Tennessee et al., I beg to ad-
vise you that as President of the Tennessee Copper Co., one
of the co-defendants in this suit, that we are now preparing to
make such changes in our smelting operations that I am of the
opinion, and in fact can guarantee to you, that by the 1st of
August, 1904, we will have ceased producing smoke from our
2
roast yards. At the present time the Ducktown Sulphur, Cop-
per and Iron Co. has entirely ceased roasting any ore and the
roast yards are abandoned. The Tennessee Copper Company
is awaiting the installation of a third blowing engine, and when
this is erected, so that the third furnace may be put in operation,
they also intend to cease putting any more green ore upon the
roast yards. This date we presume will be about the "st Jf
April.
I desire to call your attention to the fact that it takes from
three to four months to roast ore after it has once been lighted,
and, therefore, it is physically impossible to stop the roasting
when it is once under way. To be concise, our proposed method
of smelting, which is now in successful use by the Ducktown
Company, is to smelt the green ore directly in blast furnaces
without preliminary roasting. The result is that, instead of
producing smoke, only a gas is produced, which being heated
and concentrated, immediately rises to a great elevation and
becomes so diluted with air as to be practically dissipated.
I call your attention to our intentions in this matter, so that
you may postpone any action against us until such times as we
have demonstrated the practical success of this new method,
and which, as I say, we have every reason to believe will be in
full operation in August or September of this year.
Yours very truly,
(Signed) J. PARK CHANNING,
Pres. Tennessee Copper Co.
On behalf of the Ducktown Sulphur, Copper and Iron Com-
pany (Ltd.) I beg to state the discovery of a new process has
enabled this company to abolish the former practice of roasting
its ore, that the new process is now in actual and successful
operation, and that the roasting of ore will not again be re-
sumed.
(Signed) W. H. FREELAND,
Gen. Mgr. Ducktown &., C. & I. C. (Ltd.).
AGREEMENT TO ABANDON OLD PROCESS AND
TO DISMISS CAUSE.
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1903.
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, | )
vs.
THE DuCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND
IRON Company, THE TENNESSEE Cop- > In Equity.
PER COMPANY, AND THE PITTSBURG
AND TENNESSEE CoppER Co.,
Defendants. J
Wuereas, The State of Georgia filed its bill in equity
against the above-named defendants on the day of
1904, in the Supreme Court of the United States, which
suit is now pending, in which bill of complaint it is alleged hy
the State of Georgia that her public domain is injured by the
defendant copper companies above named by the certain sul-
phurous smoke, fumes, and gases originated by the defendants
in the operation of their open roast-heaps for treating copper
and sulphur ores; and
WuHereas, At the time said suit was filed the Ducktown
Sulphur, Copper and Iron Company (Limited) and the Pitts-
burg and Tennessee Copper Company was no longer roasting
their ores in the open beds or roast-heaps, producing the alleged
dense smoke and attendant fumes and gases complained of;
and
Wuenreas, The Tennessee Copper Company, since the filing
of the bill in this cause, has abandoned the roasting process,
and has lighted its last roast-heap, and that each and all of
said companies have heretofore and hy this agreement declared
7 Re.
that after the present ignited heaps have burned out neithe-
of them will again return to said method of roasting their ores,
of which method the State of Georgia especially complained :
It is therefore agreed between the State of Georgia and tlie
defendants, in consideration of this stipulation on the part of
said companies not to return to said method of roasting their
said ores, that an order shall be entered specifying that sa:!
bill shall be dismissed.
It is further agreed that this stipulation and agreement shal!
be made a part of and filed in said case, and an order of dis-
missal issued in accordance therewith.
‘t is further stipulated that the dismissal of said suit shall
in nowise be construed as an adjudication of any of the ques-
tions involved therein, and that it shall not operate to tlic
prejudice of the rights of either or any of the parties beyon:!
the terms of this agreement.
The Tennessee Copper Company.
By HOWARD CORNICK, of counsel.
The Pittsburg and Tennessee Copper Co.
; By HOWARD CORNICK, of counsel.
The Ducktown Sulphur, Copper and Iron Co. (Ltd.).
By W. H. FREELAND, General Manager.
The State of Georgia.
By JOHN C. HART, Atorney-General of Georgia.
LIGON JOHNSON, Special Attorney.
AFFIDAVIT OF J. K. HAYWOOD,
U. S. CHEMIST.
No. 5 ORTGANAT..
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1996
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY- \
1
GENERAL, JOHN C. Harr, '
7arnttf!, |
| .
VS. \ z
) In Equity.
THE TENNESSEE Coprper Covpayy anp Tue |
DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND [IRON
COMPANY (LiMIrED),
De enrants. !
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
District of Columbia.
Personally appeared, J. K. Haywood, who, being duly sworn
in the above styled and numbered cause, deposes and says:
Deponent is a chemist by profession, and is now Chief of
the Miscellaneous Laboratory, Bureau of Chemistry, United
States Department of Agriculture.
Deponent, in his official capacity, and under the direction of
the Bureau of Chemistry, made for said Bureau at the request
of the Bureau of Forestry, an investigation of the territory ia
and around the locality of Ducktown, Tennessee, for the pur-
pose of determining whether or not the fumes of the copper
plants in that vicinity were injurious to vegetation and the ex-
tent of same. These copper plants are located in a depression
in the mountains of southeastern Tennessee, southwestern
ens Sone pesgee
6
North Carolina and northern Georgia, the depression being
greatest in length in the southeasterly and northwesterly direc-
tion, and shortest toward the west and eastward.
In the process of reducing ore and extracting copper, used by
said copper plants, the sulphur originally present in said ore is
burned and given off in the air principally as sulphur dioxid,
but to some extent as sulphur trioxid. For each pound of sul-
phur burned, two pounds of sulphur dioxid are formed and
given off into the atmosphere, a part of which acts directly on
the foliage of the trees and plant life generally. Sooner or
later, however, all of the sulphur dioxid is changed by action
of the oxygen of the air into sulphur trioxid. The moisture
present in the air unites with this sulphur trioxid to form the
highly corrosive compound sulphuric acid, which, in its turn
acts upon the delicate foliage.
Prior to the investigation at Ducktown, and in connection
with the investigation made by the United States Bureau of
Chemistry as to the injuries to vegetation from fumes arising
from the copper smelting works of the Mountain Copper Com-
pany near Redding, Shasta county, California, deponent made
full experiments in said Bureau of Chemistry in order that he
might verify from his individual experience the effect of the
sulphur dioxid upon plant life, and from said experiments, as
well as experiments made by others, it was conclusively demon-
strated that sulphur dioxid was destructive to plant life, and
that when present, even in very small quantities in the air,
kills vegetation.
Under the processes now in vogue in the Ducktown locality,
the fumes are liberated from smokestacks or chimneys, and,
consequently, are much stronger at their point of exit from
the chimney by reason of their concentration and liberation
from these necessarily narrow and circumscribed localities,
than those generated and given off from open roast heaps and
yards of equal capacity. Owing to the fact that the stacks or
chimneys through which the fumes are liberated are quite low
as compared with the surrounding country, the plants being
located in the valleys or depressions, as heretofore stated, the
gases do not havea very good chance to diffuse into the circuim-
ambient atmosphere before they are swept by the wind cur-
Rae sa
-—
7
rents down the valleys, along the water-courses, and over the
higher wooded ridges and hills of the surrounding regions.
The injuries done to surrounding vegetation, within the
radius of the harmful influence of the sulphur dioxid is very
great. In the immediate vicinity of the plants nearly all vegeta-
tion has been destroyed, and for a distance varying from about
two to five miles from said plants the earth is practically desti-
tute of vegetable growth, other than resistant species of grasses.
Beyond this zone there is much injury, the damage, however,
in most instances decreasing as the distance increases, but is
greater, as before stated, towards the southeast and northwest,
and in those directions where the vegetation is not protected by
the barriers of high hills or mountain ranges. The territory
affected in the Ducktown vicinity seems to be somewhat greater
and the damage more extensive than that caused by similar
fumes in the Shasta county, California, territory.
The Shasta county smelter is situated in a narrow valley,
or what might also be termed a cut between the mountains ; its
highest chimneys are below the level of the surrounding land.
In a northerly and westerly direction other narrow gulches
branch off from the main one in which the smelter is located,
through which gulches the fumes drift. Much more territory
is included in the main basin and valleys subject to the Duck-
town fumes.
In relation to the production of sulphur dioxid by the Ten-
nessee copper companies, estimated upon the production of
twenty-five million pounds of copper per annum, and assuming
the works will produce their full capacity of copper when the
furnaces are opened, the following results are given:
The ore of said copper mines carries 3 per cent. or a little
less of copper, and it seems safe to estimate that at least 2 per
cent. is extracted; therefore, the original ore from which the
25,000,000 pounds per annum of copper was extracted amounts
to 1,250,000,000 pounds of ore per annum. The ore is said
to contain on an average 19 per cent. sulphur, so that the
amount of sulphur dioxid that could be obtained from this ore
would amount to 475,000,000 pounds per annum. All of the
sulphur, however, does not form sulphur dioxid, but part is
retained in the slag. However, it seems safe to assume that
8
go per cent. of the sulphur is given off into the atmosphere «s
sulphur dioxid. On this basis 427,500,000 pounds of sulphur
dioxid would be given off annually. This would be enough
to contaminate 42,750,000,000,000 pounds of air with one
part of SO, to 100,000 parts of air, or enough to contan-
inate 529,000,000,000,000 cubic feet of air with one part of
SO, to 100,000 parts of air. This contaminated air would
cover an area of 189,752 square miles, to a depth of 100 feet.
For a period of one day the atmosphere for a thickness of
100 feet would be contaminated for 520 square miles, or in a
circle with the furnace in the center the contaminated atmos-
phere would extend nearly thirteen miles in every direction.
Sulphur dioxid in the atmosphere of the strength of 1 to 100,-
000 is injurious to vegetation and.as little as one pound tuo
1,000.000 has been proven to be also injurious.
The witness is also of the opinion that the maximum of
injuries from the sulphur dioxid produced by said copper com-
panies, operating at their present capacity, has not been reached,
but will increase both in volume and in the scope of territory
covered with the continued production and liberation of said
fumes. If the production is doubled, the injuries will be mul-
tiplied.
With each zone of timber killed it would appear that the
carrying power of said fumes is increased, inasmuch as the
destruction of timber and vegetation permits the fumes to travel
further before being absorbed.
Deponent can not see why chimneys, even higher than those
now used, can possibly relieve the situation. As heretofore
stated, the smelters are within a depression’in the mountains
practically surrounded at varying distances by mountain ranges
considerably higher than said chimneys, and the increase in
height of said chimneys by one or two hundred feet even,
would merely result in giving said fumes a greater carrying
power and a consequent ability to damage vegetation at greater
distances.
J. K. HAYWOOD.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 27th day of No-
vember, 1905.
A. ZAPHONE,
Notary Public District of Columbia.
—
SECOND AFFIDAVIT OF J. K. HAYWOOD, EM-
BRACING EXAMINATION SEPTEMBER, 1906.
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1906.
GENERAL, JOHN C. HART,
Plainttf/,
VS. e
In Equity.
Tur TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND THE
DvuCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
Tur STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY- |
CoMPANY (LIMITED),
Detfenaants.
Unrrep States oF AMERICA—District of Columbia.
Personally appeared J. K. Haywood who, being duly sworn
in the above-styled and numbered cause, deposes and says:
Deponet is a chemist by profession, and is now Chief of
the Miscellaneous Laboratory, Bureau of Chemistry, of the
United States Department of Agriculture.
Deponent, in his official capacity, and under the direction of
the Bureau of Chemistry, made, in the summer of 1905, for
said Bureau, at the request of the Bureau of Forestry, an in-
vestigation of the territory in and around Ducktown, Tennes-
see, for the purpose of determining for said departments
whether or not the fumes of the copper plants in that vicinity
were injurious to timber and vegetation, and if so, the extent
of same. The result of this investigation deponent has here-
tofore incorporated in an affidavit in the above-styled cause.
10
Deponent, in his said official capacity, and at the instance of
said Bureau, was again, to wit, in September, 1906, ordered to
investigate said territory, with special reference to that within
the State of Georgia and contiguous to the Ducktown region,
to determine whether or not the injury to timber and vegeta-
tion caused by the Ducktown smelter fumes was greater or
less in extent than it was when deponent made his examination
about one year ago, when deponent was making a study of
said question as heretofore stated.
Not only upon deponent’s previous inspection of the terri-
tory adjoining the Ducktown region, and the various tests and
examinations made thereunder, but also by deponent’s exami-
nation of the effects of sulphur fumes liberated by copper com-
panies in Northern California and through numerous experi-
ments personally conducted by deponent, has this deponent
familiarized himself with the effects of sulphur dioxid upoa
vegetation and timber generally, the quantity and volume nec-
essary to produce injury or death, and the appearance of tim-
ber, foliage and vegetation subjected to the hurtful influence of
said fumes.
Deponent’s second examination of said territory in Septem-
ber, 1906, was confined to the counties of Fannin and Gilmer,
in the State of Georgia, and was partly over territory pre-
viously examined in 1905, which at said time disclosed either,
but unconspicuous or no damage from sulphur fumes.
Beginning at Ellijay, Georgia, about twenty-three miles
airline south of the plants of the copper companies, deponent
made an examination to the westward about two miles, and
upon another trip to the southwest from three to four miles.
From about one mile to the westward of Ellijay, as far as this
deponent examined in a westerly and a northwesterly direction,
there was grave damage to timber. The damage was especially
to be noted in the case of blackjacks, and to somewhat less ex-
tent of black, red and Spanish oaks. The greater part of the
damage had all the indications and appearance of injury by
sulphur fumes, the other injury to timber being only that usu-
ally incident to forests and timber growth under practically
normal healthy conditions; that is to say, occasional and in-
significant injury by lightning, insects and the like, and depo-
11
nent is of the opinion that practically all the damage over and
above the usual conditions in said locality is attributable to the
smelter fumes given off by the copper companies in the opera-
tion of their plants. The region herein referred to, and subject
to said harmful influence of said smelter fumes lies from about
twenty-one to twenty-five miles south by west of Ducktown in
an airline.
Another trip was made from said first-named locality in
Gilmer county to Santa Luca, thence across Boardtown creek
to the southern part of Fannin county ; thence to the Louisville
& Nashville Railroad, where it intersects the Gilmer and Fan-
nin county lines; thence to the hamlets of Cherry Log and
Whitepath, and from said points back to Ellijay, Georgia.
These examinations carried deponent as far north as the south-
ern line of conspicuous injury as disclosed by deponent’s said
investigation of 1905. Practically all the territory included
in the localities heretofore specified lay to the southward and
beyond the zone of conspicuous injury as shown by deponent’s
said first examination.
The examination of 1906 disclosed that the zone on con-
spicuous injury had greatly increased. From about a mile
north of Ellijay to Santa Luca considerable damage to the
forest was to be noted, especially to the blackjacks, black, red
and Spanish oaks. From about one mile north of Santa Luca
on across Boardtown creek, and on into the southern part of
Fannin county, to the point where the county-line crosses the
railroad, very severe damage to the forest was to be noted.
Here not only were the blackjack oak, black, red and Spanish
oaks injured and discolored, but short-leaf and scrub pines,
which are fairly resistent to fumes, were also injured and dis-
colored. Throughout this whole region just named, the white
pines were very badly damaged.
From the point mentioned in the previous paragraph on
down to Whitepath, the damage was just about as severe, and
the same classes of trees were damaged as described in the
preceding paragraph. From Whitepath on to Turniptown
creek there is still damage to the foliage, but not so great as
was observed north of Whitepath. South of Turniptown creek
the damage is not so great or so continuous as in the other
12
localities heretofore noted, but occasional damage is observed
in this direction on down to Ellijay. The damage is, of
course, not equally distributed in all directions at equal dis-
tances from the furnaces. The topography of the country has
considerable bearing upon the injury, as a locality sheltered hy
mountain barriers may be practically immune, when another
neighborhood at a greater distance not so sheltered, or adjoin-
ing to a stream or valley lands opening into the Ducktown ba-
sin may suffer severely.
Deponent is of the opinion that the severe damage that is to
be noted this summer (1906) down to Whitepath on one han‘!
and a mile north of Santa Luca on the other hand, is just as
severe as the damage noted one year ago, about one mile north
of Blue Ridge, Georgia, which points are from about eight to
eleven miles farther south.
Deponent is also of the opinion that the damage noted this
summer (1906) west and southwest of Ellijay is almost as
great as the damage noted one year ago in the region almost
southwest of Blue Ridge in the southern portion of -Fannin
county, Georgia, from fifteen to eighteen miles further north.
From deponent’s investigations and examinations, deponent
is of the opinion that the far greater portion of the damage
hereinbefore noted is attributable solely to the sulphur fumes
of the copper companies near Ducktown; that is to say, that
practically all the damage is attributable to said fumes, other
than the usual and normal injury to be found in average
healthy forests similarly situated from occasional and com-
paratively insignificant insect injury, lightning and the like.
Deponent is further of the opinion that the area of the sme!-
ter fumes has greatly increased during the present summer
over what is was one year ago.
J. K. Haywoop.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 17th day of Sep-
tember, 1906.
Leon M. EsraBrook,
Notary Public, District of Columbia.
——______f
—
13
EXTRACTS FROM BULLETIN 89, U. S. DEPART-
MENT OF AGRICULTURE, BUREAU OF CHEM-
ISTRY—TOPIC: “INJURY TO VEG-
ETATION BY SMELTER
FUMES.”
Nov. 15th, ‘04.
Beinc Reports OF EXAMINATIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF
CHEMISTRY OF THE EFFECT OF SULPHUR D1oxip Upon
PLANT LIFE AND THE INSPECTION OF IN-
JURIES OCCASIONED BY A SINGLE
CoprER PLANT IN SHASTA
County, CALIFORNIA.
“The investigation described in this bulletin was undertaken
at the request of the United States Department of Justice in
consequence of a suit brought by the United States against
the Mountain Copper Company (Limited), a corporation oper-
ating a large copper-smelting plant situated near Redding,
Shasta County, Cal. The investigation was made to show
whether or not the fumes from this plant are injurious to veg-
etation, and, if such injury exists, over how large an area it
extends. While the company is willing to acknowledge dam-
age over a certain limited area surrounding the plant it was
thought by the plaintiff in the case that this damage extended
over a much larger area than was acknowledged by the de-
fendant.
“The writer was detailed to inspect the disputed area and
take such samples for chemical analysis as might appear to be
necessary. It was constantly borne in mind during this inves-
tigation that for a certain distance injury to vegetation was
acknowledged, so that the taking of samples in this area was
unnecessary. Consequently all samples of vegetation were
taken either on the extreme edge or outside of the area of ac-
knowledged damage, which, when plotted on the map, shows
itself in the form of an irregular ellipse surrounding the smel-
ter and extending about 3 miles north, 2!%4 miles south, 1 mile
east and 3 1miles west.
14
“The smelter is situated in a narrow valley, or what might
almost be termed a cut between the mountains. Its highest
chimneys are far below the level of the surrounding land. In
~ anortherly and westerly direction other narrow gulches branch
off from this main one, so that the fumes have a tendency to
keep togetlier and drift for long distances in these natura]
chimneys. In a southerly direction the fumes, after drifting
over one high hill, have an uninterrupted sweep down the
valley of the Sacramento. In an easterly direction the fumes
pass, in the main, down the valley of a small stream and finally
find outlet at the river, where they have a nearly uninterrupted
sweep in both a southerly and an easterly direction.
“Immediately surrounding the smelting works practically
all vegetation was entirely dead. Nothing was left of the trees
but the barkless trunks, and no green grass was to be seen.
In a northerly direction, as far as Copley (about 3% miles),
it was noted that large numbers of trees were either dead or
dying, this being especially true of pines. Even for a mile and
more beyond Copley numbers of the trees were dead, and others
though living did not appear to be strong and healthy. In an
easterly direction and beyond the river the damage was not so
great, yet even here for 2%4 to 3 miles and more the leaves of
nearly all oak trees were turning brown and dying.
“In a southerly direction great damage was observed to all
classes of trees for about 3 miles, or to the southern road run-
ning between Redding and Shasta. Still farther south, in
Happy Valley (about 9 or 10 miles distant from the smelter),
it was observed that large numbers of fruit trees, especially
the peaches, which are very sensitive to injurious substar <s,
were badly injured. This injury showed itself in the follow-
ing way: The leaves would turn prematurely red and yellow
(just as they do when sprayed with Paris green containing coo
much soluble arsenic) and drop off of the branches, leaving the
fruit exposed, sometimes for 2 to 3 feet from the end of the
branch. The trees did not appear to be suffering from a lack
of water, nor from disease or insect pests, so that this injury
was very likely due to the sulphur dioxid fumes. Further than
this, several ranchers were interviewed, who said that when
the wind was in a southerly direction the odor of the fumes
_—
15
could be plainly detected in their orchards and that soon after
this leaves usually began to drop. In a westerly direction
great damage to a large number of trees was observed all the
way to Whisky Town, about 5 miles from the smelter. Be-
yond Whisky Town the injury was not so great, but for a mile
and more some of the trees were dead and large numbers did
not appear to be vigorous and healthy, i. e., they were stunted
in growth, had much Jess than the normal amount of foliage,
and what foliage there was did not have a healthy green color.
“Before describing the investigation as made, the principles
of elementary chemistry involved will be given for the benefit
of readers who, though not chemists, may desire to use the
data.
CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE INVESTIGATION.
“The ore used by the Mountain Copper Company consists
largely of sulphids of iron and copper. During the process of
extracting the copper it is first calcined in appropriate furnaces
to get rid of a large part of the sulphur. (Page 8.) It is then
fused with a silicious flux, which removes more of the sulphur
and a large part of the iron. This process is repeated until a
product quite rich in copper is obtained. Finally, the impure
copper is placed in a blast furnace with a silicious lining, where
the remainder of the impurities, consisting of iron, julphur,
etc., are either fluxed or burned off.
“In practically all of these processes the sulphur originally
present in the ore is burned and given off into the air, princi-
pally as sulphur dioxid, but to some extent as sulphur trioxid. -
For each pound of sulphur burned 2 pounds of sulphur dioxid
are formed and given off into the atmosphere, a part of which
acts directly on the foliage of the trees. Sooner or later, how-
ever, all of the sulphur dioxid is changed by the action of the
oxygen of the air into sulphur trioxid, and it is in this form
that we may expect to find it in the foliage of trees. The
moisture present in the air unites with this sulphur trioxid to
form the highly corrosive compound sulphuric acid, w’.ich in
its turn acts upon the delicate foliage.” (Page 9.)
; _.
4 EXPERIMENTAL WORK.
VISIBLE INJURY TO VEGETATION BY SULPHUR DIOXID.
COMPILED DATA.
‘ “First, it must be ascertained whether sulphur dioxid does
injure vegetation, how small a quantity. may be injurious, and
through what organs of the plant such injury takes place.
Light is thrown on these points by the work of several foreign
’ chemists. M. Freytag showed conclusively by experimental
work that the sulphur dioxid and trioxid in the air does not
injure the plant through the medium of the roots. For this
purpose he watered vigorous wheat, oat, and pea plants night
and morning with 20 liters of water, containing in one case 4
grams of sulphurous acid and in the other case 5 grams of
sulphuric acid. This continued for forty-five days. At the end
of this time the amounts of acid were raised to 6 grams of
sulphurous and 7.5 grams of sulphuric acid for fifteen days.
Then for fifteen days the amounts of acid were increased to §
grams of sulphurous and 10 grams of sulphuric. At the enc
of this time no injury to the plants could be noted, and the
yield of crop was as great in the case of the plants treated with
acid as in the case of untreated plants.
“J. von Schroeder and W. Schmitz Dumont, by an investi-
gation made in 1896, showed that the injury to vegetation
by sulphur dioxid is not by means of the roots, but through
the leaves, and that even extremely minute quantities of su!-
phur dioxid are injurious.
“In order that the author might be able to testify from his
own experience that minimum amounts of sulphur dioxid are
injurious to vegetation, the following experiments were mace:
“A cabinet 2 by 2 feet at the base and 4 feet high was built,
having glass sides like a greenhouse, and so arranged that the
whole top of the cabinet could be lifted from the wooden base
to allow the introduction of rather large plants. At the front
a small door about 1 foot square was placed to allow the oper-
ator to arrange the plants in the cabinet and introduce the ves-
sel containing the fluid from which the sulphur dioxid was to
Seg eae
17
be made. The connections between the top of the cabinet and
the base and between the door and framework of the side of the
cabinet were made with rubber strips and screw clamps, and
thus the surfaces could be drawn close together and the con-
nections made as nearly airtight as possible, so that practically
none of the sulphur dioxid could escape.
“In prepaartion for an experiment the plant was first placed
in the case and the top screwed tightly to the base. A known
weight of carbon disulphid in alcoholic solution held in a plat-
inum dish was then introduced into the chamber, such a weight
of carbon disulphid being used that the sulphur dioxid formed
by burning bore a definite ratio to the weight of air in the
box. The alcoholic solution of carbon disulphid was then
quickly lighted and the door on the front adjusted. A small
electric fan previously placed in the chamber was then started
from the outside to equalize the amount of sulphur dioxid in
all parts of the fumigation chamber.
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS,
“The following conclusions may be drawn from this investi-
gation :
“1. Sulphur dioxid when present in very small quantities in
the air kills vegetation.
“2. Such injury shows itself by the increased sulphur tri-
oxid content of the foliage.
“3. The vegetation around the smelter for at least 3% miles
north, 9 miles south, 2% miles east, and 5 to 6 miles west has
been greatly injured.
“4. The water of the Sacramento river is polluted by the
waste material from the smelter.
“5. It is the opinion of the author that this injury to veg-
etation will continue and even increase its limits unless the
fumes are condensed.
“6. The fumes can be condensed and sulphuric acid formed,
for which a ready market would probably be found.”
nea
18
AFFIDAVIT OF JOHN M. McCANDLESS, STATE
CHEMIST OF GEORGIA..
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1906.
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY-
GENERAL, JOHN C. HART,
Plainttff,
Sstcoeinihbabthts Te tee en
Ae mae
US. e
In Equity.
3 THE TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND THE
DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
ComPANY (LIMITED),
Defendants.
STATE OF GEORGIA,
Fulton County.
Personally appeared before the undersigned authority, John
M. McCandless, who, being duly sworn, deposes, and says:
Affiant is a chemist by profession and has been for the past
twenty years, and is now State Chemist for the State of Geor-
gia, which office affiant has held since 1898. In his capacity
as State Chemist affiant was a member of the commissions of
1903 and 1905, appointed by the State of Georgia to inves-
tigate and report upon the damage, if any, being done to the
State of Georgia and her territory in the neighborhood cf
Ducktown, Tennessee, by the copper-reducing plants located
there.
Affiant personally made a careful investigation in the autumn
of 1903, and found the Tennessee Copper Company roasting
its ores in open roast heap ond liberating large quantities of
sulphur dioxid, which ha. done, and was then doing, great
——
19
damage to the timber, fruit and vefetation for a considerable
distance within the State of Georgia.
The investigation of 1905 disclosed the fact that the Duck-
town Sulphur, Copper and Iron Company and the Tennessee
Copper Company had abandoned open-heap roasting and were
reducing their copper by a new method, under which the green
unroasted ore was smelted in a furnace, and all the sulphur
gases produced in the process are thus concentrated in the
throat of a single chimney for the plant of each of said com-
panies and emitted therefrom. The Tenessesee Copper Com-
pany,-which generates the major portion of the gas liberated,
had abandoned the plant and roast yards in operation when
complaint was first made by the State of Georgia. This com-
pany had, however, erected furnaces and installed the process
now in vogue at a new location, the same being but a few
hundred yards distant from the Georgia line. The old roast
heaps were several miles further distant from the Georgia
territoy.
The new process results in concentratirig the gases, which
were formerly liberated over a wide area from the open roast-
heap into a narrow and circumscribed locality. Owing to the
further fact that the height of these stacks or chimneys is
quite low as compared with the surrounding country, the plants
being loc-ted in a valley or depression of mountainous coun-
try, the gases have little or no chance to diffuse into the cit-
cumambient atmosphere before they are swept by the wind
currents against and over the high wooded ridges and hills
of the surrounding region. The composition of these gaseous
currents, being doubtless much richer in sulphur dioxid by
reason of their concentration at the point of origin than those
from the old roast-heap system, would naturally have a more
destructive effect upon the forest trees and other vegetation
against which they are driven by the winds than would have
been the case under the old system.
When sulphur, either as brimstone or combined with iron,
as pyrites is burned in the air it unites with the oxygen of
the air to form SO,, or sulphur dioxid, also known as sul-
phurous anhydride. Sulphur dioxid unites readily with the
elements of water whenever found, either as vapor in the at-
ee
ey a
20
mosphere or as rain or dew with the water which exists as «
natural constituent of the bodies of plants and animals when
inhaled. The chemical formula of water is H,O, or two atoms
of hydrogen and one of oxygen, which coming in contact with
one atom of sulphur and two of oxygen, SO,, combined with
them to form a molecule of H,SO,; or sulphurous acid, which
must be carefully differentiated from sulphuric acid, which
contains another atom of oxygen and has the formula of
H,SO,, and is a much more destructive and corrosive acid than
the sulphurous, but both are capable of great damage to veg-
etation.
Observation and experience not only in America, but also in
Europe, shows that the sulphur dioxid given off from chemical
works and from smelting works and roasting-heaps are very
injurious and deadly to vegetation. Schroeder has shown thet
sulphurous acid is absorbed by the leaves of deciduous trees
and conifers. The leaves retain it mostly, a smaller part pen-
etrating into the wood, the bark, leaf stalks either as sulphur
dioxid or, after oxidation, as sulphuric acid. Morren shows
that the leaves are more sensitive to sulphur dioxid than flow-
ets. When present in a proportion of one to eigthy thousand
in the air the leaves of fruit are visibly affected in three to five
hours, and this effect seems to spread after the direct action
of the gas ceases. Adult leaves are usually more sensitive
than the young leaves. Sulphurous acid dissolved in water
is almost without effect, while on the lower surface each little
drop causes a formation of a spot visible on both surfaces.
This solution is not quickly changed into sulphuric acid, the
effect of the latter being quite different from that of sulphurous
acid,
The Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. Department of Agriculture.
has shown that as little as one part of sulphur dioxid in one
hundred thousand of air does serious damage to vegetation ;
in fact, even so small an amount as one part to one million
of air is injurious.
The new furnaces in course of installation by the Tennessee
Copper Company will raise, so affiant is informed, the capacity
of said works from the present output of about twelve million
pounds of copper per annum to twenty-five million. If from
21
an ore carrying a little less than 3 per cent. copper we estimate
an efficiency of extraction of 2 per cent., it would require one
billion two hundred and fifty million pounds of ore to yield
twenty-five million pounds of copper. The ore is reported to
contain 30 per cent. sulphur, but if the ore is placed at 20 per
cent., and if we allow that one-fourth of this sulphur remains
behind in slag and matte (which is probably a very excessive
approximation), and the remainder is thrown out into the air
in the form of sulphur dioxid, we should have three hundred
and seventy-five million pounds of sulphur dioxid belched into
the atmosphere from these furnaces. Supposing the air now
to be contaminated with it in the proportion of one to one
hundred thousand, we should have 495,000,000,000,000 cubic
feet of air, or 177,557 square miles, of air, one hundred feet
in thickness, emitted for a period of one year. For a period
of one day the atmosphere for a thickness of 100 feet would
be contaminated for 486 square miles, or in a circle with the
furnaces in the center the impregnated atmosphere would ex-
tend 12% miles in every direction.
From the new furnaces alone of the Tennessee Copper Com-
pany, estimating their capacity at 12,500,000 pounds of cop-
per per annum, enough sulphur dioxid would be generated
daily to render noxious 243 square miles of atmosphere 100
feet thick, and if the old works, both of the Tennessee Copper
Company and the Ducktown Sulphur, Copper and Iron Com-
pany, were abandoned and left idle, and only the new furnaces
of the Tennessee Copper Company now in course of comple-
tion operated, enough sulphur dioxid would be generated to
contaminate the atmosphere to a thickness of 100 feet within
a circle of territory 17.6 miles in diameter at a strength of
one to three hundred thousand; which is very destructive to
vegetation, the diameter of the circle would be increased to 2
little over twenty-two miles. Operated in conjunction with
the remaining works, the contamination of the atmosphere and
all damages incident thereto will increase in proportion to the
increase of sulphur dioxid which will be generated by the new
furnaces.
Affiant is informed by the president of said Tennessee Cop-
per Company that the gas generated by said company was of
22
the strength of six per cent. If this is true, and the gas this
strength when expelled from the chimney it must expand
eighteen thousand times its volume to become diluted to the
extent of one to three hundred thousand, a strength highly
injurious to plant life.
It is evident from a consideration of these facts that in
course of time the air of the habitable globe would be rendered
irrespirable by plants and animals were it not for the solubility
of sulphur dioxid in water, and the further fact that the sul-
phur dioxid is washed out of the air by rain and carried to thie
sea through the water courses.
Affiant can see no reason why a chimney taller than the
stacks now at Ducktown can benefit matters, so far as the in-
jury within the State of Georgia is concerned.
As hereinbefore stated, the surrounding mountains are far
above the level of the works, and, consequently, the chief dif-
ference taller chimneys might make would be that in the imme-
diate neighborhood of the works might profit slightly at the
expense of the more distant territory, the higher the chimney
the greater the carrying power of the fumes, unless such chin-
ney is tall enough to overtop the surrounding barriers.
The tallest chimney in America of the character and such as
that proposed hy the Tennessee Company is, affiant believes, in
the State of New Jersey, on a narrow neck of land extending
in the waters of New York Bay nearly to Staten Island, and
separated from Staten Island by a channel only a few hundred
yards in width. The heighth of this chimney, so affiant is in-
formed, is 365 feet, and same stands back some distance from
the water front, which will add probably 15 feet additional to
its total altitude above the sea level. The plant from which
this chimney is fed is almost wholly surrounded by water, the
same varying, except as to that between Staten Island and the
works, from a few miles to practically the width of the At-
lantic ocean.
Beyond Staten Island is an unbroken stretch of water, and
only one point on the island, the crown of a single hill, as
shown by Hydrographic Chart 369 New York Bay and Har-
bor, is equal in heighth to the chimney, so that when the wind
is towards Staten Island from said works, unless the smoke
23
falls to the earth almost immediately, it must pass over Staten
Island and above or upon the waters beyond.
A great portion of the nearest land beyond the surrounding
stretch of waters is occupied by towns and cities, among which
are the cities of Elizabeth, Jersey City, New York and Brook-
lyn, with their surrounding towns and villages.
That such a chimney would furnish no criterion for the
Ducktown country is clearly apparent. The sulphur dioxid
coming down upon the water not only can do no damage, but
is to a considerable extent absorbed by the water. The constant
mists and fogs in effect furnish water to unite with the sul-
phur dioxid and precipitate the resulting sulphurous acid into
the sea.
Should the smoke, even in considerable strength, reach a
neighboring shore, it has little opportunity for injury, and the
injury little chance for identification. The heat of cities and
towns being greater than that of the surrounding country,
causes a well-nigh continual air or current upwards, which
would, of course, help to carry up and dilute the sulphur
dioxid, as well as distribute same to distant parts, and even
should smoke do injury in the cities the vegetation is so scarce
and widely separated that injuries could hardly be traced.
Deponent is informed that less than five tons of sulphur are
burned per day at said works, which is insignificant in com-
parison with the amount which may be calcined at the Duck-
town works under the proposed capacity of the same. In ad-
dition to this, works situated as those near Staten Island would
menace very little territory except that in the immediate neigh-
borhood, and without the chimney only the adjoining Jersey
shore and Staten Island would be likely to suffer. The chim-
ney would of course benefit the immediate locality. As before
stated, chimneys of like kind might benefit the neighborhood
of the works now utterly denuded of vegetation, but this ben-
efit would be, in the opinion of deponent, at the expense of
more distant sections.
JOHN M. M’CANDLESS.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this day of No-
vember, 1905.
W. H. HARRISON,
Notary Public, Fulton County, Ga.
24
AFFIDAVIT OF W. F. FISKE,
U. S. ENTOMOLOGIST.
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1906.
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY-
GENERAL, JOHN C. HART,
Plaintiff,
vs. \
) In Equity.
THE TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND THE |
DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
CoMPANY (LIMITED),
Defendants.
UnIrep StaTEs OF AMERICA,
District of Columbia.
Personally appeared, W. F. Fiske, who, being duly sworn
in the above styled and numbered cause, deposes and says:
Deponent is an entomologist by profession, and has been
for eight years, and is now, and for the past two years has
been Special Field Agent, Forest Insect Investigations, of the
Bureau of Entomology of the United States Deparement of
Agriculture, and, as such, and in connection with his duties
with said Bureau, in October, 1905, made a personal and pro-
fessional investigation of the territory at and near Ducktown,
Tennessee, for the United States Government, to determine
the relation of the sulphur dioxid in smoke to the injury by
insects to the forest trees in said locality.
25
Deponent says that he arrived at Ducktown on the 12th of
October, and remained until the 17th, making daily trips into
the field, for the purpose of studying the conditions as regards
the prevalence of forest insects of known destructive habits
within an area about twenty-five miles in diameter, with its
center at Ducktown; that the following is a summary of the
results of these investigations, prepared from a study of the
notes made in the field:
Noticeable or conspicuous injury to forest trees by the fumes
of sulphur dioxid emanating from the copper smelters near
Ducktown and Isabella, Tenn., extends over an irregular area
to varying distances which are largely determined by the topo-
graphical character of the country. At the outer borders it is
indicated by the scorching and premature dropping of the fo-
liage, followed by the death of the upper branches of certain
of the larger trees. In the intermediate zones, the trees are
variously affected, the severity of the injury being determined
by species, height, location, and, to a considerable extent, by
what can only be considered as individual variation in the
ability of trees of the same age and species to withstand the
effects of the fumes. In the central portions of this area, prac-
tically all the trees have been killed. It does not appear that
the injurious effects of the fumes have yet reached their max!-
mum, but that if present conditions continue many of the trees
as yet but slightly injured will eventually die.
The presence of fumes of sulphur dioxid in the air in suffi-
cient amount to cause injury and ultimate death to most of
the higher forms of vegetation does not appear to have any
direct effect upon insect life.
Insects which are capable of attacking and destroying living
and healthy trees (destructive insects) breed in those that have
been injured or killed by sulphur fumes.
Trees injured by the fumes are not as liable to insect attack
as those injured through other causes, as lightning or storm.
Though many such trees are attacked, the number is small in
comparison with the total in the area affected. This is particu-
larly true of deciduous trees.
The death of many trees more or less weakened by the fumes
has been hastened by insects; in some cases by a few months
a
a ethene aes MEN URS et LG
26
only; in others they would probably have lived several years
had the insect attack been averted, or recovered had the effects
of the fumes been discontinued.
Destructive insects breeding in the trees injured by the
fumes show a tendency to extend their depredations to closely
adjacent uninjured, or slightly injured, trees. This is particu-
larly true of those species infesting pine, and to a less degree
in the case of those occurring in hardwoods.
There are no indications that ravages by these insects will
immediately spread beyond the limits of the present injury by
fumes into forests now unaffected, as the work of destructive
insects is more abundant in the central, more severely injured,
sections, than toward the outer border of the area conspicu-
ously affected hy the fumes.
W. F. FISKE.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 27th day of Novem-
ber, 1905.
A. ZAPHONE,
Notary Public District of Columbia.
ERO IT OT) Seas PEO MR SIP SEG RNY te 8
27
AFFIDAVIT OF RALPH I. SMITH,
ENTOMOLOGIST OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA.
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM. 1996.
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNFY-
GENERAL, JOHN C. HART,
Piaintt}/,
Se
vs. \ ” ‘
» In Equity.
THE TENNESSEE CoppER COMPANY AND THE
DucKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
COMPANY (LIMITED),
De/fenadanis.
STaTE OF GEORGIA,
Fulton County.
Personally appeared, Ralph I. Smith, who, being duly
sworn in the above-styled cause, deposes and says:
Deponent is a graduate of the Massachusetts Agricultural
College at Amherst, Massachusetts, and is Entomologist for
the State of Georgia.
Deponent, in connection with his duties as Entomologist for
the State of Georgia, as aforesaid, during the summer of 1905
visited northern Georgia and the territory in the vicinity of
the copper plants at and near Ducktown, Tennessee, for the
purpose of investigating the cause of the death and destruction
of vegetation in said locality.
Deponent found enormous destruction of timber throughout
said region. In the immediate vicinity of said works practi-
cally all vegetation was destroyed for several miles, and in the
a ,
“tf mr
ae aC ale PRR |
Bree
alls ee 7
Sekt:
are
LPO Eh ae NE eee aa
ee eee eee
28
zone adjoining this almost an equal distance the vegetation an:
trees in particular, which had not already beer killed, were
rapidly being destroyed, and in fact were in practically a dying
condition. In the zone beyond this great injury was apparent,
particularly to trees such as hickory, white pine and chestnut
oak; they being especially susceptible to the harmful e cts
of sulphur dioxid. The injury to the forests is, in a measure,
governed by topographical conditions. Ducktown is situated
within a basin, practically walled in at distances varying from
ten to possibly nearly fifty miles by mountain ranges, the
greater length of the basin being towards the southeast and to
the northwest, the same being narrowest towards the east and
westward.
The death of the forest within the State of Georgia is great-
est towards the southeast, the effects of the copper fumes be-
ing plainly apparent frequently over more than twenty miles
from said copper works.
The injury to the forest from the copper fumes is shown
by the scorched and early falling of the foliage, followed by
the death of the other branches of the trees. This is usually
noticeable first in the taller trees, as they serve to protect in a
measure the smaller growth from the full effects of the fumes.
All trees are not affected equally, and even those of the same
species, the power of resistance varying in individual trees in
the same manner as the power to throw off the effects of
poisons differ in human beings.
Deponent especially examined the timber and vegetation
with reference to their destruction by insects. Various trees
were examined, but no abnormal deaths from insects were dis-
covered, nor was there indication of fungous diseases in the
midst of the zone affected by the sulphur fumes. Destructive
insects were found in living trees, but they were almost wholly
confined to the trees already injured or dying from sulphur
fumes. The injury from the fumes invites the attack upon the
tree affected, and such trees in consequence of such injury
often become in effect incubators to furnish enemies for the
surrounding timber.
The destructive insects within the locality injured by the
fumes are apparently on the increase, but as yet their attacks
29
are largely confined to the timber already damaged by the sul-
phur dioxid. But tor this damage the amount of destructive
insects within the territory would be but small, and as it is, the
direct injury to healthy trees by such insects is insignificant.
They will, however, increase with continued injury by the sul-
phur fumes, as the fumes are not strong enough to injure the
insects, but serve to weaken the timber and invite the attacks
of insects capable of attacking and destroying living timber.
In many cases the injured trees attacked might have lived
some time, had insect attack been averted, or might have fully
recovered had the fumes been discontinued, but in each case
the attack by such insects was, as a rule, attributable solely to
the condition of the tree resulting from the effect of the sul-
phur dioxid. It was apparent, from the examination, that the
harmful effects of the fumes had by no means reached their
maximum, but would continue to grow with the continued pro-
duction of sulphur dioxid. As each belt of timber is destroyed,
the zone subject to the fumes is increased by reason of the
destruction of the timber which had formerly intervened and
served to absorb and hold back the destructive gases, and it
the capacity of the works is doubled, as deponent understands
is now being done, and the consequent additional amount of
sulphur fumes diffuse over the territory traversed by deponen‘,
each and all the injuries hereinbefore stated will be magnified,
and the territory subject to the sulphur dioxid will be greatly
increased. The injury will embrace not only the timber di-
rectly, but plant life generally, and will finally result in denud-
ing the forest in a considerable part of the territory in Gilmer
and Fannin counties, Georgia, and probably also in the coun-
ties of Murray, Union and Towns.
On a subsequent trip to said region, to wit, during the second
week of October, 1905, deponent took pictures of parts of the
country surrounding the Tennessee Copper Companies and
the Ducktown Sulphur, Copper and Iron Company's works.
These pictures are marked I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII and
VIII, and are hereto annexed and made a part of this affidavit,
and are more fully described as follows:
The picture marked No. I was taken from Windy Ridge to:
the rear of McCay Town, overlooking valley of Okee river.
POLL TTS
aa ee
30
Point marked X shows location of Tennessee Copper Com-
pany, and picture illustrates how fumes from the furnaces settle
in the valley so as to almost completely obscure the view.
This point is about one-half mile from the Georgia line.
No. II shows works of the Tennessee Copper Company on
the right and fumes driving in a southeasterly direction down
the valley of the Okee river. Hills in the distance obscured
by the dense smoke.
No. III, taken one-fourth mile south of the Tennessee Cop-
per Company, and about the same distance from McCay Town,
through which the line between Tennessee and Georgia runs.
; Picture taken overlooking Okee river and L. & N. R. R., show-
4 ing both Tennessee and Georgia territory. Dense smoke from
4 the furnaces of the Tennessee Copper Company settled in the
valley so that the hill opposite from where the picture was
taken was practically shut off from view. On this morning the
smoke was being carried by a northwest wind down several
miles over Georgia territory.
; No. IV is a view taken from Copper Hill looking toward
Stab NE
F the Isabella furnaces, and showing white smoke arising from
3 same. This view shows a scope of country from four to five
4 miles in extent absolutely bare of trees or any other vegetation
except sedge grass. Hills badly washed and gullied by rains
which run off without hindrance. From point where this
picture was taken a backward view would show three miles of
4 country extending about to the Georgia line equally barren.
q No. V is a nearer view of the Isabella works, showing dense
A clouds of smoke arising from the furnace about two miles in
the distance. This picture was taken from a hill where the
; Ducktown mines are located, looking toward Tennessee. The
hills are absolutely barren of all vegetation except bunches of
sedge grass. From position where this picture was taken it is
3 about four miles to the works of the Tennessee Copper Com-
j pany, and the land in between presents an appearance similar
; to that shown in this picture.
No. VI, a view in Georgia territory about one mile from the
new works of the Tennessee Copper Company, and about four
and one-half miles from the Isabella works, showing hills de-
ea ah es ie ei ae a ak SRR Ont e T e . amr
POSE BLE EGA POISE Ee
31
nuded of timber and apple trees in foreground which are ap-
parently dying from the effect of the fumes.
No. VII illustrates condition of oak timber in ravine one
mile from Kyle, Georgia, and about three miles from Ten-
nessee Copper Company furnaces. Seventy-five per cent. of
the timber is dead and some of the remainder in a dying condi-
tion.
No. VIII was taken from a ridge in the rear of Kyle, look-
ing up the valley of the Okee river toward Tennessee. Most
of the hills are bare except for sedge grass, and the timber in
spots is fifty to sixty per cent. dead, evidently from the effects
of the fumes arising from the smelting of copper ore. Fur-
ther observations show that at least sixty per cent. of the tim-
ber is killed and the remainder being slowly damaged.
RALPH I. SMITH.
Sworn to and sabscribed before me, this 20th day of No-
vember, 1905.
LOGAN BLECKLEY,
Deputy Clerk Supreme Court of Georgia.
——y
32
SECOND AFFIDAVIT OF RALPH I. SMITH OF I’-
VESTIGATION IN SEPTEMBER, 1906.
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
1 iia Arc le aE a |
Sn lk ils INS he
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1906.
3 THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY-
GENERAL, JOHN C. Hart,
Plainttff,
4 US.
In Equity.
THE TENNESSEE CopreER COMPANY AND THE
: DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
5
: ComMPANY (LIMITED),
4
Defenaants.
State oF GeorG1A—County of Fulton.
Personally appeared Ralph I. Smith, who, being duly sworr,
herein deposes and says:
Deponent is an entomologist by profession, being a gradu-
ate of the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amhur-:,
and is entomologist for the State of Georgia.
In connection with the duties of his said department as en-
tomologist for the State of Georgia as aforesaid, during the
third week of September deponent traversed a considerable
portion of Gilmer and Fannin counties, Georgia, for the pur-
pose of investigating the death of the timber and vegetation
therein and particularly to ascertain whether or not same was
attributable to insects.
Northward from the town of EVijay, Gilmer county, Geor-
gia, through the Santa Luca, Boardtown, Cherry Log aml
een ome ttl
~~
33
Whitepath districts of Gilmer county, and throughout the ter-
ritory to the north thereof as far as Blue Ridge, Fannin
county, Georgia, and to the westward and southwest of Elli-
jay for several miles there was recent and conspicuous injury
to the timber and vegetation, large quantities of timber being
killed and in many localities practically all foliage was de-
stroyed. In the timber recently killed or injured practically
no destructive insects were found, nor were such insects pres-
ent through the forests generally in more than normal num-
bers to be found in the average healthy forests, with the single
exception of trees previously noted as damaged by the sulphur
fumes. In the district in which considerable damage by the
fumes had previously been noted the destructive insects had
increased, the injured and dying timber forming incubators
for the harmful insects. The insects propagate and are present
in much larger numbers throughout the injured territory,
usually appearing in unusual numbers the spring followine
the conspicuous damage to the timber. The timber through-
out Gilmer county, and most of Fannin county below Blue
Ridge traversed by deponent had been so recently injured that
the insects were not to be found in the injured or healthy
timber.
When the timber has been injured sufficiently to form
breeding places for the destructive insects, they in time spread
to the healthy timber in the neighborhood. ‘This is particu-
larly noticeable in the area north of Blue Ridge where there
was old injury, but very little noticeable south of this point.
Deponent files herewith pictures numbered A1, 2, 4, 4 &;
6, taken by him in Gilmer county, Georgia, in territory not
theretofore noted as containing conspicuous injury to vege-
tation.
View A is to the northward of Ellijay, Georgia, showin
the white pine but recently injured, some having shed their
needles, and those appearing white in the picture have needles
brown and withered and ready to fall.
View A2 is taken two miles west of Ellijay, and shows in-
jured and dead oak timber.
View 3, about seven miles north of Ellijay, on the Board-
town road, showing timber protected by topographical condi-
3d
34
tions from the effects of the fumes, and having normal foliage.
View A4, taken within about two hundred yards from view
3, but showing timber not protected from the fumes.
View As, taken on Boardtown road east of Whitepath, Ga.,
showing recently killed foliage. While the camera did not
bring out the withered and brown effects, a close examination
shows the shriveled appearance of the foliage.
View A6, taken about a mile north of Whitepath, showing
white pine killed and other timber injured.
R. L. Sniru.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this ... day of Sep-
tember, 1906.
Locan BLECKLEY,
Deputy Clerk, Supreme Court of Georgia.
35
AFFIDAVIT OF WILMON NEWELL, ENTOMOLO-
GIST OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA.
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
In the Supreme Court of the United States,
OCTOBER TERM, 1906.
THe STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY-
GENERAL, JOHN C. Hart,
Plaintiff,
(ZA
In Equity.
‘THE TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND THE
DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
CoMPANY (LIMITED),
Defendants.
STATE OF LOUISIANA,
Parish of Caddo.
Personally appeared, Wilmon Newell, who, being duly
sworn in the above-styled cause, deposes and says :
Deponent is by profession an entomologist, and has been for
— years, and is now entomologist for the State of Louisiana.
In the year 1903 deponent was entomologist for the State of
Georgia, and as such about the late summer or early autumn of
said year made an investigation of the territory within the
State of Georgia adjacent to Ducktown, Tennessee, to deter-
mine the cause of the destruction of forest trees, growths and
vegetation reported in said locality. Deponent examined the
territory within the State of Georgia ranging from four to
ten miles from the Tennessee line and said copper works,
which examination disclosed that from five to six miles from
TMB ES
36
said works 50 per cent. at least of all timber was dead, and the
vegetation generally was badly injured.
The theory that destruction of vegetable life was caused by
insects or disease was advanced by those interested in the cop-
per works. I could find nothing to support this theory.
In the investigation trees of the various kinds were cut down
and examined for indications of insect work. In timher which
had been dead for a considerable time, insects were abundant,
but they were of species which feed upon dead vegetable mat-
ter, and, therefore, were not responsible for the death of the
trees. Were insects responsible for this destruction they
should be found in the dying timber. Examinations failed to
reveal them except in rare cases. Possibly the death of one
tree out of every five hundred dead was chargeable directly or
4 indirectly to insect work. This amount of insect damage is
; comparatively insignificant, and is no more than can be reason-
ably expected to occur in any forest locality.
4 The average of destructive insects was very small indeed,
and certainly not more than could be found in any averaye
: healthy forest region.
q Again, trees killed by insect pests present certain character-
; istics which in the present case are conspicuously absent. The
cambium (the layer of the cell-forming tissue immediately he-
neath the bark) in trees killed by the sulphur fumes frequently
becomes blackened even before the tree has succumbed to the
poison. This character we fail to find in trees dying from the
attacks of insects.
The fact that certain trees in the affected locality die while
trees adjacent remain apparently healthy does not necessarily
indicate that the sulphurous acid smoke is not the destructive
agent. The power of resistance when exposed to unfavorable
conditions varies with different species, and may reasonably
be supposed to vary in individual plants of the same species.
This power of resistance is in all probability directly pro-
portionate to the vitality of the individual plant. Young trees
or those most favorably situated with reference to moisture,
soil, ete.. may be expected to longer withstand the sulphur
fumes than others. That the resistance power in plants does
vary in individuals of the same species, even when grown and
ENR oe
Tia asia
Sees abd
Bie ie ak ti
37
kept under the same conditions, has been shown in the fumi-
gation of nursery stock when by mistake the latter have been
subjected to too strong a dose of hydrocyanic acid gas. Some
trees will be killed while others of the same lot, when planted,
grow well and show no indication of injury.
The roots of various dying trees in the affected area were
examined and no indication found of fungous diseases.
From the examination made it was clearly apparent that the
great destruction of timber and vegetation was due to no
source other than the sulphur dioxid generated by the copper
compames near Ducktown and Isabella, Tennessee. It was
also apparent that the effects of the fumes would reach further
and further each year of the operation of the said plants. The
sulphur dioxid is to a large degree cleared from the atmos-
phere by the vegetation, the trees first coming within the in-
fluence of the smoke to a degree protecting those at a greater
distance. As the zone of destruction of the timber would in-
crease the zone of timber subject to the harmful influence of
the fumes and would likewise be added to, and this will con-
tinue so long as the sulphur fumes are generated and liberated
in the atmosphere. The said fumes will doubtless eventually
denude of all useful vegetation a considerable portion of the
land in Fannin and Gilmer counties, Georgia, and possibly
also in the counties of Murray, Union and Towns, if the same
are produced and liberated, as was the case when deponent
made his examination in 1903, as aforesaid.
WILMON NEWELL.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 18th day of Novem-
ber, 1905.
J. A. THIGPEN,
Notary Public Parish of Caddo, Louisiana.
Aa
sae eit eaevais@l
ee ee a
Ee ee ee ee
Re a ee
Peter Ce ERC
38
AFFIDAVIT OF J. S. HOLMES, U. S. FORESTER.
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1906.
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY-
GENERAL, JOHN C. HART,
Plaintiff,
US. one
In Equity.
THE TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND THE
DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
CoMPANY (LIMITED),
Defendants.
Strate oF Nortu CAROLINA,
Buncombe County.
Personally appeared, J. S. Holmes, who, being duly sworn
herein, deposes and says:
Deponent is a forester by profession and is forest assistant
in the Forestry Service of the United States Department of
Agriculture.
In connection with the duties of his said office and under the
orders of said Forestry Service, deponent during the summer
and autumn of 1905 investigated for said Department of For-
estry the forests and timber growths of the regions around
Ducktown, Tennessee, including forest lands lying in the coun-
ties of Fannin, Murray and Gilmer in the State of Georgia.
Deponent found that great damage had been done to the
forest and timber growths in and around Ducktown by the
sulphur dioxid generated by the copper companies at and near
ows
39
said place. Within a radius of from two to five miles from the
smelters of said companies the forest and forest growths ha:i
been practically destroyed, and that much timber beyond this
distance was dying or injured, the extent of the territory in
which the timber was subjected to the harmful effects of said
fumes being, in a measure, governed by the topographical con-
ditions and prevailing winds. The area of injury extends
farthest in a southeast and northwest and shortest in a westerly
and easterly direction, this being due to the prevailing winds
and river valleys in one case and to the proximity of high
mountains in the other. For example, white pine is injured,
among other sections, in a southeast direction along Jack river,
Fannin county, Georgia, for a distance of ten miles fron: the
Tennessee Copper Company's smelters at McCays, Tennessee;
south on Turniptown Creek, Gilmer county, twenty miles;
southeast on Flat Creek, Fannin county, fifteen m/‘es.
Black oak is injured southwest on ridge between Tumbling
and Patterson’s creeks, Fannin county, eight miles from sme!-
ter; south on Blue Ridge and Santa Lucca road, Fannin
county, ten miles; southeast on Snake Nation creek (Charlie
creek), Fannin county, twelve miles from smelter.
The general effect of the fumes is to gradually kill out the
forest. The fumes act much quicker when the air is moist, so
that there is more damage in the vicinity of the larger streams,
where the morning mists lie; and more damage is done during
a dull and rainy time, when the air is moist and heavy.
The more exposed trees are generally the first to be affected,
so in a dense forest the undergrowth and reproduction may
escape until the upper trees are dead or leafless or until they
are cut out as in lumbering operations. There seems to be no
greater resisting power in young than in old trees, other things
being equal. As a rule ridges suffer worse than coves, and
the slopes toward the smelters more than those away from
them.
The injury first seen in the leaves, and it is this leaf injury
which first retards the growth of the tree and finally kills it.
As it takes more applications of the fumes to hurt a leaf at a
distance where the fumes are diluted, than near by, where they
are stronger, it follows that the farther from the smelter the
injury appears the longer it takes to kill the tree.
40
The first symptom of injury is a gradual turning of the
leaves to a yellow or golden brown color. This occurs in
deciduous trees between July and September, according to the
susceptibility of the tree or its nearness to the smelter. Thi¢
leaves gradually die and fall prematurely. If this occurs early
in the season it seriously affects the vitality of the tree, prevents
the growth of summer wood and hinders the storage of food.
In some instances the trees when first affected early in the
season, put on a second crop of leaves. This is an effort on
the part of the tree to recuperate. It is also observed where
defoliation has been caused by insects. Some species are more
susceptible than others, and there is considerable variation be-
tween individuals.
The injury is spreading year by year. This is partly due to
the fact that the gradual dying out of the trees permits thie
fumes to travel farther before being absorbed by the foliage
as well as to increasing amounts of ore smelted. Deponent
can see no reason why the tall smokestacks proposed shou!
decrease the injury. With increased production the injury
will certainly be still more extended if the fumes incident
thereto are liberated.
J. S. HOLMES.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 18th day of Novem-
ber, 1905.
J. SCOOP STYLES,
Notary Public Buncombe County, N. C.
(My commission expires May, 23, 1907.)
41
AFFIDAVIT OF A. B. PATTERSON, U. S. FORESTER.
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM. 1996.
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY- _ \
GENERAL, JOHN C. Harr, |
Piaintts/,
US. \ :
) In Equity.
THE TENNESSEE Copper Company AND THE
DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, CoppER AND [RON
ComPANy (LIMITED),
Desenaants.
Unirep STATES OF AmMERICA—District of Columbia.
Personally appeared A. B. Patterson, who, being duly sworn
in the above-entitled cause, deposes and says:
Deponent is a forester by profession, and is Assistant Forest
Inspector in the Forest Service of the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture.
Deponent, in his official capacity as Assistant Forest In-
spector, and under the orders of the Forest Service, during the
first and second weeks of September, 1906, visited the region
adjoining the Ducktown basin of Georgia and Tennessee for
the purpose of investigating forest conditions, and especially
with relation to the forest injuries through sulphur fumes, pre-
viously reported by Forest Assistant Holmes of said Forestry
Service, and particularly with relation to the conditions result-
ing from and the effects of the tall stack erected hy the Ten-
nessee Copper Company and the increased furnace smelting of
2 ”
nig Ss ti Sifu ana
iis HRS Le ay DRA,
eats
A Re ee ee
Lines Sai eitete
, Seis a he ote
age S iliie at i
42
said companies, the stack having been erected and put int»
operation after the investigation by said Holmes was made.
At the time deponent was instructed to make his said in-
vestigation, said Forest Assistant Holmes was on‘duty with
said United States Forest Service in the Territory of Arizona,
and was not available for said investigation, and this deponeit
was detailed therefor.
Deponent has carefully examined the affidavit heretofore
made herein by said Holmes, his report upon forest conditions
around Ducktown, and the map prepared by him showing the
zones and the extent thereof of the several character of in-
juries by the sulphur fumes of the copper companies, which
map was filed with said Forestry Service and blue-prints therc-
of are filed herewith and marked exhibit “A” for identification.
Deponent has also examined the photographs of said region
filed by said Holmes with said Forest Service, the same by
said Service being numbered 63032, 63036, 63038, 63039,
63040 and 63041, reprints thereof under said numbering being
filed herewith. .
By said map and report of said Holmes under his said in-
vestigation in August avd September, 1905, the zones of in-
jury by said sulphur fumes were shown upon said map an.
classified as follows:
“1. An inner zone, with a radius of from three to five miles,
is practically denuded of forest growth, although a few dead
trees stand here and there.
“2. The middle zone forms an irregular band around the
inner and varies from three to eight miles in width. The in-
cluded forest has a brown appearance accompanied by a prema-
ture falling of the leaves. Most of the susceptible species are
affected.
“3. The outer zone includes the remainder of the affected
area, its inner limit being seven miles, and its outer limit being
twenty miles from the furnaces. All of included forest is not
injured, but it is likely to be, since leaf injury was noted at the
outermost limits.”
By reason of the somewhat limited time allowed to deponent
for his investigation, deponent did not wholly retrace the in-
vestigation of said Holmes throughout the entire territory,
43
particularly in the immediate neighborhood of the mines where
such injury was apparent, even to the casual observer, but, by
reason of the immediate recognition of greatly increased area
of injury, deponent devoted his investigations largely to the
territory of new or increased injury, and to the south, south-
east and east, and to the north and northwest of said plants of
The Tennessee and Ducktown Copper Companies.
Deponent’s investigation disclosed that the increase of the
inner zone of injury or area destitute of forest was compara-
tively small. Complete denudation has spread about one mile
north of the limits observed by Mr. Holmes and specified upon
said map and the southern boundary has advanced about one-
half a mile. From casual investigation of the immediate neigh-
borhood of the plants it would appear that conditions hac
slightly improved, some grass and occasional shrubs or under-
growth having sprung up during the present spring and sum-
mer. What benefit there may have been was so slight and
affected so small an area that deponent did not think it worth
while to make a comprehensive examination. As previously
stated, the outer zone of complete denudation had increased,
and any benefit from the stack whatever was confined to the
immediate vicinity of the copper plants.
The increase of the area of serious injury over that reported
by Mr. Holmes in September, 1905, has been very great and
exceeds at every point examined, not only the area of serious
injury, but passes beyond the limits of leaf injury (the third
zone) observed by said Holmes and specified upon said map
hereinbefore referred to.
To the south the serious leaf injury has extended as far as
Talona Mountain, twenty-six and three-quarter miles from
McCays, or eighteen and three-quarter miles south of the
limits observed and fixed by Forester Holmes. To the south-
east white pine, black and blackjack oaks are killed, and other
black oaks are seriously defoliated on John Dick Mountain,
twenty-three and one-half miles from McCays, or seventeen
miles beyond the limits found by Mr. Holmes in this direction.
East of McCays serious injury was noted at Culberson, twelve
and one-half miles distant, or five and three-quarter miles be-
yond similar injury apparent last September. North of Mec-
Cays serious injury was observed on Cane Creek, fifteen miles
ae —
a
44
from the high smokestack, or four miles farther north thin
observed by said Holmes. Serious injury amounting to com-
plete defoliation of from thirty to sixty per cent. of the white
pine was observed-along Gee Creek, in Polk and McMinn
counties, Tennessee, twenty and one-half miles northwest of
McCays, while the farthest injury noted by said Forester
Holmes in 1905, in that direction, was ten and one-half miles.
Topography and prevailing winds are important factors jn
the fume injuries. The mountain sides or coves facing cr
opening in upon the Ducktown basin, and not protected by
mountainous or other barriers, are the localities showing the
heaviest injuries. Often in the same immediate neighborhood
there will be a conspicuous injury in the unprotected sections,
while at some point shielded by protecting barriers but small
injury is shown.
To the east and west of the Ducktown basin in Tennessee
the mountain ranges are much closer than towards the north
and south. The greatest length of the basin is in Georgia, to
the south, and to the northward in Tennessee, which may ex-
plain the tendency of the fumes to more frequently seek these
directions. To the south of the smelters the fumes can pass
through numerous low gaps and fill the valley of the Elli jay
river as far south as Ellijay. East of Ellijay the Cartecay
valley is protected from the fumes by a high range of moun-
tains, and it was not until a point opposite Big Creek Gap was
reached, between Tickanetley and Diamond was reached the
sulphur dioxid injuries became apparent.
In the Toccoa river valley above Wilscot creek the fumes
traveled high and serious injury is confined to the upper parts
of the exposed mountains in that watershed. The river is ex-
ceedingly winding and the lower strata of the fumes were evi-
dently pocketed in the turns of the river while the upper strata
passed through the wind gaps and encountered the high slopes.
West of Stanley Gap leaf damage rapidly increases as Rock
creek is descended. Probably fifty per cent. of the white pine,
black, scarlet, Spanish and blackjack oaks are so seriously in-
jured in this watershed that their recovery is doubtful, even if
subjected to no more sulphur fumes. It is well known that
when trees are injured or their vitality lowered in any way
_—
45
they are unable to resist the attacks of insects, so that insects
are often the secondary cause of the trees being killed in the
fume-affected area.
A large number of thrifty young white pines, recently de-
foliated, were examined, and in no case were any insects found,
although the inner bark and sap wood were green. On the
other hand, trees noted and marked by said Forester Holmes
in September, 1905, as injured by sulphur fumes, were found
infested with insects.
Throughout the valley of the Ellijay river as far as the
Coosawattee river, serious damage is general, particularly on
the north slopes of the mountains and foothills, although trees
in deep coves running east and west often escape injury. Six
miles west of Ellijay, Georgia, short-leaf and scrub pines,
which are fairly resistent species of forest trees, are often
almost completely defoliated. Throughout the seriously in-
jured area the included forest appears to have about one-half
its normal density, due to the premature falling of the leaves.
Along the Murphy branch of the L. & N. Re: road the
contiguous area of injury extends about eight miles, and be-
yond this limit appears at intervals as far as Culverson. This
region is fairly protected from the fumes by a high mountain
range.
Leaf injury of a serious nature was seen on the slopes north
of the Hiawassee river, affecting in particular the white pine
and the black oaks. With only a low narrow divide between
the Hiawassee and Tellico rivers conditions are favorable for
the fumes to be carried into Monroe county, Tennessee, when
wind currents are in that direction.
The actual limits of the leaf injury was not determined.
This injury is embraced under the third zone specified upon
the map of Forester Holmes. Throughout the entire territory
covered, with the exception of the road east from Ellijay to
Stock Hill and the region along the Murphy branch of the L.
& N. Railroad, previously referred to, both being protected by
high mountain ranges, and occasional areas screened by moun-
tainous barriers from the fumes, the injury was apparent. To
locate the full extent of this would require a lengthy investiga-
tion, so long in fact, that such would be inaccurate when con-
cluded, should the zone of injury increase as rapidly as it has
—.
; 46
; during the present summer. From the investigation made,
: however, it is unquestionably true that through the high stack
: of The Tennessee Copper Company and the increased smelting
of the two companies, the third zone of leaf injury has been
very greatly increased.
3 On comparing the increase in the seriously affected area the
average of five conspicuous radii established a zone of serious
injury with a radius of 21.6 miles from McCays, while on
these same radii the limits noted by Forester Holmes in Sep-
tember, 1905, averaged 8.4 miles. The increase in territory
based upon a circle passing through the average point afforded
by said radii above mentioned would be as follows: Terr1-
tory involved in the serious injury zone as disclosed by the in-
vestigation of Forester Holmes in September, 1905, 213.8
square miles; territory embraced in the zone of serious injury
5 as disclosed by investigation of deponent in September, 1906,
1,481.4 square miles, or an increase of 1,267.5 square miles
during the past year, approximating an increase of 592 per
cent. since the investigation by Mr. Holmes one year ago. As
previously stated, these figures are based upon averages afford-
ed by five conspicuous radii. The injury is oblong in form,
rather than ina circle, less than the average of the radii to the
east and west and greater to the south and north.
While it is true that in the total territory embraced within
Ce ee
’ the territory described by the radii above mentioned, there
are a number of areas in which the forest trees have not been
: injured, such areas are either topographically protected from
the fumes, or the wind currents have been such that the sul-
phur fumes have not visited same, and that other unprotected
areas considerably beyond the limits afforded by the radii
have suffered severe injury.
From the result of the investigations made it is clear that
the continued liberation of the fumes will result in greatly
increased damage and that each of said zones of injury may
reasonably be expected to grow in proportion to the diffusion
of sulphur dioxid throughout the adjoining territory.
A. B. PATTERSON.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 24th day of Sep-
tember, 1906.
Henry C. Towers,
Notary Public, District of Columbia, U. S. A
4
AFFIDAVIT OF D. A. JONES, FORESTER.
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1906.
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY-
GENERAL, JOHN C. HART,
Platinttft,
US. i$
In Equity.
THE TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND THE
DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
CoMPANY (LIMITED),
Defendants.
STATE OF GEORGIA,
Gilmer County.
Personally appeared D. A. Jones, who, being duly sworn in
the above stated cause, deposes and says:
Deponent is a woodsman, or forester and a timber surveyor
by profession, and has been for the past twenty-four years,
during which time he has followed his calling in the States of
Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and
Georgia. Deponent’s business embraces practical forestry, and
in addition the examination of timber, relative to its commer-
cial value, conditions, health and general surroundings, with
special relation to lumbering and tanning purposes.
Deponent in the autumn of 1904 and in the summer and
autumn of 1905 examined the timber in Fannin, Gilmer and
Murray counties in the State of Georgia, the territory in-
spected covering the northern, central, eastern, southern and
48
5S tla
western portions of Gilmer county; the central, eastern, sout!:-
erm and western parts of Fannin and the northeastern portioa
of Murray county. The examination in 1904 extending over
about two months, and that of 1905 a still greater length cf
time.
In 1904 considerable damage to the timber and vegetaticn
from the fumes generated by the copper piants at and near
Ducktown was apparent. The damage, while widespread, was
’ not uniform in localities equally distant from the copper works;
Was in many instances governed by the topographical condi-
P tions, and in particular localities often by the unequal resisting
powers of individual trees. In other words, timber protectesi
by intervening mountains or hills or at an altitude not usualiy
reached by smoke, or located away from the main lines of de-
3 pression would be but little injured when other timber further
away, but not so protected would suffer greatly from the fumes.
Again in the same locality and among trees of the same spe-
cies, the resisting power of the different trees is by no means
uniform. While some are killed others may show but littie
effects of the fumes.
Ducktown and the copper works are located in a depressin
in the mountains of Tennessee. Georgia and North Carolin,
somewhat oblong in shape, with its main length in the State
of Georgia, and extending in chief along the Toccoa (Ocoee !
river and tributaries. This basin is in effect walled in hy
mountain ranges varying from 2,500 to about 4,000 feet high.
The damage from the copper fumes is greatest along the valley
and foothill region of the Toccoa (Ocoee) and tributaries,
Turniptown creek, Connesauga river, and other localities situ:
larly located and not protected by mountain barriers.
The investigation of 1905 disclosed a much greater injury
resulting from the copper plants than was shown under the
investigation of 1904, not only had the damage in the localities
previously injured by the effects of the fumes increased, but
the scope of injured territory had broadened greatly since the
inspection of 1904.
For example, in the case of land lots Nos. 5. 6, 7, 30 and 32
in the Sixth District and Second Section of Gilmer county,
about 21 miles by air or direct line from Ducktown, it was
Pee Roe
ha Sicilat
—
49
shown by examination of 1904 that of the chestnut oak (the
oak valuable for its bark (tan bark) as well as for its lumber)
about 25 per cent. in lot No. 6, 50 per cent. in lot No. 7, 25
per cent. in No. 30 and 50 per cent. in lot No. 32 had been
killed. The investigation of 1905 disclosed that about 85 per
cent. in lots 5, 6, 7 and 32 and 70 per cent. in lot 30 had been
killed. In other words, the damage from the fumes in 1905
was more than double that done up to the autumn of 1904.
The white pine and hickory had suffered about the same in-
jury, and the other timber in proportion to its resisting power.
The power of the forest trees in the district affected to resist
the killing effects of the sulphur fumes differ considerably,
hickory, chestnut oak and white pine succumb most quickly,
then the post oak, chestnut, yellow pine, hemlock, white oak,
and poplar, in the order named.
In recent examination (1905) of deponent it was clearly
exhibited that the hurtful effects of the fumes are experience
considerably over thirty miles. This is especially true of the
territory about the headwaters of the Toccoa (Ocoee) river,
and its southern tributaries. In lots 84, 85, 86 and 87 in the
Sixth district, first section of Gilmer county, Georgia, the lots
being in the extreme southeastern portion of the county, and
between thirty-five and forty miles distant by air line from
Ducktown, a considerable portion of the timber has been killed
by sulphur fumes. About 40 per cent. of the chestnut or mout-
tain oak has been killed in the last two years. Practically a!l
of the hickory is dead, a large per cent. of the white pine an:l
the remaining timber is damaged. In fact, the entire forest
shows the injurious effect of the fumes.
Deponent in the course of his investigation about six miles
southeastward of the town of Blue Ridge, obtained from a
mountain top a complete view of the Toccoa Valley, and, with
the aid of his glasses, minute view of the copper works :t
Ducktown. The wind was favorable to full observation, bring-
ing the smoke down the valley to the west of which deponent
was standing, and the smoke was not only discernible the en-
tire distance from the works up the valley to a point opposite
the deponent, but could be seen much further up the valley,
and noticeably almost to the lots above specified. Intervening
4a
50
hills obstructed the view of said lots, and for this reason dle-
ponent could not see whether or not the smoke could be seen
for the entire distance. It was clearly discernible the major
. portion of the way, and to a point where intervening hills shut
. off the view.
In and around land lot 144 in the Sixth district and first
section of Fannin county, about thirty miles from Ducktown,
and twelve or fifteen miles north of the locality just before
specified, the damage was very great. In land lot 144 about
75 per cent. of the chestnut oak has been killed within the past
eighteen months or two years, and the timber generally in-
jured in proportion.
To the westward about twelve miles from the last specificd
land lot and in the middle eastern section of Gilmer county,
lie the land lots 5, 6, 7, 30 and 32 heretofore referred tv,
where the damage to and death of the chestnut, oak, hickory
and white pine reaches the heavy total of about 85 per cent.
Still further to the westward in the locality of lot 119 in the
tenth district and second section, about ten miles from land
lots 5, 6, 7, 30 and 32 and 18 miles from Ducktown, 75 per
cent. of the hickory and chestnut oak has been killed, and a
large per cent. of the other valuable timber has been destroyed.
About twenty miles further to the northwest on the eastern
edge of Murray county in the locality of lot 122, twenty-
seventh district, second section, about fourteen miles from the
copper plants, from 40 to 50 per cent. of the valuable timber
is dead. The injuries do not appear to extend as great a dis-
tance in this direction as to the southward, there being inter-
vening mountain ranges to protect the more distant localities
to the westward.
In each of the localities heretofore specified the death of the
trees has been of recent date, certainly in less than three years.
The whole damage is hy no means represented by the trees
already dead. A large number in addition have been seriously
injured and will eventually be killed if still subjected to the
sulphur fumes. While deponent could not accurately state the
full damage done by the sulphur fumes, it is beyond a perad-
venture true that same amounts to many thousand dollars.
The damage to the forest and timber interests alone within the
Si hay ale
Sy aos
nowt
bl
territory inspected by deponent will exceed in deponent’s opin-
ion the sum of $125,000. Other localities than those hereto-
fore specified by deponent have been injured to as great or
greater degree, and the intervening timber between the points
mentioned and Ducktown lying within the regions along the
watercourses, or not barred by intervening mountains or foot-
hills, has all suffered from the fumes.
To illustrate the destruction and value of the property de-
stroyed, specific instances may afford a more definite idea. A
land lot is 160 acres, there being four land lots to a square mile
of territory. In land lots 121 and 122, seventh district, sec-
ond section, in the southern portion of Fannin county, about
18 miles air line from the copper plants, a recent inspection by
deponent disclosed the following conditions :
There have been destroyed within the past two years 1,047
chestnut oak trees; of the trees destroyed, 500 would have
made 350 feet each of good lumber, same having a value of
$437, and the remainder, 1,000 railroad ties of the value of
$150. They would have furnished 300 cords of bark for tan
bark, value of $900; 31 hemlock trees have also been de-
stroyed which would have given 600 feet of lumber each, value
$37, and 20 cords of bark, value $40; 15 white pine trees
which would have averaged 700 feet of lumber to the tree
were killed, value $105; 241 chestnut trees were killed, 50 of
which would average 300 feet of good lumber to the tree, value
$45, and the remainder 477 cords of wood, value $120; 154
white oak trees were killed, 30 of which would average 400
feet of quartered lumber and 75 trees 300 feet of plain lumber
to the tree, value $127, the remainder would make 120 good
railroad ties, value $15; 67 hickory trees were killed, which
would have furnished 10,000 feet of good axle timber, value
$100; also, 10 yellow pine trees averaging 300 feet of lumber
to the tree, value $10, reaching a total of property destroyed in
half a square mile of territory of value of $2,086.
In land lot 322 located in the central portion of Gilmer
county the following condition was disclosed :
There have been destroyed within the last two years 861
trees of chestnut oak; 151 of these would have made 45,000
feet of good lumber, the remainder 1,000 railroad ties, the
A eprint ee ey
aie IR PD IES ALES
Be Lei nN a is Cet AREA AEE ASR ANAT TRS
we:
52
value of the lumber being $135 and the railroad ties $150. In
addition to this, these trees would have furnished 215 cords of
tan bark of the value of $675; 30 chestnut trees were killed
which would have made 60 cords of acid wood, value $15; 39
white oak trees were killed, 20 of which would have furnished
8,000 feet of good lumber, value $24, and 38 railroad ties of
the value of $5.70; 59 hickory trees have been killed, which
trees would have furnished 7,000 feet of good lumber, value
$70, or a total of $1,094.70.
These values and figures are taken from a report heretofore
made to the owners of said property, and were based upon the
actual value of the timber and not upon its prospective value
had it not been killed. In other words, some of the timber
killed was not of the size specified for lumber purposes, and
would have been more valuable to the owner to have permitted
the same to grow to the requisite size rather than cut at the
time same was injured. The death of the timber has been so
rapid and so general throughout the territory affected that the
‘imber killed can not be utilized unless the owner is actually
logging in the immediate section. As soon as a tree dies the
worms get into same and, as in the case of the lots just speci-
fied, the loss from the destruction of the timber is absolute.
All the timber specified was wholly lost. The damages speci-
fied do not include timber merely injured.
A considerable portion of the land in Murray, Gilmer and
Fannin counties is valuable mainly for its timber and for for-
estry purposes; that is not only for the timber now actually
ready for milling but for future crops of timber. The rule
among the lumbermen is to cut only the mature timber, timber
14 inches or more in diameter, and it is from this size ‘imber
that both the tan bark and lumber is obtained and, conse-
quently, the land is made to furnish new crops of timber from
time to time.
Within the smoke zone the value of forest lands, and for
that matter orchards and farm lands, have been greatly de-
creased. In the matter of forests, in many instances property
values have been decreased by half. The injury has not been
by mere depreciation or failure of appreciation in value but
by the actual destruction of property. If the sulphur fumes
HEL A BAERS TR SOTTEE LR ER ILS Bl LSA OTC ESE SONNE BG AE Sled SS Str Ia ran rt: —
53
continue not only will the remaining timber be destroyed, but
the land will be rendered wholly useless for forestry and or-
chards and also, as a rule, for agricultural purposes.
While the damage to the deciduous trees, hy reason of their
not being in leaf, is not so great in Winter, the injury to the
conifers is much greater. The principal conifers within the
section subject to the Ducktown fumes are the white and yel-
low pine and hemlock. The former are particularly valuable
for the high grade lumber furnished and the latter for both
its bark, which is used for tanning, and its lumber. These
trees bear their foliage throughout the Winter and by reason
of the coldness, as well as the dampness of the atmosphere,
the sulphurous gases cling much closer to the earth, and these
trees are not only subject to stronger fumes but have not even
the aid of the deciduous trees in purifying the atmosphere.
Under the production of the gas as now generated, the
damage to the forests is steadily increasing and will continue
to increase from day to day. Deponent is informed that under
the new works in course of erection by one of the copper com-
panies the production of sulphurous gas will be probably dou-
bled. If this be true not only will the injuries be multiplied
but the damage will be much more quickly wrought by the rea-
son of the additional strength and volume of the fumes, and
in addition to all this, a large amount of territory now free
from positive injury will be brought within the harmful influ-
ence of the poisonous gases.
D. A. JONES.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this the day of No-
vember, 1905.
E. BUFFINGTON, C. N. P.,
Notary Public of Gilmer County, Georgia.
eee ae PELE S ENE AES DTA LT.
—
54
AFFIDAVIT OF L. D. ROGERS, TIMBER INSPECTOR.
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1906.
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY-
GENERAL, JOHN C. Hart,
Plaintt}/,
Us.
In Equity.
THE TENNESSEE CopPpER COMPANY AND THE
DvucKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
CoMPANY (LIMITED),
Defendants.
STATE OF GEORGIA,
County of Gilmer.
Personally appeared, L. D. Rogers, who, being duly sworn
in the above styled cause, deposes and says:
Deponent is a resident of Gilmer county, Georgia, and has
been since 1843, and since the year 1861 has lived upon lots
324 in the 7th Dist. and No. 1 in the 6th Dist., 2d section in
said county.
Deponent has been a woodsman and timber inspector for
about eighteen years, and during said term has spent a consid-
erable portion of his time in the inspection and care of forest
in Murray, Gilmer and Fannin counties, in the State of Geor-
gia. The forest in said counties up to about three years ago
was generally healthy and no unusual conditions were apparent.
In the immediate neighborhood of Ducktown, that is close to
<i
_—
the Georgia line, some injury to the timber was noticeable a
little earlier than 1902, but it was not until the summer or
autumn of 1902 that anything like widespread injury was be-
coming apparent. From 1go2 until the present time the injury
to timber has been both enormous and widespread. Through-
out a considerable portion of Gilmer and Fannin counties and
the northeast portion of Murray county a large per cent. of
the valuable timber has been destroyed, which destruction has
resulted from the sulphurous gases generated by the copper
companies at and near Ducktown and Isabella, Tenn. The
timber suffering the greatest damage has been the hickory,
white pine, chestnut oak and chestnut, but the forest generally
has been much injured. Deponent’s home place is situated
about thirty miles distant in direct line from Ducktown. Prac-
tically all hickory, chestnut, white pine and chestnut oak on
said land lots have been killed within the last two years and
a large amount of the remaining timber either killed or injured.
The injury to the timber is first apparent in the top and upper
branches of the trees, and later extends over the entire tree.
In the locality of deponent’s home the odor of the sulphur
fumes is both frequent and strong. When the wind is from
the north the smoke and sulphurous gases are often so thick
that they cloud the atmosphere and produce a heavy haze.
The deponent lives upon the waters of Little Turniptown
creek, and not only has the timber been killed as heretofore
stated, but the fruit as far distant as deponent’s home place
has failed and upon his own place the fruits have been killed,
and he has even been unable to make good fodder upon his
farm. Deponent has also been practically forced to quit gar-
dening, as his garden products were sometimes killed by the
sulphur fumes in a single night. Up to the spring of 1903
deponent was very successful in raising garden vegetables,
cabbages and the like, but since that time his garden has been
a failure, and often after a night when the sulphtr fumes
were particularly strong the growing vegetables on the fol-
lowing morning would appear as though they had experienced
a severe frost, and sooner or later would wither away and
die. The damage seemed to be greater during the night than
in the day time, probably by the reason of the air being colder
and thereby causing the gases to stay closer to the ground.
55
ere ~“]
bile RR Ra” Shiite Rind Sanaa reel
SFE 8 6s REAR
DBS NCEE RENE IEA LOG ESI GEOLLE LENE IME LEAL NEL. LTE SEARO GAEDE SIE LINES LIE ELE LOLA MEE:
56
The damage to forest, orchard, crops and garden during the
past three years has been enormous. Thousands of dollars’
worth of timber have been utterly destroyed and a large amount
injured, which will also be ultimately destroyed if the copper
companies continue to operate. In fact, a considerable por-
tion of land valuable for forest and agricultural purposes wiil
be rendered well-nigh, if not wholly, valueless if the copper
works continue to produce the sulphurous smoke.
It will be difficult to state accurately the damage already
done by the sulphur fumes. In many portions of the section
liable to the fumes, as for instance, in the case of lots 5, 6, 7,
and 30, in the 6th district, 2d section of Gilmer county, already
nearly all the valuable timber has been killed, certainly more
than three-fourths of same. In other sections equal damage
has been wrought while in still others the injury is not so large.
Certainly more than $100,000.00 of timber alone has been
destroyed upon the lands inspected by deponent. Continued
production of the gases will of course result in infinitely greater
damage.
A short distance from deponent’s home, from Aaron moun-
tain, a few miles east of Whitepath, Ga., the Ducktown works
are in view, and deponent has frequently traced the smoke from
Ducktown along the Toccoa river and Stanley and Cherry
Log Creeks to points further distant than said Aaron moun-
tain. The smoke, as a rule, appears to follow the valleys and
lower lying lands along the rivers, creeks and the branches
flowing into same. Aside from the actual damage wrought by
the sulphur fumes, the odor is extremely disagreeable and un-
pleasant, and deponent, among others, suffers more or less dis-
comfort therefrom. When the wind is in the north the fumes
are blown down the valleys. A major portion of the time the
wind is in the north within this particular territory, and blows
the smoke in the direction of and over the Georgia territory.
L. D. ROGERS.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this the 9th day of No-
vember, 1905.
J. L. WEAVER,
Notary Public of Gilmer County, Georgia.
57
AFFIDAVIT OF E. BUFFINGTON, TIMBER IN-
SPECTOR.
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1936
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY- \
GENERAL, JOHN C. Hart,
Plaintt}/,
Us.
In Equity.
THE TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND THE
DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
CoMPANY (LIMITED),
Defendants.
STATE OF GEORGIA,
Gilmer County.
Personally appeared, E. Buffington, who, being duly sworn
in the above-styled cause, deposes and says:
Deponent is a resident of Gilmer county, Georgia, and is
now and has been for the past year postmastef at East Ellijay,
Georgia, but for about fifteen years prior thereto was a timber
estimator and nursery agent operating mainly through the
counties of Gilmer, Fannin, Union and Murray. About four-
teen years ago deponent first made a thorough inspection and
examination of the timber in said counties, inspection being
made for J. W. Duckett, a timber contractor. At the time of
said inspection the forests of said counties were generally
healthy in appearance and condition, and abounded with val-
uable timber. In the subsequent inspections the timber contin-
VOTE Rast : R wf
Net ais
58
ued to exhibit a healthy appearance until about three years
ago, at which time injuries to the timber, particularly the
hickory, chestnut oak, white pine and chestnut was becoming
apparent; since that time the destrution of the timber, partic-
ularly in Fannin, Gilmer and the northeast portion of Murray
county, has been very great. The death of this timber can be
attributed to nothing but the sulphur fumes generated by the
copper companies near Ducktown, Tennessee.
Deponent was forced to give up his nursery business for the
reason that the smoke and fumes from said furnaces so injured
or destroyed orchards that a sale of fruit trees within the
smoke-infested locality, which extended throughout Gilmer,
Fannin and part of Union counties, could not be made.
E. BUFFINGTON.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this the roth day of
November, 1905.
J. L. WEAVER,
Notary Public of Gilmer County, Georgia.
59
AFFIDAVIT OF A. E. SHARP, LUMBERMAN.
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1906.
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY-
GENERAL, JOHN C. HarT,
Plaintt}/,
VS.
In Equity,
THE TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND THE
DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
CoMPANY (LIMITED),
Defendants.
STATE OF GEORGIA,
County of Gilmer.
Personally appeared, A. E. Sharp, who, being duly sworn
in the above-styled cause, deposes and says:
Deponent is a lumberman and has been engaged in said
business for the past fourteen years, and during said time,
while engaged in his business as aforesaid, has inspected con-
siderable timber in the counties of Murray, Gilmer and Fan-
nin, in the State of Georgia.
Up to a very recent date, that is to say, about the year 1902,
the forest throughout said counties were as a rule prosperous
and healthy, but about 1902 damage to the timber was becom-
ing apparent, which damage has rapidly increased up to the
present time. A large amount of the valuable timber in said
counties, particularly the hickory, white pine, chestnut oak
a
60
3 and chestnut, have been killed. The death of which timber is
: attributable to no other source than the sulphur fumes gener-
ated by the copper companies near Ducktown, Tennessee. The
destruction of timber by the sulphur fumes is well-nigh daily
on the increase, and if continued will result in a loss of prac-
tically all the timber within Gilmer and Fannin counties, and
also the northeastern portion of Murray county. Upon the
property personally inspected by deponent thousands of dol-
lars of timber has been destroved. Not only are the forest
; trees injured by the sulphur fumes, but the fruit crop has been
3 almost wholly destroyed and the orchards within the scope of
said fumes badly injured. If the production of the sulphurous
gases continue both the lumber and orchard interest within
‘ the section reached by said fumes will soon be entirely de-
stroyed.
A. E. SHARP.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this the roth day of
November, 1905.
’ E. BUFFINGTON,
Notary Public of Gilmer County, Georgia.
61
AFFIDAVIT OF M. L. MAUNEY.
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
an the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1906.
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY-
GENERAL, JOHN C. Hart,
Plainttfs,
US.
In Equity.
THE TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND THE
DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
ComPANy (LIMITED),
Derenaants.
STATE OF GEORGIA—County of Gilmer.
Personally appeared M. L. Mauney, who first being duly
sworn in the above stated cause, deposes and says:
That he is a resident of Murphy, Cherokee county, North
Carolina. Deponent is fifty-three years of age, and is by pro-
fession a forester or timber man, and has been engaged in his
vocation, cruising, buying and selling timber lands and timber
in the counties of Gilmer, Fannin, Union and Towns, State of
Georgia, for the past four years, during which time this de-
ponent has been constantly in, upon, over and through the
timber in said counties and is thoroughly familiar with
saine, its market value, condition and location.
This deponent has been to the works of the above defend-
ants in this case and has come in contact with the gases and
fumes that are generated there, so that he has become thor-
GM ENEEIEE TS LENE DENI BEN NEE RS
ya os Ce Teer a Re
62
oughly acquainted with same. Has also noticed the de-
struction of timber and vegetation caused by these fumes im-
mediately about the different plants, and has traced these effects
from said plants thirty-five or forty miles into the territory of
this State. The destruction to timber and vegetation with rare
exceptions grows less and less as the distance from the above
plants increases. Deponent had heretofore noticed destruction
to timber, such as hickory, white pine, chestnut-oak and chest-
nut in the mountains, usually on the north side, which is al-
ways the side towards Ducktown from this territory, where
usually the best timber is always found. Since May, this
year, deponent has noticed that this destruction has been multi-
plied many times over anything that he has ever noticed be-
fore. Deponent further states that during the month of May,
Juneand July,this year, that he has often seen and sinelt these
gases from these defendants’ works which would settle down
in a particular country and would be strong and offensive to
the smell. Ina few days afterwards acres of timber in this
neighborhood where the smoke had dropped would turn yel-
low and the leaves brown and shriveled up the same as if the
timber had been deadened or struck bya heavy frost or fire,and
the leaves would wither, dry up and fall off. This would occur
with all varieties of timber in the locality where the smoke had
visited and seemed to respect nothing. It would kill the old,
young and all vegetation, making a clean sweep of every
thing on the ground. This has been particularly noticed in
the Wilscott mountain, the Davenport mountain, and other
mountains near them. Said mountains being situated in
Fannin county, Georgia, some twenty miles from the defend-
ants’ works. Never before until this summer has this depo-
nent seen or noticed these fumes anything like so often, nor
near so strong and in such a condensed form as they have ap-
peared all throughout this territory at almost all hours of
the day or night whenever the wind was in the direction of
the defendants’ plants. Particularly was this noticed during
the months of May, Juneand July of this year above referred to.
During the above mentioned time and during deponent’s
| . : _—
ANE GAGEE Mie LAL RN Efe EFL REP HELI LEAS saan P POs MER eee MT,
r
63
experience in this State he has been actively employed in the
woods by Lucius Beebe & Sons, of Boston, Mass., and the
United Sates Leather Company. Deponent from the tops of
some of the mountains in this State has seen the high stack of
the defendants, and has watched thesmoke and fumes drift out
of the stack and settle into the territory of this State, and this
deponent knows from his own experience and observation that
the fumes coming from this stack in their present concentrated
form are far more deadly to all timber and vegetation than
any other process that has been used in this territory for the
past four years. The high stack, in deponent’s opinion and
knowledge, only tends to concentrate the fumes and gases and
give them a better carrying power so that the prevailing winds
drift them much further into the territory of this State, and
make them far more deadly to all vegetation where they settle,
as I have seen them do repeatedly during the months of May,
June and July above referred to.
M. L. MAUNEY.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this the 21st day of
August, 1906.
W. T. PICKETT.
Notary Public, Gilmer county, Georgia.
SECOND REPORT OF GEORGIA’S COMMISSION
IN 1906.
Atlanta, Ga., September 24, 1906.
To His Excellency, J. M. Terrell, Governor of Georgia:
We, the commission appointed by the General Assembly of
the State of Georgia, and approved by your excellency, to in-
vestigate the destruction of vegetation in North Georgia by
fumes from the smelters of The Tennessee Copper Company
and The Ducktown Sulphur, Copper & Iron Company, at and
near Isabella, Polk county, Tennessee, beg to report:
In further pursuance of our duties above set forth, we re-
visited the counties of Gilmer and Fannin during the third
ee ee
64
week of September, 1906, and reinspected considerable oi
the country visited by us on our former inspection, the latter
part of August, 1905. We find the area of serious injury to
timber and other vegetation vastly increased in every way in
the territory of this State since our last visit. The high stack
of The Tennessee Copper Company has in nowise relieved the
situation. On the contrary, we find the evil spreading at an
alarming rate in all directions. Particularly is this true of the
territory along the Cherry Log, on Rock Creek, Gilmer county,
Georgia; Boardtown Creek, and the ridges surrounding the
same, territory immediately surrounding and north of
Whitepath, the ridges to the southwest, west and north of E!-
lijay, all in Gilmer county, being territory situated from fifteen
to thirty miles south and southwest of the copper plants. At
all of these places last year, the injury was scarcely perceptible;
but on this trip the injury was heavily marked on all sides,
the trees are brown and seared, and the leaves are falling
fast, so that the woods are now covered thick in many places
with withered leaves that budded fresh this spring.
The ridges to the north and west of Blue Ridge showed
serious injury to almost all the timber. The town of Blue
Ridge, Fannin county, is situated on the backbone of the Blue
Ridge mountains, and from a hill situated a little to the north-
west in the corporate limits of this town, a perfect view of the
fumes in column from both of the copper plants situated in
Polk county, Tennessee, some twelve miles distant, could he
seen, and all intervening country for miles around was plainly
in sight. We could trace the immense volumes of fumes, as
discharged from the smelters and furnaces of each of the plants
drifting out over the country, uniting and settling into the
timber on the surrounding mountains. The ridges in view ai!
about us as far as the eye could survey, looked brown and
seared, as if the whole forest in every direction had been vis-
ited by severe frosts and at least three-fourths of the timber
within the area appeared to be seriously affected. The conifers
particularly, were badly affected. The deciduous trees in many .
cases had almost entirely shed their leaves, and the ground
was covered thick with the same that had been green and vig-
orous this spring.
We visited and carefully inspected the same territory last
65
year, and the timber in this immediate neighborhood showed
only slight injury, then.
In journeying from Ellijay towards the direction of the
smelters, the injury rapidly increased. On this trip we found
greater injury at Ellijay, some twenty-seven miles from the
smelters, than we observed last year some seven miles from
the same, so that this season has, in our knowledge, clearly
carried the serious injury to vegetation at least twenty miles
further into territory of this State.
Our investigations this year have more than verified our
apprehensions of last year, as the injury and damage has in-
creased much more rapidly than we had predicted, and it is
our opinion that if this damage be not immediately abated, the
whole of this section of our State will be irreparably ruined
and lost to its present owners and our commonwealth.
Respectfully submitted.
T. G. Hupson,
Commissioner of Agriculture.
Jno. M. McCanp Less,
State Chemist.
W. S. YEATEs,
State Geologist.
Wi. H. SHIPPEN.
T 7
66
nek,
AFFIDAVIT OF CHARLIFS A. KEFFER, FORESTER
FOR STATE OF TENNESSEE.
Laeice seats aA eat
No. 5 ORIGINAL.
vo
: In the Supreme Court of the United States.
OCTOBER TERM, 1906.
THE STATE OF GEORGIA, BY ITS ATTORNEY-
F GENERAL, JOHN C. HART,
: Plaintiff,
, US. ;
4 In Equity.
Tur TENNESSEE COPPER COMPANY AND THE
DUCKTOWN SULPHUR, COPPER AND IRON
Company (LIMITED),
De/enaants.
State oF GrorciA—County of Gilmer.
Personally appeared the undersigned who, being duly sworn
in the above-stated cause, deposes and says as follows:
Deponent is a resident of Knoxville, Tennessee, and is at
present professor of horticulture and forestry in the University
of Tennessee. From 1896 to 1899 deponent was assistant chief
of the Division of Forestry, United States Department of Ag-
riculture. He believes his studies and opportunities have given
him superior advantages in forming an opinion on the subjects
discussed in affidavits presented herewith as exhibits “A” and
“B.” The examinations referred to therein were made at the
request of Mr. Charles Seymour, of Knoxville, Tennessee.
Deponent has no personal interest in the premises.
Cuaries A. KEFFER.
—_—
—
67
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 18th day of Sep-
tember, 1906.
W. T. PICKETT,
Notary Public, Gilmer county, Georgia.
| ”
Saturday, June 16, 1906.
[ noted from point on Bell Knob almost due east of stack of
Isabella works, that the woods on west face of this knob were
almost all dead, except that within 200 feet of the top, on north
face, towards east, is a cove where timber seems uninjured at
a distance, but on going through it many dead trees are found,
and the characteristic brown discoloration of the leaves.
In ravine one mile from stack of Tennessee Copper Com-
pany, and two miles from Isabella works, found sourwood
leaves much affected; a little farther on, dogwoods halt dead. ,
These were the only trees alive.
From Bell Knob we rode down south face of ridge east-
ward to the south.of Anglico Gap, and up through Franklin
Gap, climbing the mountain to the left of Franklin Gap (going
from Ducktown) nearly to its top, some five miles from both
works. On this face of the mountain, as compared with the
Ducktown basin, little damage has been done, though there are
dead trees everywhere, and very few trees are in vigorous
health. As a whole, the forest would be called sickly.
Returning through Anglico Gap on main road to Stewart-
town we stopped at cabin in border of woods (no live woods
beyond this towards Ducktown), whose owner told us that
at his place more damage resulted from smoke of smelter
(Ducktown, not Isabella) than had been caused by the roast-
ing process. He had a garden—beet foliage badly killed by
fumes, but corn, onions, cabbage and beans unharmed—showed
us one place in cornfield that he had replanted where first
stand was destroyed by fumes. Everywhere I noticed that
trees of the same species were not equally injured ; would find
a blackjack oak with leaves badly spotted, while a nearby tree
of same kind would be uninjured in its !- ives.
After we reached McCays a very heavy rainfall. Sunday
morning the river had risen three feet.
oe an ah —_
68
During the afternoon the wind changed from south, whence
it blew steadily in the morning, to east and north, then back
from south again.
In the afternoon at 4 p. m., the Big Frog Mountain could
not be seen for fumes, and the Little Frog very dimly.
Sunday, June 17, 1906.
Crossed the river and into Georgia at McCays, and rode t»-
wards Epworth College, some four miles.
On heights just above river all trees facing Ducktown, al-
most without exception, were dead or in very bad condition.
In coves away from Ducktown the tops of tall trees were dead
or dying, while many small trees showed little injury at pres-
ent, though in sapling white oak many topmost branches were
dead. The black oaks, as a class, much more damaged than
white oaks.
Went out the Ellijay road three miles or more, then crossed
through the woods to Epworth College. In the lowlands the
damage to the forest growth is everywhere less than on the
ridges. Just beyond the college is a ridge running a little
east of south, direction south by southeast from Ducktown.
Both sides of this ridge face almost equally to Ducktown, the
crest being almost in line with it. The soil is clay sand, poor.
and blackjacks the dominant species, with white and post oal:.
black oak and a few others. The trees are in very bad shape,
some young (2-5 in.) saplings of white oak little injured, but
blackjack worst of all. Most of the latter showed marked
leaf injury and much dead wood. Some sapling white oaks
not injured at all, but most have a little leaf spot.
On the first ridge beyond Epworth (a little east of south of
stack), there are black, red, blackjack oaks from 12-20 inches
diameter, not a single healthy tree—all wit large dead
branches in crown, and thin foliage. One large white oak 18
inches in diameter had thin foliage and many small dead
branches. Men in neighborhood say place is four miles
to four and a half to McCays—barometer reads 1,850 feet,
level shows a little higher than stack. About two miles of
forest in straight line between this point and stack, very few
clearings except around Epworth, and these all small. Trees
—_
69
here the largest yet found, either south or northeast of copper
works. Fumes blowing east almost level with top of stack
(no breeze here) and making the mountain we were on yes-
terday very hazy as seen from here.
At Turtletown Station the injury is equal to that at Ep-
worth, as observed in passing on railroad train.
At Farner much less injury observed than at Turtletown---
but still very apparent, especially in mature trees.
Ellijay, Ga., June 30, 1906.
Rode out with Mr. Shippen on Big Turniptown creek; as-
cended Walnut Mountain, some twenty-five miles from Duck-
town, then continued up the creek. When about a mile beyond
Walnut Mountain opposite a gap in the range between us and
Ducktown, I smelled SO? gas distinctly for a moment and
called Mr. Shippen’s attention to it. He smelled it also. All
along the way there were many dead and dying trees on the
north slopes—and especially on low ridges running north and
south—on which both faces showed injury. In several cases
the leaves, especially of hickory and blackjack oaks, showed
the same injury I had observed near Ducktown.
The coves of the north slopes of Turniptown Mountain con-
tain a fine growth, many large trees of poplar and the oaks. A
portable sawmill was sawing poplar and oak logs 16 feet long,
3 feet diameter and perfectly sound.
Of the standing trees, especially on the higher slopes of that
mountain, many were dead, and the very great majority had
many dead limbs in their top—the injury quite as bad as re-
corded of ridge a mile or two south of Epworth.
Sunday, July 1, 1906.
Rode from Ellijay to Whitepath, and rode along the south
side of the gap through which we smelled the fumes yesterday.
The road lay through the valley of Turniptown creek, and past
the Whitepath hotel. The low ridge to the right saw a great
many trees dead in the timber—on north slope and crest of
ridge (towards Ducktown). Hickory and chestnut oak dead
almost without exception, and the white pines were many dead
a
oa
10
and dying. Near the road many trees showed injury to the
foliage, but on the slope of the ridge we saw the most injury.
Almost every old tree, both along the road and as far as we
could see, had many dead branches in the crown.
; Immediately opposite the station at Whitepath is a growth
in which white pine is the dominant tree—from 50 to 100 feet
high. All the pines within sight of the station are either sick
or dead—not a single healthy white pine tree.
Ellijay, July 7, 1906.
On Little Turniptown creek, just beyond (up stream) from
the Holt farm, on a due northern slope, is a growth of white
pine intermixed with hardwoods (principally oak). A pine 26
8 inches in diameter, breast-high, that will make four 16-foot
logs in trunk (diameter of trunk at 54 feet from ground esti-
mated 18 inches) is dying—should say, from its appearance,
can not put forth leaves next spring. Several white pines on
the ridge already dead, a dozen or more within sight of one
above noted dying; none in vigorous health.
In ascending along Little Turniptown creek, in the fourth
of a mile along the road immediately above the Holt farm, I
counted from the saddle seventy-six white pines on the north
slope and in the creek bottom, over fifty of which were fifty or
more feet high, and of these only three were in health, two of
a which were in the creek bottom; several were dead, and the
4 great majority were very sick, indicated by scanty and brown-
ish foliage.
As we proceeded up the creek the number of dead hardwoods
} greatly increased—over half the mature trees were dead or
j dying.
On the ridge to the south of L. A. Rogers’ farm is a gap
between higher ranges to the east and west, and farther south,
perhaps a mile distant, is Walnut Mountain, on which is the
orchard visited. This Rogers’ gap has more timber killed by
smoke than any place visited in vicinity of Ellijay. The ma-
ture trees alive, with few exceptions, are black or yellow oak
(quercus tinctoria), blackgum and a few half-dead chestnuts—
found one live hickory 10 inches in diameter on crest of ridge.
There is hardly a mature tree but has many dead branches in
i a ae Tg cick A yee ct ese bua
—_—_
71
its crown, and not one that is vigorous. Many young sprouts
of hickory, especially, show badly discolored foliage.
The soil is very poor and would not support a luxuriant for-
est growth, such as ‘s seen in the coves, but here the timber is
practically all dead and dying. No evidence of recent fires.
Sprouts three to five feet high show no fire injury. Fully
three times as much dead timber was on the north slope of
this ridge (towards Ducktown) as on the south slope.
From the headwaters of Little Turniptown creek I went to
the top of Chestnut Mountain (barometer reading 2,000 feet
higher than Ellijay). There is a clearing along the summit
and north side of this mountain—whence an uninterrupted
view to and beyond Isabella. The stack of the Isabella smelter
plainly visible, and to the left the fumes from the Ducktown
smelter—wind from the south, and the fumes from the two
stacks merged and were blown together, as seen from Chestnut
Mountain. From this height I observed that there were no
high mountains between this and the Ducktown basin, but on
either hand, and beyond Ducktown high mountains seemed to
hem in an irregular valley, which is traversed in all directions
by ridges that are low as compared with the surrounding
mountains. It is the timber on these lower ridges that has
been injured. A careful inspection of the timber on the higher
part of “hestnut Mountain revealed no injury; near its base
sickly and dead trees were found, and as above noted, the for-
est growth on the lower ridges, especially on north slopes,
crests and where ridges run north and south, both sides showed
marked injury as compared with south slopes.
It is apparent that much of the dead timber has died during
the past few years. Everywhere, as in any uncared for forest,
one may see an occasional dead tree with indication of having
been dead several years. But not only are there many dying
trees, and many others with very thin crowns and dead
branches, but of the dead trees the condition of the bark shows
that they have died within the past two years.
The injury is not the same in all species. Among the most
susceptible to injury by the fumes are the white pine, hickory
(all species), chestnut oak. Swamp maple (acer rubrum) is
very resistant to the fumes. Trees of this species can be found
or , PEST:
ee
Se
Pee ee
hn pitta Saki Mua ct SEN aS RE
es
72
between Ducktown Station and the Ducktown smelter, though
I recall no other woody plants there.
It is also to be noted that all the trees of a species are not
injured to an equal degree in the same neighborhood. One
may find a young white oak evidently in bad condition with
another of the same species near at hand unharmed. Among
kinds named as especially liable to injury, however, very few
healthy trees can be found in exposed localities.
Fannin County, July 8, 1906.
This morning rode out the river road nearly due south, and
for the first four miles after leaving East Ellijay bridge saw
much dead and dying timber on both sides of the road. The
majority of trees sickly or dead. Much brown foliage ob-
served, especially in chestnut oak, chestnut, hickory and black-
jack—hardly a single chestnut of any size but has many dead
branches in its top.
At S. H. Harper’s place, six miles south on Cartecay river,
thirty miles or more from Ducktown, at ford, white pines
along streams all injured or dead—no very large ones, as near
Holt farm, but all show some injury—foliage thin and turning
brown.
The road turns westward beyond Harper’s, and for four
miles beyond to Clear Creek church and returning via Cartecay
river, less injury was observed, this region being protected to
the north by high ranges.
The impression left on my mind as the result of my three
visits to the region is that the forests of the low ridges and the
lower slopes of the high mountains, reached by the fumes from
the smelters at Ducktown and Isabella, are being injured by
these fumes. The fumes have damaged and destroyed and
continue to damage many valuable timber trees and young
timber as far remote from Ducktown as Clear Creek, in Gilmer
county, Georgia. The injury between this point and Duck-
town is not of equal intensity, but varies with location, the
slopes and crests of ridges facing or parallel to Ducktown
showing greatest injury. While many of the species damaged
are of little economic value (as the blackjack oak), others
are of the greatest value (hickory and white pine), and the
—
73
entire destruction of the forest, as a source of timber, seems
certain if present conditions are permitted to continue.
I, Charles A. Keffer, set out as above notes made by me on
the dates and at the places named, and make oath that they
are true and correct.
CHARLES A. KEFFER.
Strate OF TENNESSEE—County of Knox.
Personally came before me Charles A. Keffer, who sub-
scribed the foregoing statement and made oath that same is
true, this 23d day of July, 1906.
NorMAN B. Morre.,
Notary Public.
“B ”
.
Ellijay, Ga., September 18, 1906.
On Sunday afternoon, September 16, 1906, I drove out the
Tails Creek road from Ellijay, Ga., to Yancy church, between
three and four miles southwest, the road crossing and follow-
ing low ridges and valleys. Returning, I drove out about two
and a half miles northwest of Ellijay, on the Dalton road. On
both of these roads many trees were seen on which the leaves
were brown, and in some cases most of the leaves had fallen
from the trees. It was evident that much the greater part of
this injury was of recent occurrence. The injury observed
along these roads was not continuous; that is, I passed through
acres where no recent injury was seen, then there would be
very considerable injury apparent. In no place were all the
trees injured. Generally speaking, the black oaks (as distin-
guished from white oaks) showed more injury than any other
trees.
On September 17th I rode over much of the territory visited
on July 7, 1906, and while there is no indication of additional
injury to the forest in some places, in others the injury is very
much more marked than it was on that date. Throughout the
ride, covering about thirty miles, only two vigorous hickory
trees were seen, while a great many hickory trees in size from
young saplings to trees over eighteen inches in diameter,
showed foliage much browned or fallen. It is not too much
a
Piet eat dda ioeeetel
74
to say that the hickory of all species throughout the region of
Ellijay is threatened with complete extinction, and is prac-
tically destroyed. It is evident, too, from the large number of
saplings that this forest was well stocked with hickory.
Viewed from the first ridge toward Ellijay from Stoner
Gap (about twenty miles from Isabella) the forest on Stoner
Gap had a brownish tinge, and even at that distance, about two
miles, I saw many trees quite brown, indicating severe injury.
In tract No. 5, in the sixth district, second section of the
Shippen Bro.’s Lumber Company’s land, which I visited when
here on June 30th, and which at that time showed scarcely
any damage, being cove land covered with trees of large size,
the forest as seen from the ridge above mentioned showed
brown foliage, indicating an injury incurred since my previous
visit.
From Chestnut Mountain (about eighteen miles from Isa-
bella) the basin toward Ducktown comprising a wide extert
of forest, with comparatively few farms, shows greatly in-
creased injury over what was observed from this point by me
on July 7, 1906. The stack of the Isabella works can be seen
from Chestnut Mountain, and high mountains rise to right and
left, forming a basin traversed hy many low ridges. In this
basin the general color tone of the forest, as seen from Chest-
nut Mountain, is of a brownish cast, instead of the deep green
which it should show at this season if in health. Roughly
speaking, I should say that one-fourth of the trees at the foot
of Chestnut Mountain were browned, while fully half of the -
trees about Cherry Log showed severe injury.
Descending the mountain and passing along the road toward
Cherry Log (about sixteen miles from Isabella) closer inspec-
tion showed ‘the injury to be fully as great as appeared from
the mountain. Everywhere trees of many species had their
leaves browned, and in many cases more than half of the leaves
had fallen, giving the trees the appearance of late autumn.
There were several tracts where white pine was numerous, and
almost without exception these trees showed very great in-
jury. I do not believe this species can withstand existing con-
ditions another year. The red and black oaks are so generally
injured that a healthy specimen is exceptional. Chestnut is
_
75
leaf spotted and its leaves are falling. Indeed, the forest shows
such marked injury that one is impressed with a grave sense
of the danger of its total destruction within a short time unless
the cause of injury can be removed.
About one mile north (approximately) of Whitepath, there
is a cross ridge, which marks the limit of the very severe in-
jury last described. From this ridge toward Ducktown the
forest of the basin, as far as can be seen, shows marked in-
jury. From this ridge toward Ellijay the injury is more local
in character and is less marked.
From examinations made in the neighborhood of Ducktown
and Isabella and reported in my affidavit of July 23, 1906, I am
convinced that the same cause which has destroyed the forest
in that region is working injury to the trees herein mentioned,
and I believe this injury to be due to fumes from the copper
smelters at Ducktown and Isabella. The injury to the forests
herein mentioned is unquestionably much more severe and
more extensive than when I looked over this region in July.
If the same rate of increase of injury is maintained I have no
doubt the forest throughout the region will be practically de-
stroyed in a few years.
I, Charles A. Keffer, set out as above notes made by me on
the dates and at the places named, and make oath that to the
best of my knowledge and belief that they are true and correct.
CuarLes A. KEFFER.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this the 18th day of
September, 1906.
W. T. Pickett.
Notary Public, Gilmer county, Georgia.
76
| —
EXTRACTS FROM BULLETIN 7, U. S. DEPARTMENT
OF AGRICULTURE—“FOREST INFLUENCES.”
2
3
BeInGc REporTS OF THE INITIAL FEDERAL INVESTIGATION IN
q Tuis CONNECTION, THE REPORT UNDER Topic, “RE1.a-
: TION OF ForEsts TO WATER SUPPLIES,” AND THE
3 FINAL REPORT AND SUMMARY OF CoNCLU-
{ sions BEING By B. E. Fernow, THEN
} CHIEF OF Forestry Division.
RELATION OF FORESTS TO WATER SUPPLIES (B. E. FERNOW).
“An element tending to increase the amounts of subterra-
nean drainage waters lies in the retardation of the surface
flow, by which the time is lengthened during which the soil
may take up and filter through rain and snow waters.”
“The forest floor offers such impediments to surface flow
and not only in greater degree than any naked soil, but than
any other vegetation. An advantage over other kind of vege-
tation is also found in the deep penetration of the roots of the
trees, which increases the chance for percolation. All that has
been said regarding evaporation and transpiration within and
without. the forest needs also be kept in mind in the discus-
sion of the amounts of drain waters for underground dis-
posal.”’
“The conclusion, then, is that in general a forest floor, al-
though retaining much of the water in its upper strata, allows
less water to run off superficially, and by rendering the soil
more permeable, larger amounts of water are turned into sub-
terranean channels.” (Page 152.)
‘“The most direct influence of a forest cover upon the dis-
charge would benoticeable on the surface springs, since in these
the catchment area and the place of discharge lie close to-
gether, while the underground run is not only short, but lies
near the surface, and hence experiences most sensibly the
effect of the protection against evaporation which the forest
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cover offers. Deforestation here would no doubt reduce or
cut off discharge entirely. (Page 156.)
“Jt is in the first place this mechanical obstruction which a
forest floor more than most other kinds of vegetation offers,
which changes the distribution in time of surface waters,
that constitutes the forest an influential factor in water-flow,
“The great number of inequalities which the forest floor
offers, in addition to the trunks and stumps and fallen trees,
forces the run-off to many detours, thus retarding its flow
and its collection in the open runs and brooks.
‘The retardation in the water-flow begins even before the
rain has reached the soil, for the leaf canopy catches and re-
evaporates, as we have seen, from 12 to 25 per cent. of the
total fall, and certainly retards the fall of the water to the
ground, as can be readily observed ; long after the rain has
ceased the water keeps on dripping from the foliage. Thus,
although most of the water reaches the ground at last, ex-
cept in case of very light showers, yet the devious ways in
which it reaches the soil makes tne flow of water from a
forest-covered hill longer in time than if the rain had fallen
on a bare slope. As the result of a long-continued precipi-
tation, it would be under the same conditions by an unfor-
ested slope, but this stage occurs in the forest later than on
unforested soil and later still tian on naked soil.
“The great importance of the factor of time in surface
drainage, both as regards dangers from freshets and erosion
of soil, will be more readily appreciated when we remember
that the dangerous waters in the mountains are generally of
short duration.
“A difference of 1,000 to 2,000 cubic feet of water per sec-
ond from a square mile of watershed may often deterinine
whether a dangerous flood is experienced or not. And since
a square mile of moss-covered forest floor is capable of ab-
sorbing from 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 cubic feet in, say, ten
minutes (a humus cover is capable of taking up 50 per cent.
of its own weight), nearly all of which the naked soil would
give up some twelve to fifteen hours earlier, the surface
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conditions of the watershed must in many cases be determina-
tive in the excesses of water-flow in rivers. (Page 158.)
“This important fact should at least be recognized, that the
surface conditions of the soil of a watershed are the only con-
trollable factors in the problem.
“By this protection of the soil the so-called torrential action
of water is prevented, which, as the history of some depart-
ments in southern France has shown, is capable of devastat-
ing theusands of acres of fertile land by carrying the detritus
E into the valleys and depositing it there. At the same time
the reforestation work of the French Government has also
progressed far enough to furnish proof that the reclothing of
the denuded hills is the practical remedy against these
torrents.
‘‘Not only were the mountain sides themselves devastated
7 and made useless by the destructive action of the water, but
fertile farms for 200 miles from the source of the evil were
ruined by the deposit of the débris, and the population pau-
perized and driven out.
: “According toM. Demontzey, forest administrator of France,
; it was estimated, in 1866, that area of denuded mountain
lands needing reforestation was 2,964,000 acres. The Gov-
ernment has taken hold of the restoration of the most-need-
ing area, some 780,000 acres, on which so far some $10,000,-
ooo have been expended, while private owners and communi-
ties have increased this expenditure for the repair of past
follies to over $30,000,000, which is estimated to be about
one-half of what is necessary.
“How in our own country this erosive and destructive ac-
tion of water is at work, even in the hill country, is thus
graphically described by Mr. McGee, in speaking of the bad |
lands in the State of Mississippi :
“With the moral revolution of the early sixties came an
industrial evolution ; the planter was impoverished, his sons
were slain, his slaves were liberated, and he was fain either
to vacate the plantation or greatly to restrict his operations.
So the cultivated acres were abandoned by thousands. Then
Sahat GRE ats Dace aes
CR ee Te ae A ee Nee
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79
the hills, no longer protected by the forest foliage, no longer
bound by the forest roots, no longer guarded by the balk and
brush dam of the careful overseer, were attacked by rain-
drops and rain-born rivulets and gullied and channeled in all
directions ; each streamlet reached a hundred arms into the
hills, each arm grasped with a hundred fingers a hun-
dred shreds of soil, and as each shred was torn away the
slope was steepened and the theft of the next storm made
easier. (Page 159.)
‘‘So, storm by storm and year by year, the old fields were
invaded by gullies, gorges, ravines, and gulches, ever in-
creasing in width and depth until whole hillsides were carved
away, until the soil of a thousand years’ growth melted into
the streams, until the fair acres of ante-bellum days were
converted by hundreds into bad lands, desolate and dreary as
those of the Dakotas. Over much of the upland the traveler
is never out of sight of glaring sand wastes where once were
fruitful fields; his way lies sometimes in, sometimes between,
gullies and gorges—the “gulfs” of the blacks, whose super-
stition they arouse, sometimes shadowed by foliage, but
oftener exposed to the glare of the sun reflected from barren
sands. Here the road winds through a gorge so steep that
the sunlight scarcely enters, there it traverses a narrow crest
of earth between chasms scores of feet deep in which he
might be plunged by a single misstep. When the shower
comes he may see the roadway rendered impassable, even
obliterated, within a few minutes; always sees the falling
waters accumulate as viscid mud torrents of brown or red,
while the myriad miniature pinnacles and defiles before him
are transformed by the beating raindrops and rushing -rills
so completely that when the sun shines again he may not
recognize the nearer landscape.
“This destruction is not confined to a single field sior toa
single region, but extends over much of the upland. While
the actual acreage of soil thus destroyed has not been meas-
ured, the traveler through the region on horseback daily sees
thousands or tens of thousands of formerly fertile acres now
ee
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a
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Fr
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barren sands ; and it is probably within the truth to estimate
Z that ten per cent. of upland Mississippi has been so far con-
: verted into bad lands as to be practically ruined for agricul-
ture under existing commercial conditions, and that the an-
nual loss in real estate exceeds the revenues from all sources.
And all this havoc has been wrought in a quarter cen-
tury. The processes, too, are cumulative; each year’s rate
of destruction is higher than the last.
‘“The tranformation of the fertile hills into sand wastes is
not the sole injury. The sandy soil is carried into the val-
leys to bury the fields, invade the roadways, and convert the
formerly rich bottom lands into treacherous quicksands when
wet, blistering deserts when dry; hundreds of thousands of
acres have thus been destroyed since the gulleying of the
hills began a quarter century ago. Moreover, in much
of the upland the loss is not alone that of the soil, 7. ¢., the
humus representing the constructive product of water-
work and plant-work for thousands of years; the mantle of
brown loam, most excellent of soil stuffs, is cut through and
carried away by corrosion and sapping, leaving in its stead
the inferior soil stuff of the Lafayette formation. In such
cases the destruction is irremediable by human craft—the
fine loam once removed can never be restored. The area
from which this loam is already gone is appalling, and the
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