Geographic Regions in Indiana 103 



and the land i.s least valuable and the total taxables smallest. They 

 are more than twice as abundant in the central plain and in the Dear- 

 born Upland, both well developed regions. The automobiles are not 

 only more nr-merous in the richer part of the state than in the poorer, 

 but they average distinctly more costly per car. Tractors are six times 

 as abundant in the north central plain as upon the Norman Upland. 

 Indeed they are two or three times as abundant in the central and 

 northern part of the state as in the southern, with its large areas of 

 !'ough land. The distribution of auto trucks, ho.\'ever, is distinctly dif- 

 ferent from that of automobiles and tractors. Trucks are relatively 

 most numerous in the Norman Upland, a region poorly supplied with 

 railroads. They are least common in the Kankakee region with its 

 many low and sandy areas and its many railroads converging towards 

 Chicago. Milking machines are three times as numerous in the north- 

 eastern morainal section of the state as in the extreme southeastern or 

 in the Scottsburg Lowland. Running water in barns is rarest in the 

 regions of cheapest lands, the Norman Upland and Crawford Upland. 

 It is commonest in the Scottsburg Lowland and in the morainal region 

 with its extensive dairying. 



Within the iiomes there is no less i-egional contrast than in the 

 barns and in the value of the land. For example, according to figures 

 given in the Indiana Yearbook, washing machines are six times as fre- 

 quent on farms in the north central plain as in the Norman Upland 

 and vacuum cleaners are four times as common in the plain as in the 

 rougher sections. Furnaces are more than four times as common in 

 the coolest northeastern section than in the poorer areas of southern 

 Indiana. Electric devices in the farm home are 60 times as numerous 

 in proportion to area in the Kankakee region than in the hilly and 

 rather remote Crawford Upland. Kitchen sinks are three times as com- 

 mon in the north central plain and the morainal region as in the Nor- 

 man and Crawford Uplands. 



The reasons for the foregoing contrasts are largely due to the 

 geographic differences mentioned in earlier pages. The effects of the 

 differences in levelness, soil, climate and accessibility, are supplemented 

 by differences in the education and ability of the people which are in 

 turn related to differences in opportvmities. Undoubtedly there is a 

 tendency for many of the more alert young people to go from the less 

 favored regions to the more favored. The discouragement afforded by 

 the small, poorly equipped farms of the less favored areas is increased 

 by the lower average yields per acre of important crops. For example, 

 even along the relatively productive valley bottoms of the Norman and 

 Crawford Uplands, the corn yield is not great enough to give those 

 regions much more than half the average yield on the wide north cen- 

 tral plain. Furthermore, so little land is suited to corn in the rougher 

 parts of the state that the average farm had only about a third as 

 many acres as the average farm in the central plain. In respect to 

 wheat there is less contrast. According to the 1920 Census, the average 

 yield in the Crawford Upland was 12. bushels in 1919, but 19 bushels 

 in the Kankakee region. In the three upland regions of southern In- 



