Maladjustments in Land Use 



21 



in regions adjoining the Southern Highlands has been 

 increasingly commercialized, whereas it has here 

 largely retained its pioneer self-sufficing character. 

 This condition alone is enough to place the highlands 

 in an increasingly unfavorable light as compared to its 

 neighbor areas. As pointed out by Dr. A. E. Morgan, 

 Tennessee Valley Authority, most of the inhabitants 

 have never known prosperity in any form. There are 

 many thousands of families which have never seen as 

 much as $300 a year cash income. 



General regional character. — 'Wliile this area is cus- 

 tomarily referred to as a highland region, very little 

 of it actually exhibits such characteristics. It is only 

 in northeastern Georgia, western North Carolina, and 

 adjoinmg small parts of Tennessee and Virginia that 

 the physical relief assumes mountainous proportions. 

 Elsewhere, the area consists of rugged hill countiy, 

 little if any higher than the bordering plains. 



This region receives an abundant rainfall of 40 to 

 60 inches and in some locahties nearly 80 inches 

 annually; temperatures are mild and represent a 

 transition from continental to subtropical conditions. 

 Consequently, this hill region originally supported a 

 fine cover of trees, in fact the finest hardwood forest in 

 the world aside from the selvas of the tropics. 



Isolation. — The Southern Highlands are located in the 

 east central portion of the country and accessible by 

 one day of automobile travel from Chicago, St. Louis, 

 Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cleve- 

 land, Cincinnati, or Detroit. Nevertheless they are 

 isolated to an imusual degree. In part this is due to 

 the physical relief of the region and in part to the 

 nature of the transportation pattern of eastern United 

 States. 



Most of the main railway lines avoid this region, 

 skirting cither its northern or southern margins. For 

 many decades most sections were wholly without rail- 

 roads. Even today existing rail facilities are for the 

 most part minor lines designed for transporting timber, 

 coal, and other raw products. National arterial liigli- 

 ways also have tended to avoid the Southern Highlands. 

 In a few instances, however, highways have been con- 

 structed directly through the region in order to reduce 

 its isolation and make its scenery available to tourists. 

 At the present time many counties are acquiring their 

 first graveled roads, and numerous localities are still 

 accessible only by horseback, or by jolt wagon. Ap- 

 proach to the area from some quarters is made difficult 

 by steep escarpments and broken topography, and 

 travel within the region is rendered difficult by tortu- 

 ous rivers, labyrinthine valleys, and long unbroken 

 ridges. 



In the relative seclusion of the highlands pioneer 

 conditions have been perpetuated to a surprising degree. 

 Far from markets and denied the possibihty of a large 



cash income, families have tended to produce what 

 they needed for their consumption. Consequently the 

 region is characterized largely by general agriculture 

 and in many localities by self-sufficing farming. 



Blue Ridge Mountain Section.— -This physical feature 

 is a narrow ridge in Maryland and northern Virginia, 

 but toward the south it widens out into a high and 

 rugged mountain area. In North Carolina it reaches 

 a width of more than 100 miles. This section has no 

 coal, only a moderate amount of arable land, but rather 

 excellent resources of timber. The more accessible 

 portions were logged over many years ago, but in the 

 more isolated districts the forests are just now being 

 exploited. 



Arable land is, in the main, scattered through the 

 mountains in small patches known as coves or hollows. 

 These vary in size from those able to contain only one, 

 two, or three farm families, on up to those large enough 

 to support several score of families. The pressure of 

 population has become so great that every spot where 

 cultivation is possible has been occupied. The soil, 

 originally quite fertile, has in many localities been 

 depleted by overcropping. Most of these coves are 

 badly isolated from other similar areas and from mar- 

 kets. Houses and living standards are poor. Local 

 intermarriage has been the common practice, and 

 degeneracy and feeble-mindedness are said to have 

 resulted all too frequently. Owing to dispersed settle- 

 ment these people cannot be adequately served by 

 schools, churches, or public-health and social-welfare 

 workers. 



Ridge and Valley Section. — Just west of the Blue 

 Ridge a long narrow belt of alternating ridges and 

 valleys, known as the Folded Appalachians, extends 

 from central Alabama northward to Maryland. Three 

 hundred miles to the west in Arkansas and Oklahoma 

 lie the similar Ouachitas. Many of the valleys are 

 floored with fertile limestone soil and the larger ones 

 are fairly accessible. Many of the smaller valleys, 

 however, are extremely isolated and frequently contain 

 poor shale soils. 



Farms on the ridges themselves and those in many 

 of the extremely isolated canoe-shaped valleys are 

 definitely submarginal and should be replaced by 

 forest. Particularly is this true in the Ouachitas, 

 where low-grade, self-sufficing agriculture is almost 

 universal. 



Plateau Areas. — Locally, the Southern Higldands 

 present the aspect of small plateaus, or elevated table- 

 lands bounded by steep escarpments. Sand Mountain 

 and Walden Ridge in Tennessee and Alabama, portions 

 of the Cumberland section in Kentucky, and niany of 

 the narrow flat-topped ridges m West Virgmia are ex- 

 amples of fairly level land upon the higher elevations. 

 In such localities, the roads, farms, and settlements lie 



