APPALACHIAN REGION 89 



Mixed farming for local needs is still practised, but the 

 interest of this region now lies in other directions. 



South of Washington, in the rich Eastern Valley, the 

 country is less industrialized; though cultivated fields 

 of a southern type, with tobacco, cotton, and the fruits 

 of warmer climates, have superseded the luxuriant 

 summer-green forests. Free from the competition of the 

 wheat- and maize-growing West, agriculture plays a more 

 important part than in the north. The sandy pine-belt 

 yields only lumber and wood products. 



West of the Appalachians. The country west of the 

 Appalachians is formed by the Alleghany and Cumber- 

 land plateaus, continued westward by the lower and 

 undulating plateaus of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. 

 Here the climate is not so mild as in the east ; winters 

 are colder, summers warmer, and the rain does not fall 

 so regularly throughout the year. In spite of such 

 minor differences, comparable with those which exist 

 between the rainy belt of western Europe and the more 

 extreme central portion, the climate is primarily favour- 

 able to the growth of the so-called ' hardwood' or broad- 

 leaf, non-coniferous forest type. The soil is fertile, and 

 the whole country was a fairly continuous forest prior 

 to the dense settlement of man. 



Rivers are screened by dark and marshy woods, and 

 luxuriant meadows cover the heavier bottom-lands. On 

 higher ground rise forests comprising many kinds of 

 oak, hickory, and a rich variety of leaf-shedding trees : 

 the ridges of the hills naturally bear lighter forests. 

 The vegetation, on the whole, is very much like, but not 

 so luxuriant and diversified as, that across the Appa- 

 lachians; it constitutes really a step towards the drier 

 conditions of the west. Here is the true home of the 

 common 'acacia' (more accurately robinia, or false 



