152 ^ THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN FORESTS. 



amount of heav}' forest at the head of the stream. The greater part of the 

 cleared land lies in the lower part of the basin. 



Oumership. There are about 02 families in this basin. Much of the land 

 in the upper part of the basin now in timber will be converted into small farms 

 as soon as the timber is. cut and the land is open to purchase. 



Prices of land. Farming' land sells at $6 to $25 per acre; woodland, at 

 $2 to $6 per acre. 



PIGEON RIVER BASIN. 



Topography. Pigeon River rises among the Balsam and Pisgah mountains, 

 cuts its way through the Unaka Mountains, and joins French Broad River on 

 the Tennessee Plain. It drains an interior agricultural basin which is oval in 

 outline, the longer axis northwest, parallel to the general course of the stream, 

 and almost entirely within the Appalachian Mountain region. It is circumscribed 

 by loftv mountains, with many peaks more than 6,000 feet in altitude. Many 

 minor ranges springing from the surrounding mountains converge toward the 

 middle of the basin, dividing it into deep, narrow valleys, except near its upper 

 end, between the towns of Canton and Waynesville, where there is a broad open 

 valley of alluvial plains and rolling hills, dotted with low mountains. 



The basin has an area of 345,440 acres, of which 79 per cent is wooded. 



Sell. The soils are loams and sandy loams, mostly fine grained, derived from 

 gneiss and schists, though in the mountains they are more siliceous and coarser, 

 being the product of metamorphosed sandstones, quartzites, and conglomerates. 



Agriculture. This basin is well adapted to grass, except where very sandv, 

 and grass is the chief product of the region. Corn i-anks next in importance, 

 while the cultiv^ation of wheat is largely contined to the broad valley of the 

 Pigeon, between Canton and Ferguson, and to the Richland and Fines Creek 

 valleys. Apples are extensively raised and have a wide reputation for their 

 qualit3% Truck farming is yearly assuming a larger importance. 



The alluvial valley lands have been little injured by freshets, and as a iiile 

 the soils of the uplands have not suffered severeh' from erosion, though a few 

 badly gullied slopes, due to the continuous cultivation of corn, are to be seen in 

 the older settlements. 



The forest. Scarlet, black, and white oaks, associated with black pine, formed 

 at one time an extensive forest on the hills between Canton and Waynesville, 

 but this land, where not under cultivation, is now in second-growth forest. The 

 forests of the mountains are of typical mixed Appalachian hard woods, with a 

 small amount of black spruce at high elevations in Balsam and Pisgah ridges, 

 and some white pine in the lower part of the basin, and have been culled only 

 of the most valuable timbers. 



