2A. PLATEAU REGION. 51 



easily explained. About 29% of the trees in the 

 primeval forests of the plateau were evergreen. Be- 

 sides the conifers (the first six species on the list) the 

 other evergreens are the bay and holly. The water-oak 

 and sweet-leaf are semi-evergreens. 



Population, amount of woodland, etc, — In 1910 the 

 plateau region had about 30 inhabitants to the square 

 mile, an increase of about 37 7o in ten years. This re- 

 gion has by far the largest proportion of white people of 

 any part of the state, namely, about 98%. 



About 75% of the area is estimated to be still wooded, 

 and consequently open range for stock is the rule in most 

 parts. Now that the richer soils of the neighboring 

 valleys are nearly all occupied by farmers the once de- 

 spised sandy lands of the plateau are being utilized 

 more and more, and for the last quarter of a century or 

 so the agricultural population has "been increasing here 

 more rapidly than in any other equal area in northern 

 Alabama. (The greater percentages of increase shown 

 by some counties a little farther south are due more to 

 mining and manufacturing than to farming.) 



All the commoner trees have probably suffered about 

 equally from farming and lumbering operations, but 

 some of the pines have spread considerably in aban- 

 doned clearings, and thus increased in relative abun- 

 dance. Before there was much farming done in this re- 

 gion large areas are said to have been denuded of their 

 best timber to make charcoal for the iron furnaces in the 

 valleys, but that practice is now on the wane, coke be- 

 ing used much more than charcoal. A great deal of tim- 

 ber has been consumed also for props in the numerous 

 coal mines in the region, and of course for cross-ties on 

 the railroads. 



No navigable river traverses this region, but the Ten- 

 nessee approaches it closely in Jackson and Marshall 

 Counties, and furnishes an outlet for some of its prod- 

 ucts. Railroads are not very numerous as yet, largely 

 because the abrupt edges of the plateau are too difficult 

 for them to climb in many places. Some points in the 

 region are at present 20 miles from a railroad. 



The principal forest products seem to be as follows: 



