Forest Conditions. 396 



in private hands, still much water must flow down the 

 Mississippi before adequate measures will be taken to 

 stave off the threatening timber famine, and the energy 

 of the various local and national Conservation associa- 

 tions will need to be exercised to the utmost. 



1. Forest Conditions. 



Two extensive mountain systems, running north and 

 south, give rise to at least eight topographic subdivis- 

 ions of the country, going from east to west. 



1. The narrow belt of level coast and hill country 

 along the Atlantic shore, from 100 to 300 miles in 

 width, with elevations up to 1,000 feet, but especially 

 low along the seaeoast from Virginia south; drained by 

 short rivers navigable only for short distances from the 

 mouth; a farming country, with the soils varying from 

 the richest to the poorest; some 300,000 square miles. 



2. The Appalachian mountain country, nearly of the 

 same width as the first section, with elevations up to 

 5,000 feet; the watershed of all the rivers to the At- 

 lantic, of several rivers to the Gulf, and of the eastern 

 affluents of the Mississippi; a mountain country, of 

 about 360,000 square miles extent, rich in coal, iron 

 and other minerals, except in its northern extension 

 formed of archaean rock. 



3. The great river basin of the Mississippi, a Central 

 plain of glacial and river deposit, rising gradually from 

 the Gulf to the headwaters for more than 1200 miles 

 and nowhere over 1,000 feet above sea level ; the richest 

 agricultural section,. 700,000 square miles, more or less, 

 in extent. 



