Bladen were reported by Soil Conservation personnel to 

 have a balanced situation with regard to new woods and 

 new fields. It was found that Currituck, Tyrrell, and Rich- 

 mond might have a slight trend toward increase of wood- 

 land area. In Wayne and Harnett, clearing of woods seems 

 to exceed the rate of field abandonment. There is general 

 agreement that clearing of woodland is most active in the 

 heavy tobacco producing counties. About 15 Middle and 

 Western Coastal Plains counties are heavy tobacco pro- 

 ducers. At present, it can be said that land clearing and 

 land abandonment seem to be very nearly balanced in the 

 region as a whole. 



Experts of the Soil Conservation Service say that about 

 % of the forest land in the Coastal Plain is equal or su- 

 perior to areas now in cultivation, and they recommend 

 considerable clearing of woods on farms, whereas other 

 farm experts maintain such clearing would be unwise, due 

 to the need for fuel and timber on the farms. 



Piedmont. This unit is 48 per cent forested, ranging 

 from 26 per cent in Rowan to 71 per cent in Montgomery. 



Clearing of woods for agriculture is active. The north- 

 ern counties are heavy producers of tobacco, and periodic 

 recruitment of "new ground" for this crop has always been 

 considered a paying practice in the red hills. Pasture clear- 

 ing for a growing cattle industry has also been responsi- 

 ble for a decrease of forest acreage in some counties. 



However, erosion has been serious. This, combined with 

 continued loss of cotton markets, has caused widespread 

 abandonment of fields. In only one of seven Piedmont 

 counties, where the matter was investigated, did agricul- 

 tural leaders claim that open land was increasing at the 



expense of woodlands. This was Wake County, but even 

 here a 10-year trend might show that the woodland is in- 

 creasing. No opinion could be formed in Gaston, but Ran- 

 dolph, Caswell, Yadkin, and Rowan show a gradual in- 

 crease in woodland area. 



Soil Conservation technicians agreed that the fields be- 

 ing abandoned to forest represented a desirable trend be- 

 cause of poor land, small patches, and steep slope. At the 

 same time, the S. C. S. says that % of the Piedmont for- 

 est area might well be cleared for crops and pasture as 

 these forest areas are superior to lands in cultivation at 

 the present time. 



Mountains. This 21-county unit is 70 per cent forested, 

 ranging from 33 per cent in Ashe to 92 per cent in Gra- 

 ham. 



Opinion and observation point to the probability that 

 woodland area is gradually gaining. This was said to oe 

 the case in Buncombe, Jackson, and Graham, where agri- 

 cultural technicians considered the trend desireable be- 

 cause land had been cleared for corn and many farms on 

 ridgeland never were suitable for farming. Stability was 

 said to have been reached in Ashe, where farmers have 

 cleared about all they can for pasture, perhaps overdoing 

 it on extremely steep slopes. Woodland area was said tc 

 be decreasing in Caldwell, due to industrial workers 

 spreading out on new small farms. The Forest Survey in 

 1938 found abandoned cropland nearly five times as ex- 

 tensive as the new cropland. 



While advocating considerable clearing in the Coastal 

 Plain and Piedmont, Soil Conservation Service soil capa- 

 bility surveys would not reduce aggregate woodland area 



Table Id 



MOUNTAINS 



COUNTY STATISTICS: TOTAL LAND, FOREST, AND NON-FOREST AREA 



County Gross Area Water Area Land Area Non-forest Area Forest Area % Forest Area 



Alleghany 147,200 147,200 95,386 51,814 35.2 



Ashe 273,280 273,280 182,004 91.276 1 33.4 



Avery 158,080 158,080 54,854 103,226 65.3 



Buncombe 414,080 640 413,440 140,156 273,284 66.1 



Burke 330,880 7,040 323,840 83,551 240,289 74.2 



Caldwell 307,200 2,560 304,640 84,081 220,559' 72.4 



Cherokee 298,880 298,880 62,880 236,000 2 79.0 



Clay 140,160 140,160 28,593 111,567 79.6 



Graham 191,360 2,560 188,800 15,900 172,900 2 91.6 



Haywood 348,160 640 347,520 97,220 250,300' 72.0. 



Henderson 244,480 244,480 99,014 145,466 59.5 



Jackson 319,360 319,360 66,108 253,252 79.3. 



McDowell 286,080 3,200 282,880 55,727 227,153 80.3 



Macon 332,800 332,800 63,565 269,235 80.9' 



Madison 291,840 291,840 117,040 174,800 2 60.0 



Mitchell 140,800 140,800 49,400 91,400 2 64.9 



Swain 348,160 348,160 37,360 310,800 2 89.3. 



Transylvania 242,560 242,560 35,656 206,904 85.3 



Watauga 204,800 204,800 104,448 100,352 49.0 



Wilkes 489,600 489,600 161,521 322,157 65.8 



Yancey 199,040 199,040 59,040 140,000* 70.3 



Regional Totals 5,708,800 16,640 5,692,160 1,693,504 3,998,656 70.2 



1. Sample counties in which new forest area figures were developed 3. All others are Forest Survey forest acreage figures corrected to 

 by interpretation of aerial photographs. (N. C. Forest Resource Ap- the 1940 Census on a percentage basis. Original figures were obtained 

 praisal). from Forest Survey Release No. 19. "Approximate Area and Timber 



2. Tennessee Valley Authority determinations of forest area based on Volumes by Counties in the Carolinas and Virginia." 

 planimetric maps. 



( 



