that farming "settle down" on the good lands and keep 

 them fertile through conservation practices. This will 

 take a long time. Patches of woods continue to be cleared 

 for pasture or tobacco, while fields are abandoned to be 

 occupied by pine, oak, or gum trees. 



At present 60 per cent of North Carolina is forested. 

 "Will this percentage increase, or will agricultural expan- 

 sion result in widespread clearing? 



From a sifting of opinions collected in 23 counties, and 

 drawing upon personal observations, it appears that the 

 trend for the past 10 years has been in favor of the wood- 

 land. 



Soil Conservation Service experts suggest that over 2,- 

 500,000 acres of the farm forest land in the Coastal Plain 

 and Piedmont should be cleared, with 500,000 acres of poor 

 open land to revert to timber use. 



The comment might be made that agricultural experts 

 in the South have, for decades, pointed to all the good 

 land that could be cleared and farmed, but their propo- 

 sals seem to have fallen" on unheeding ears. Big lumber 



companies in the deep South figured they were preparing 

 the way for farms, but their farm promotion schemes did 

 not produce the desired results. Cropland has been de- 

 clining in the South for 40 years, woods acreage has 

 been increasing. Factors other than availability of land 

 have been more decisive. 



Discussion of findings by the four units follows: 



Northern and Southern Coastal Plain. The Northern 

 Coastal Plain is 61 per cent forested, ranging from 31 per 

 cent in Wilson to 83 per cent in Tyrrell. The Southern 

 Coastal Plain is 67 per cent forested, ranging from 45 per 

 cent in Greene to 85 per cent in Pender. 



The old cycle of clearing "new ground" and allowing 

 "worn out" fields to grow up in trees is still in evidence. 

 Yet tidewater counties show the least change of any part 

 of the state, as clearing must usually be accompanied by 

 drainage. Change continues actively in middle and west- 

 ern Coastal Plain counties. 



Eleven counties were sampled in these two units. Six 

 of these — -Halifax, Bertie, Beaufort, Jones, Pender, and 



COUNTY STATISTICS: 



Table lc. 

 PIEDMONT 

 TOTAL LAND, FOREST, AND NON-FOREST AREA 



County Gross Area Water Area Land Area Non-forest Area 



Alamance 277,760 



Alexander 165,760 



Anson 343,040 



Cabarrus 230,400 



Caswell 278,400 



Catawba 263,680 



Chatham 452,480 



Cleveland 298,240 



Davidson 358,400 



Davie 168,960 



Durham 192,000 



Franklin 316,160 



Forsyth 271,360 



Gaston 232,320 



Granville 347,520 



Guilford 417,280 



Iredell 380,160 



Lincoln 197,760 



Mecklenburg 351,360 



Montgomery 319,360 



Orange 254,720 



Person 256,000 



Polk 150,400 



Randolph 512,640 



Rockingham 366,080 



Rowan 337,280 



Rutherford 363,520 



Stanly 259,840 



Stokes 293,760 



Surry 344,320 



"Union 411,520 



Vance 172,160 



Wake 554,880 



Warren 284,800 



Yadkin ' 214,400 



Regional Totals 10,638,720 48,640 10,590,080 5,539,928 



Forest Area % Forest Area 





277,760 



153,324 



124,436 



44.8 



2,560 



163,200 



84,084 



79,152 



48.5 



1,920 



341,120 



156,915 



184,205 



54.0 





230,400 



144,230 



86,170 



37.4 





278,400 



125,558 



152,842* 



54.9 



3,840 



259,840 



153,306 



106,534 



41.0 





452,480 



173,752 



278,728 



61.6 





298,240 



198,926 



99,314 



33.3 



7,680 



350,720 



188,687 



162,033 



46.2 





168,960 



115,400 



53,560 



31.7 



640 



191,360 



72,525 



118,835 



62.1 





316,160 



168,512 



•147,648 



46.7 





271,360 



173,670 



97,690 



36.0 



3,200 



229,120 



143,887 



85,233* 



37.2 





347,520 



145,263 



202,257 



58.2 



640 



416,640 



236,235 



180,405 



43.3 



1,920 



378,240 



242,830 



135,410 



35.8 



640 



197,120 



131,479 



65,641 



33.3 



4,480 



346,880 



196,334 



150,546 



43.4 



7,040 



312,320 



91,197 



221,123 



70.8 





254,720 



102,397 



152,323 



59.8 





256,000 



112,640 



143,360 



56.0 



640 



149,760 



64,097 



85,663 



57.2 





512,640 



209,157 



303,48s 1 



59.2 





366,080 



199,880 



166,200 



45.4 



6,400 



330,880 



244,190 



86,690 



26.2 



1,280 



362,240 



180,396 



181,844 



50.2 



4,480 



255,360 



134,830 



120,530 



47.2 





293,760 



149,230 



144,530 



49.2 



640 



343,680 



164,623 



179,057 



52.1 





411,520 



284,772 



126,748 



30.8 





172,160 



103,640 



68,520 



39.8 



640 



554,240 



244,420 



309.820 1 



55.9 





284,800 



129,300 



155,500 



54.6 





214,400 



120,278 



94,122* 



43.9 



5,050,152 



47.7 



(5) 



