of the unemployment was to be found in the years just 

 prior to the war; and it is this area that will suffer 

 most in the event of unemployment in the future. 



Subdivisions 



Coal occurs in four main fields. The northern 

 coal field, which comprises the Lackawanna and 

 Wyoming Valleys, includes the two largest cities in 

 the region, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. The eastern- 

 middle field is a plateau country centering around 

 Hazelton on the divide between the Susquehanna 

 and Delaware watersheds. The western-middle and 

 southern fields are a ridge-and-valley country with 

 dense discontinuous centers of population, the largest 

 of which are Pottsville, Shenandoah, and Shamokin. 

 The greater part of the population is in the northern 

 and eastern-middle fields. On the other hand, the 

 bulk of the remaining recoverable coal is in the 

 western-middle and southern fields. 



Forest-Products Industries 



Forest-products industries within the coal field area 

 are concerned principally with the remanufacture of 

 raw materials. (Primary manufacturing usually is 

 found close to more ample supplies of timber than 

 this subregion supports.) Some 30 sawmills, about 

 half the planing mills of the Anthracite Forest Region, 

 20 or more small furniture plants, 15 small paper-box 

 factories, and a number of other wood-using manu- 

 factories are located in this area. Most of the raw 

 material for the furniture and paper-box factories is 



brought in from outside the region. The sawmills 

 and in a lesser degree the planing mills and other 

 wood-using manufactories are dependent on raw 

 materials from within the region. Because of the 

 depleted state of the forests, comparatively little 

 timber cutting for any purpose is carried on within 

 the coal-field area. 



Land Ownership 



The coal companies own most of the surface over 

 the coal measures; most of the other forest land in the 

 coal-field area is privately owned (table 10). The 

 proportions of ownership vary somewhat from sub- 

 division to subdivision. In the northern and eastern- 

 middle fields, where coal mining has been carried on 

 longest, the proportion of coal-company ownership is 

 highest, about 70 percent. In the western-middle 

 field it is only 53 percent. The State department of 

 forests and waters and the State game commission, 

 which are the principal holders of public forest land 

 in other sections of the Anthracite Forest Region, 

 own no land within the coal-field area. 



Forest Description 



The land surface above the coal measures is largely 

 in forest (fig. 29). The rough terrain, the poor 

 quality of the soils, and the constant threat of surface 

 mining have discouraged most attempts at agriculture. 

 The Wyoming Valley is an exception, but even this 

 area is characterized more by urban communities and 

 the wastes of mining than by agriculture. 



In all, about 77 percent of the coal-field area is 



Table 10. — Forest-land ownership in 



the coalfields, by subdi 



visions 







Ownership 



Northern 

 field 



Eastern- 

 middle 

 field 



Western- 

 middle 

 field 



Southern 

 field 



Total 



Private : 



Acres 



80, 600 

 2,200 

 7,200 



24, 700 



Acres 



56, 100 

 4, 600 

 2,700 



13,200 



Acres 



33, 700 

 3,900 

 2,000 

 9,200 



Acres 



86, 400 

 6,800 

 1,300 



41,600 



Acres 

 256, 800 

 17, 500 

 13,200 

 88, 700 



Percent 



64 



Water companies 



4 



Farmers 



3 



Others 



22 







All private 



114,700 



76, 600 



48, 800 



136, 100 



376, 200 



93 







Public: 



Counties 



1,800 

 100 



2,500 



900 

 13,300 



7,000 

 600 



12,200 

 14, 000 



3 





4 









All public 



1,900 



2,500 



14, 200 



7,600 



26, 200 



7 







Total 



116,600 



79, 100 



63, 000 



143, 700 



402, 400 



100 







38 



Miscellaneous Publication 648, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



