the mountains to the east or west, the floor 

 appears as a common plain, although some of its 

 ridges rise to 800 feet. The steep slopes are 

 mainly forested, but spotted with thousands of tiny 

 "patch farms." The valleys have some deep soils 

 and many prosperous farms. 



This region is the most heavily industrialized, a 

 reflection of the availability of a large variety of 

 minerals and of low-cost electric power and fuel. Of 

 the $957 million of value added by manufacture in 

 the State in 1947, about 40 percent was produced in 

 east Tennessee alone. Chattanooga, Knoxville, and 

 Kingsport are the principal manufacturing centers. 



The Plateau region includes the Cumberland 

 Plateau and most of the eastern Highland Rim. The 

 Cumberland Plateau rises a thousand feet above the 

 Great Valley. Erosion has cut irregularly into its 

 sandstone rocks, especially in the northeast. The 

 soils are mainly thin, porous, and unproductive for 

 agriculture. Farms are generally small, with about 

 as much pasture as cropland (fig. 3). Most of Ten- 



nessee's coal, the State's most valuable mineral 

 product, comes from the Cumberland area. The 

 Highland Rim has a flat to rolling topography for 

 the most part. Some of its soils are suited to crops, 

 but others, especially on the inner part of the Rim, 

 are very poor. 



Central Tennessee encompasses virtually the whole 

 Central Basin and part of the Highland Rim that sur- 

 rounds it. The Basin, more than 6,000 square miles 

 in area, lies about 400 feet below the surrounding Rim. 

 Nashville, the State capital, is the economic and 

 cultural hub of the region; it is also the third largest 

 manufacturing center in the State, ranking next to 

 Memphis and Chattanooga. Soils of the region, 

 which are typically of the brown loam type, are some 

 of the most productive in the State. Livestock and 

 dairying are the main sources of farm income (fig. 4). 

 In 1949, the value of livestock and livestock products 

 alone exceeded 62 million dollars. Tobacco, princi- 

 pally burley, also ranks high. 



'•• ' ■ ?*.;* , • , t 



ife : ' W^^^^^^^st. & 



Figure 4. — Improved pasture, fine cattle, and redcedar woodlands are common features in the Central Basin. {TV A photo.) 

 Tennessee's Timber Economy 



323612—55 2 



