78 



SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



The farmers need to be taught that to recuperate their 

 lands, instead of letting them stand bare and idle "to rest," 

 they should grow clover and cowpeas on them, and always 

 keep them covered as much as possible. 



BIG PIGEON RIVER BASIN. 



L3io,440 acres; T9 per cent wooded.] 



Topography. j^jg Pigeon River rises among the Balsam and Pizgah 

 mountains, cuts its way through the Unaka Mountains, 

 and joins the French Broad on the Tennessee Plain. It 

 drains an interior agricultural basin which is oval in out- 

 line, the longer axis northwest, parallel to the general 

 course of the stream, and almost entirely within the Appa- 

 lachian Mountain region. It is circumscribed by lofty 

 mountains, with many peaks more than 6, QUO feet in alti- 

 tude. Many minor ranges, springing from the surround- 

 ing mountains, converge toward the middle of the basin, 

 dividing it into deep, narrow valleys, except near its upper 

 end between the towns of Canton and Waynesville, where 

 there is a broad, open valle}^ of alluvial plains and rolling 

 hills, dotted with low mountains. 



Soil. The soils are loams and sandj^ loams, mo.stly fine grained 



in texture, derived from gneiss and schists, though in the 

 mountains they are more siliceous and coarser — there the 

 product of decomposed sandstones, quartzite, and con- 

 glomerates. 



Agriculture. This basiu is eminently adapted to grass, except where 

 very sand}^, and grass is the chief product of the region. 

 Corn ranks next in importance; while the cultivation of 

 wheat is largely confined to the broad valley of the Pigeon, 

 between Canton and Ferguson, and to the Richland and 

 Fines Creek valleys. Apples are extensively raised and 

 have a wide reputation for their quality, and truck farm- 

 ing is yearly assuming greater importance. 



Erosion. xhe alluvial valley lands have been little injured by 



freshets, and the soils of the uplands, with few exceptions, 

 have not suffered severely from erosion, though a few 

 badly gullied slopes, due to the continuous cultivation of 

 corn, are to be seen in the older settlements. 



Tbe forest. The scarlet, black, and white oaks, associated with black 

 pine, formed at one time an extensive forest on the hills 

 between Canton and Waynesville, but this land, where not 

 under cultivation, is now in second-growth forest. The 

 forests of the mountains are of typical mixed Appalachian 



