The Geography of the Mississippi Valley

fertility in the soil. The region he had seen was a part of the now well-known Blue Grass Region-a basin rich in agricultural development. But the Blue Grass Region, although one of the richest, is only a speck in that larger area of high fertility and gentle topography which reaches from the Alleghanies to the Rockies and is for the most part contained in the Mississippi Valley. The Great Mississippi River and more than fifty navigable tributaries furnish about 14,000 miles of waterways and border or traverse twentyseven states whose combined area is 1,935,952 square miles (65 per cent of U. S.). Of these twenty-seven states, seventeen are entirely or very largely within the Mississippi Drainage System. The importance of this great inland empire is unappreciated by most, only partly recognized by a considerable number and fully known to but few. Here is one of the best farming regions of the world, and when it was opened to the growth of the cereals New England and much of other Eastern areas went down and out. In this area of the Mississippi Valley a little over half of the people of the United States live. Here is 65 per cent of the improved land of the nation

Economic geography · Geography · American Environmental and Regional History · Water Quality and Resources Studies