The soft coal of the Ap palachian Plateau is easier to dig than is anthracite.
Its seams are level and many of them open on hill sides, so that little mine cars can run straight into the hillside, and bring out coal with much more case than can be done from the deep mines. It is therefore much less expensive to dig soft coal there than to dig hard coal in the ridge country farther east.
More coal is mined near Pittsburgh than in any other part of the plateau. This is true not only because so much coal is there, but also because the Ohio River and its branches made this the easiest place for the railroads to cross the plateau from the great cities of the east to the great cities of the west. As the population of the country grows, and more and more coal is needed, new mines are being opened up, especially in the West Virginia and Kentucky parts of the plateau. The new railroads and mines give the mountain people work and money with which to buy many things. This has changed the way in which they live. Few people anywhere in the mountains now live as Dave Douglas lived (Sec. 3), although it has not been very long since nearly all the people of whole countries lived that way.
299. Foreign people.—There is so much work in Pittsburgh, Fairmont, West Vir ginia, and the surrounding coal fields that many thousands of immigrants have come from Europe to work and live there.
300. Coke.—Many thousands of people are busy making coke in plants near the coal mines. Coke is used for fuel in the iron furnaces (Fig. 248) because coke is hard and will not choke the fire. Coke is made of soft coal that has been heated red-hot in a furnace which has a very poor draft, so that the coal does not burn well. The heat, however, drives off the gas from the coal, which burns, and a black solid called coke remains in the furnace.
301. Oil and gas.—It was in the valley of the Allegheny River, north of Pittsburgh, that, in 1859, wells were first drilled down through the rocks to find petroleum. Before that time American homes had been poorly lighted with lamps burning expensive whale oil or lard oil. After petroleum was found, and kerosene could be had, it became much easier to light houses well. This first oil field has long since ceased to yield much oil. It usually takes only a few years to use all the oil there is in an oil field.
Petroleum is found in porous rock lying below non-porous rocks through which the oil cannot escape until a hole is made. Natural gas is often found with the oil, and when a well drill goes through the tight rock into the oil and gas, they sometimes spurt out just as soda water does when the bottle is uncorked. In West Virginia, south of
Pittsburgh, both oil and natural gas come from the wells. They are carried in pipes to Pittsburgh and other cities. The gas pro vides a cheap fuel in many glass works and other factories.
302. Northern Plateau—a farming region. —Almost no coal is found in that part of the plateau which lies in northern Pennsylvania and New York. The hills there are more rounded and not so steep as those in the southern part of the plateau. It is, therefore, easier to travel through this country and to cultivate the land, most of which has long been used for farming. It is a beautiful rolling country, with grassy hills, many shade trees, and clear, cool brooks. As in New England, some of these hill farms have been abandoned by people who went to the cities, or to the more level farms of the west, but many farmers still prosper by keeping dairy cows and shipping dairy prod ucts to New York, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Rochester, and other cities. (Fig. 267.) Fast trains bring the much-needed milk daily.
In this part of the plateau are Binghamton, Elmira, and many other prosperous manu facturing towns, located on the railroads going from Buffalo and the west to New York.
303. Future of the Appalachian Plateau.— In this age of machinery we need more and still more coal to run fac tories and railroads and to heat buildings. What does this mean for the future of the plateau? Some of the plateau tops are level and good for farming, but they are so high that it is a great deal cooler there in summer than it is in the lower land near the ocean. (Fig. 253.) Some of the plateau is too cold for corn to grow well, and the season is too short. Farming here must be like that of New Eng land. Mountain slopes have thermal belts, but flat pla teau tops have none, and they are places where late Frosts in spring and early frosts in autumn are apt to occur. For this reason, the grow ing season—the time between the last killing frost in spring and the first killing frost in autumn—is seventy days less on the plateau in western Maryland than it is only one hun dred miles to the east, near sea level, along the shores of the upper Chesapeake. (Sec. 328.) Much of the plateau, however, is too rough for farming and should remain in forest. Let us hope that instead of cutting the forests and letting fires keep on destroying them, the American people will soon be willing to take care of their forests as the French, the Swiss, and the Austrian people do (Sec. 516). This cannot be done, however, until more people begin to feel that it is wise and right to save things that may soon be needed by others.