Agricultural land use patterns in the Southern Piedmont, 1945 to 1982 / by Lynn Roche Phillips.
| Author/creator | Phillips, Lynn Roche author. |
| Other author | Ziehr, Charles T., degree supervisor. |
| Other author | East Carolina University. Department of Geography and Planning. |
| Format | Theses and dissertations |
| Production | 1985. |
| Description | 96 leaves : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm |
| Supplemental Content | Access via ScholarShip |
| Subjects |
| Summary | The Southern Piedmont has been an important agricultural region since its settlement in the early 1700s. Since that time, this area has undergone intense land use changes. The purpose of this study was to examine the changes in the agricultural land use within the study area from World War II to the present. Cluster analysis was used to develop crop combination regions based on six field crops for three cross-sections in time. Two discriminant analyses were performed on the crop regions to provide additional information on their definitions. All crops, excluding soybeans, experienced dramatic acreage reductions during the study period, and a trend of declining farmland also existed. Most of the abandoned farmland was converted to pastureland or urban uses. Several variables which described socio-economic conditions and agricultural practices were included in a discriminant analysis test to determine the factors which best differentiated the crop combination regions. It was found that variables which described agricultural specialization within an area were most important in explaining the regional cropping patterns. The spatial structure of the crop combination regions suggests that former agricultural land use patterns (which included concentrations of large cotton and tobacco acreages) still influence the landscape today. Although soybeans tended to dominate the cropping regions, the land use patterns that existed when cotton was "king" are currently expressed in the agricultural land use patterns of the 1980s. |
| General note | "Presented to the faculty of the Department of Geography and Planning ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Geography." |
| General note | Advisor: Charles T. Ziehr |
| Dissertation note | M.A. East Carolina University 1985 |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-96). |
| Genre/form | Academic theses. |
| Genre/form | History. |
| Genre/form | Academic theses. |
| Genre/form | Thèses et écrits académiques. |