Essay/Term paper: Georgia

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Medicine

The state of Georgia has a total area of 152,750 sq km
(58,977 sq mi), including 2618 sq km (1011 sq mi) of
inland water and 122 sq km (47 sq mi) of coastal waters
over which the state has jurisdiction. The state is the 24th
largest in the country and has the largest land area of any
state east of the Mississippi River. Georgia has a top range
north to south of 515 km (320 mi) and east to west of 441
km (274 mi). The mean elevation is about 180 m (about
600 ft). Georgia occupies parts of six natural regions, or
physiographic provinces. They are the Atlantic Coastal
Plain, the Gulf Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, the Blue Ridge
province, the Ridge and Valley province, and the
Appalachian Plateaus. Almost the whole area of Georgia
was forested in early colonial times, and about three-fifths
of the land is still covered by forests and woodlands.
Mixed forests of deciduous and coniferous trees cover
most of the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountain areas.
Normal trees in these areas include species of ash, beech,
birch, hemlock, hickory, poplar, sweetgum, sycamore, red
oak, white oak, and Virginia, shortleaf, and loblolly pines.
Pines which dominate on the Piedmont are loblolly and
shortleaf pine trees. On the coastal plains, slash, loblolly,
and longleaf pines are found. The live oak, the state tree,
thrives in the southern part of the coastal plains. Palmettos
are found in areas of sandy soil, and bald cypresses and
tupelo gums are commonly found in swampy and badly
drained areas. Spanish moss festoons many of the
cypresses in Okefenokee Swamp. Other trees that are
found in the state include the red maple, sweet bay, black
cherry, butternut, sassafras, southern magnolia,
cottonwood, locust, and elm. Flowering plants grow in
great abundance in Georgia. Those natural to the state
include the trillium, galax, bellwort, hepatica, mayapple,
bloodroot, violet, columbine, lady slipper, and Cherokee
rose, which is the stte of Georgia"s state flower. Among the
many shrubs and tiny flowering trees common in Georgia
are species of laurel, mimosa, redbud, flowering dogwood,
rhododendron, and flame azalea. White-tailed deer are the
most common of the larger mammals found in the state.
There are black bears in the northern mountains and in
Okefenokee Swamp, and bobcats roam many of the rural
areas. Red foxes, gray foxes, muskrats, raccoons,
opossums, flying squirrels, foxes and gray squirrels are
abundant in the forested areas, and otter and beaver are
met in many swamps and rivers. In the mid-1990s there
was about 43,000 farms in Georgia. Only about two-fifths
had annual sales of $10,000 or more. Many of the rest of
the farms were hobbies for operators who held different
jobs. Farmland occupied 4.9 million hectares (12.1 million
acres), of which less than one-third was harvested. The rest
was mostly pasture or woodland. The sale of livestock and
livestock products accounts for about three-fifths of total
yearly farm income. The sale of produce accounts for the
rest. Broilers (young chickens raised for meat) are the
state's most valuable farm product, followed by peanuts
and beef cattle. The state's other important farm products
include eggs, hogs, milk, vegetables, greenhouse seedlings,
tobacco, soybeans, corn, pecans, and cotton. Georgia
leads all other states in the production of peanuts and
pecans and is second after Arkansas in the producing of
broilers. Until the Civil War, nearly all the cotton during
most of the 19th century, cotton was the main crop. Itwas
grown on plantations by black slaves, who picked it by
hand. After slavery was abolished most blacks, having no
land of their own, became sharecroppers, who got their
farm and family supplies on credit from the planters and
were in assumption paid a share of the crop income. Under
this system, cotton dominated the economy more than ever.
However, during the 1920s the boll weevil, a tiny beetle
that eats the growing cotton boll, devastated much of the
cotton crop and infested great areas of the cotton-growing
lands of the South. Moreover, at about that same time,
crop yields began to fall, and it became clear that nearly
200 years of constant cotton cultivation had ruined the soil.
Efforts were made to vary the state's farm economy. As a
result, many cotton lands were planted in other crops or
switched over to pasture. Cotton cultivation was resumed
after methods were found to control the boll weevil, but
cotton acreage was greatly reduced. Beginning in the
1940s, thousands of farms were consolidated and
mechanized and the demand for farm workers decreased.
As farms consolidated their size got larger, and by the
mid-1990s each averaged 114 hectares (281 acres). Most
farms are owner-operated. Georgia is divided into 159
counties, most governed by boards of elected
commissioners. In the others, local government is the
responsibility of the probate court judge. The most
common type of municipal government in Georgia is the
mayor and council plan. Government by council and
manager has become increasingly popular. A few cities still
use a modified version of the commission form of municipal
government. Georgia elects 11 representatives to the U.S.
House of Representatives and two senators. The state has
13 electoral votes. Some famous Georgians were Griffin
Bell, James Bowie, James Brown, Erskine Caldwell, Jimmy
Carter, Ray Charles, Lucius D. Clay, Ty Cobb, John C.
Fremont, Newt Gingrich, Joel Chandler Harris, Martin
Luther King, Jr., Gladys Knight, Sidney Lanier, Juliette
Gordon Low, Margaret Mitchell, Flannery O'Connor, Otis
Redding, Jackie Robinson, Alice Walker, Joseph Wheeler.
Atlanta, with a population in 1990 of 394,017 in the city
and an estimated 3,143,000 in the metropolitan area in
1992, is the capital, biggest city, and leading economic
center of the state, and the main city of the entire
southeastern United States. Increase in the white-collar
service economy, led by enlargement of corporate
headquarters and services such as giving legal advice,
computing, and advertising, makes up for a large part of
Atlanta's recent expansion. The metropolitan area centered
on the city now contains three suburban cores in addition to
the original central business district. These suburban cities,
sometimes called edge cities, each possess an impressive
skyline of tall buildings and major retail shopping centers.
The Atlanta region's economy was also backed when the
city hosted the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. Georgia's
second largest city is Columbus, with 179,278 people,
which grew formerly as a Fall Line industrial city. Fort
Benning, a large United States Army infantry base, is near
the city. Savannah, with a population of 137,560, was the
largest city in Georgia until the rise of Atlanta in the 20th
century. A bustling economic center and seaport, Savannah
is the first city in the state and has retained much of the aura
of its favorable past. Other major cities include Macon,
with 106,612 inhabitants, Albany, with 78,122 people, and
Augusta, with 44,639 inhabitants. Slavery was one of the
most divisive political issues in Congress in the 19th
century. Many Congress members from the Northern
states pressed to end slavery, both because it was
considered corrupt and because white labor could not
compete with unpaid black labor. Members from the Deep
South (North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida) believed that slavery
was necessary to their cotton-based agricultural system and
that the North was trying to rule the national economy. By
the 1850s, the Southern states were united in bitter hate to
proposed congressional legislation excluding slavery from
the country's new Western territories. Many in the South
were coming to believe that secession from the Union was
the only way to protect "Southern rights," including the right
to own slaves. Yet many of Georgia's leaders urged
agreement. Largely through the labor of three Georgians,
Representatives Alexander H. Stephens, Robert Toombs,
and Howell Cobb, the Southern states accepted the
Compromise Measures of 1850, a series of acts that
temporarily settled the issue. The Georgia state motto is
wisdom, justice and moderation. The Georgia state flower
is the Cherokee rose. The Georgia state bird isthe Brown
thrasher. The Georgia state tree is the Live oak. The
Georgia state son is Georgia On My Mind. It was the
fourth of the 13 original states to ratify the Constitution,
Jan. 2, 1788The population of Georgia 1994 was
7,055,336 It ranks 11. The net change from 1990-94 was
8.9%. The population density was 116.6 per sq m Georgia
has and area of 58,876 sq mi (152,489 sq km). Georgia
has a population of (1990) 6,478,216, an 18.6% increase
over 1980 pop. The capitol is Atlanta. It became a state
onJan. 2, 1788 (fourth of original 13 states to ratify the
Constitution). It"s highest point was Brasstown Bald, 4,784
ft (1,459 m) Its lowest point is, sea level. Its nicknames is
the Empire State of the South.