ACCORDING to the larger number of requests being received by automobile clubs in this city and other Eastern localities for information regarding the condition of Southern roads, motor touring during the balance of the year to Florida and other scenic localities promises to be considerably heavier than in former seasons. In ever increasing numbers motorists are touring through the famous Shenandoah Valley and more cars swing down the Valley Pike each season through the delightful country of the Old Dominion.

One of the scenic routes through the Southern Appalachian country is the Midland Trail, which is part of the United States Highway 60. It crosses West Virginia from White Sulphur Springs to Kenova, right into the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The engineers have planned their work well. In spite of the mountain grades there is scarcely a hill that requires second gear. All but nine miles is wide highway.

Kentucky, aided by its gasoline tax, is making great strides in highway improvement. From the bridge across the Big Sandy River at Catlettsburg, the road surfaces are good all the way to Lexington, with the exception of fourteen miles of fast, but dusty, gravel.

South from Lexington, on the Daniel Boone Way, Kentucky again offers the tourist the utmost of comfort with hard pavement all the way to Middlesboro at the Tennessee line. Beautiful valleys, fruitful farms and such unusual scenes as open mining of bituminous coal greet the eye of the tourist.

At Middlesboro one may visit Cumberland Gap and climb Pinnacle Peak at the intersection of Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. Tremendous grades in the mountains have been reduced by the use of many hair-pin turns and caution should be observed in driving into these blind curves, but all are well marked and the highway surfaces are fine. Tennessee has a good road system and tourists will enjoy the route from Cumberland Gap to Knoxville and southwest to Chattanooga. Concrete is coming into more general use in every State.

Few tourists visit Chattanooga without climbing Lookout Mountain. The grade is steep, but the road is wide and smooth. The view from the heights shows the Tennessee River making its famous Moccasin Bend just below and the sprawling city in the middle-ground, while far to the skyline is Signal Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Close by is the well-marked battlefield of Chickamauga.

The route from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Ga., at present offers various difficulties. Georgia is now hard at work trying to bring its road system up to the modern standard. Both possible roads between the two cities mentioned are receiving attention from road construction gangs. By way of Dalton, there is a forty-mile detour and by way of Rome there are several shorter, but dusty detours that will make hard going in wet weather. Along the route from Chattanooga many new concrete bridges are being built to replace ancient covered bridges of wood.

Atlanta is a wide-awake city with many fine streets and roads leading in all directions. Twenty-two miles away Stone Mountain is reached by a hard surfaced highway.

Northern Georgia, through Gainesville and across Neel Pass has been kindly dealt with by the State Highway Commission. A few miles of the route is gravel surfaced, but most of it is either concrete pavement or tar topped macadam. Neel Pass is little known in the North, but it is a beautiful drive of fourteen miles up and down a mountain. Across the crest of the mountain is Cherokee National Forest, a public camping ground.

Coming north into Western Carolina, the tourist learns of the unformly good roads of North Carolina. This State is the most progressive of any south of the Mason and Dixon line and its excellent highway system will arouse envy in the breast of many Northern visitors. From Murphy the highway follows a valley that gradually narrows until Nantahala Canyon is entered. This is at the southern end of the Great Smoky Mountains, a vast area of mountain peaks that tower 6,000 feet into the skies. The scenes are similar to the Adirondacks aroune Keene.

All along the way to Asheville the tourist rolls along on concrete and hard-surfaced highways at elevations varying from 2,500 to 3,500 feet. To maintain an even grade the State has followed the profile of the mountains, which calls for many curves. In fact on one stretch of one mile there are seventeen hair-pin curves which demand slow running of the car.

North of Asheville there are more valleys, mountains, pleasant towns, charming homes and hospitable people. Scenery that is better than New England at its best, looms up, mile after mile.

Cross-country driving to avoid Bristol, Tenn., brings one through formidable mountains, on roads with no guard rail and the creek bed 400 feet below, yet the familiar North Carolina road sign will be found at regular intervals. Down dizzy grades into Valle Crusus, an isolated and self-contained little community tucked away in the northwest corner of North Carolina, through a rugged and wild pass into Tennessee and a few miles away another scenic notch in the mountains leads to Damascus, Va., over a road fair to good and the route saves thirty-two miles by avoiding Bristol.