PLANTING FORESTS IN KENTUCKY 



455 



In Kentucky, the tulip would com- 

 pare with the spruce or pine, with a 

 diameter at the stunvp of twenty-four 

 inches in the lOO years. The black wal- 

 nut at 1 20 years should be twenty-five 

 inches in diameter, and compare with 

 the European or American beech. Our 

 white oak would be eighteen inches to 

 twenty inches in diameter in the 160 

 years, considered as mature as in Eu- 

 rope. All trees thrive as the soil is 

 good or indifferent, and maturity de- 

 pends much on the same condition. 



The forest planting of walnuts twenty 

 years ago has been thinned out until 

 the stand is nuich less than i .000 to 

 the acre. Twenty-nine trees twenty- 

 five to thirty-five feet high, occupying 

 1,100 square feet, have now an average 

 circumference of seventeen and one- 

 half inches, or five and one-half inches 

 diameter. The largest tree is nine and 

 three-tenths inches in diameter, the 

 smallest three and four-tenths inches. 

 A young tulip forest, eleven years old 

 from the seed, has produced trees six 

 inches in diameter. 



One of the inducements in planting- 

 walnut forests and adding blue grass 

 and making a pasture, was that there 

 would be no danger of fire. The leaves 

 and stems of the walnut trees quickly 

 assimilate with the soil. 



When a natural forest is grazed, the 

 cattle destroy much of the young 

 growth, and m}- company is fencing our 

 woodlands as rapidly as possible. The 

 preserving of seed trees, together with 

 fencing, will let nature do much to in- 

 crease growth of present forests. Then 

 reduce the cutting of timber to some- 

 thing below the annual growth, and a 

 good beginning will have been made to 

 restore Kentucky forests to their orig- 

 inal glory. L>esides this, there are tens 

 of thousands of acres of cleared land 

 in Kentucky that shovdd be returned to 

 the forest. Let the farmer select ten 

 to twenty acres of medium good land 

 and plant it in walnuts and blue grass. 

 A better or more profitable combina- 

 tion could' not exist. (3n poor land, 



plant the black locust, and presently be 

 possessed of a perpetual woodlot. On 

 meadow lands plant catalpa speciosa, 

 and again have a perpetual and quick 

 growing forest. 



Kentuck)- has too much land in so- 

 called cultii'ation. Half the acres, well 

 cultivated, would bring larger and bet- 

 ter crops than are now secured. Hence 

 the planted woodlots could be spared. 



In 1907 there was cut from Ken- 

 tucky forests 912,000,000 feet, board 

 measure. If the annual growth of our 

 forests is no greater than the average 

 of the entire countr}', thirteen cubic 

 feet to the acre, or 156,000,000 cubic 

 feet for the 12,000,000 acres of forest 

 land '.1 the state, it would indicate that we 

 cut < \er three times the annual growth. 

 The Jut of 1907 was an increase of 

 thir'.j'-eight per cent over that of 1906. 

 Dr. ring the past twenty-seven years 

 Kentucky is credited with a cut of 

 14,531,000,000 feet, board measure, or 

 an average of 538,000,000 per year. 



To simi up the case : Forests are 

 necessary to life and civilization. Ken- 

 tucky has about half its area still cov- 

 ered with forests, and is in better con- 

 dition to retain its present acreage and 

 increase the annual growth than most 

 of the states of our country. We are 

 a patriotic people, but patriotism alone 

 will not increase the production of our 

 forests or add to its acreage. Legisla- 

 tion is required. If the commonwealth 

 of Kentucky can protect its quail, it 

 can pr'ttct its trees. We have not yet 

 been awake long enough to the great 

 problem before us that must be met in 

 the near future, to know what is best. 

 We do know that a tree planted is an 

 added guarantee to continued civiliza- 

 tion, but we have yet to study what in- 

 ducements are needed to ])lant the tree 

 and protect and increase the forests we 

 already have. 



Not only is .Kentucky interested in 

 solving the problem, which will tax the 

 best minds in the commonwealth and 

 the nation. Our mountain forests are 

 the watersheds of great rivers, and aid 



