GREENUP, CARTER, BOYD AND LAWRENCE COUNTIES, 5 
I deem it quite likely that within the time of the next 
generation these hill lands will become as valuable for timber- 
raising as the average lands of the valley are for other forms 
‘of culture. They are naturally suited to all the most valua- 
ble woods of the Mississippi Valley. At the present value of 
black walnut, an acre of this timber forty years old, growing 
as thickly as it is able to stand, should be worth several hund- 
red dollars; of hickory and locust of second growth the value 
is about as great. There are few crops of the ordinary soil 
which will give as great average returns when labor and inter- 
est are deducted. A very great advantage in our Kentucky 
forests is the comparative immunity from fires. In most valua- 
ble timber regions this danger is so great as to reduce the 
value of such lands as investments. In many thousand miles 
-of travel through the timbered districts of Kentucky, I have 
mever seen an acre of forest seriously damaged by fire. Inthe 
present state of our American life, when men are hardly will- 
ing to wait for the yearly harvests to mature, it seems almost 
too much to hope for the far-seeing thrift that will look forward 
‘to fruits to be gathered at the end of forty years; yet these en- 
terprises that take hold on a distant future will become more 
-attractive, with a growth of capital and an increase of confi- 
‘dence in life. But in fact a large part of the value of such 
‘growths as our forests would give when artificially planted 
would be immediate ; at five years young hickories have a value ; 
and the trees removed by trimming out each year, should pay 
‘an interest on investment. The black locust becomes valuable 
in ten years, or nearly as soon as a pear orchard, and for thirty 
years thereafter should give a steady supply of timber. With 
each succeeding year these woods become more and more val- 
uable as the original forests become stripped of their scanty 
‘supply. The best black walnut is already priced with mahog- 
any in Europe, bringing several dollars per cubic foot. The 
-abundant water-ways of the Ohio Valley will always make its 
regions of permanent forests of peculiar value. 
There is another and most important reason for retaining 
tthe forest covering of our eastern hills. The surface of that 
5 
