IO REPORT ON THE TIMBERS OF GRAYSON, 
river. Its reddish-colored, light wood is very valuable in pan- 
eling and all ornamental works. Its bark is cathartic. The 
white hickory is likewise a valuable timber, found in consider- 
able quantities, scattered all through these counties, and very 
extensively used in making ax-handles, hammer-handles, axle- 
trees, and other such work. The wood is much smoother and 
finer-grained than that of the shagbark hickory, though the 
timber of the latter is likewise valuable. The larger part of 
the chestnut oak in Western Kentucky is of the swamp vari- 
ety, though the monticola, a mountain variety of the same, is 
met with on the mountain tops. The former is valuable for 
its timber, and has a straight, unbranching trunk 40 to 60 feet. 
high. The latter (monticola) is valuable only for its bark, 
which contains a large amount of tannic acid that renders it 
useful to the tanner. Along the line of the Paducah Rail- 
road, where transportation facilities can be had, quite an im- 
portant traffic is going on in this bark, car-loads of which are 
constantly shipped. 
Every lumberman knows the value of the liriodendron or 
tulip tree. It is one of the noblest forest trees of Kentucky, 
with its massive, cylindrical trunk, two to five feet in diameter 
and forty to sixty feet long. It is found everywhere between 
Leitchfield and the Ohio river, after crossing the Chester 
shale near Leitchfield. While not quite so large a per cent. 
of it is found in the undergrowth as in the old forest timber, 
still its growth is rapid, and I see no reason to apprehend its. 
early extinction. 
The white and blue ash are also common timbers in West- 
ern Kentucky, which are exceedingly valuable. They grow 
best in moist, loose, sandy forests and along streams, and 
their wood is tough, elastic, light, and strong. They are the 
woods used in the best buggies and carriages, where lightness. 
and durability are both required. The black ash is found 
mostly near water, in swamps and moist woods, and is largely 
used by the cooper in barrel-making and other such work. 
The hop hornbeam (iron wood) is a very hard, tough, strong 
wood, and is mostly used in making levers. The sugar maples 
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