DISTRICT WEST OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER. 13 
of the owner is the first one sacrificed, regardless of its value. 
Within a few years, by the time the timber establishments 
of Paducah-turn to the Purchase for their supplies, this flat 
woods will be almost stripped of its white oak timber, and 
only the Spanish oak and black oak, which are everywhere 
succeeding the white oak, though comparatively valueless, will 
be left as “brands snatched from the burning,” 
The distribution of the liriodendron (poplar) timber in the 
Purchase is about the same as that of the white oak. It is 
found in great abundance on nearly all the streams, large and 
small, and the principal demand for-it is that made by local 
mills, which, of course, waste large quantities of it. But the 
reserve supply for future use is so great that no present 
apprehension need be felt. The finest body of upland white 
oak and liriodendron in this part of Kentucky is probably be- 
tween Dublin and Clinton, near the line of the two western 
railroads across the Purchase. To this statement a rather 
curious exception must be made. About six miles from Clin- 
ton the white oak suddenly disappears, even from low grounds, 
and on a belt about one mile wide it is almost wholly absent. 
Here, black and Spanish oak are very fine and heavy, and 
‘with them are liriodendron, white elm, etc. About seven 
miles from Clinton the white oak abruptly begins again, and 
forms, as it did before, about forty per cent. of the forest 
growth. I cannot account for this gap in the white oak, un- 
less it be that long ago a hurricane passed through the region 
and destroyed all the timber in its track, in which case, as I 
have elsewhere shown, Spanish and black oak would succeed 
the white oak in the new forests. 
In the flat woods south of Paducah, referred to above, the 
timbers often alternate most curiously. Here white oak is 
the principal, almost the only, timber; two hundred yards 
‘distant, Spanish oak and black oak have succeeded the white 
oak; at the same distance further on, these timbers have 
‘disappeared, and only post oak or hickory is to be seen, and 
all this without the slightest change of level, or the least 
‘apparent reason therefor. In places, all these timbers grow 
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