of 
O REPORT ON THE TIMBERS OF THE 
Oo 
same percentages. Black oak stands first among decayed! 
timbers, and bartram oak next. MHickories are by far the 
soundest timbers, and have a smaller percentage among their 
decayed than among their dead trees. It will be noticed, 
also, that as a rule, swamp timbers are sounder than upland. 
timbers. This would have been expected. 
From the tables already given, other series may also be: 
produced. For instance, the following list shows the relative 
numbers of different timbers to be met with. 
White oak, 121; bartram oak, 13; black oak, 54; lirioden- 
dron, 39; hickories, 32; post oak, 43. That is, there are one: 
hundred and twenty-one white oaks to fifty-four black oaks, 
throughout the old forests, in this part of Kentucky, and so on. 
I do not think there is as much liriodendron timber as hickory” 
in the woods; but the valuable liriodendron is more plentiful 
than the valuable hickory, as the table shows. Again, if we: 
consider the timbers given in the ‘‘general average”’ tables. 
above, to be all the forest timbers in the Purchase (and they 
are at least ninety per cent. of them), white oak forms about 
thirty-two per cent. of all the forest timbers, and black oak 
comes next, forming less than fifteen per cent. If the esti- 
mate of the value of the standing forests of the Purchase: 
previously given be correct, the white oak alone now standing 
in this comparatively small strip of Kentucky, is worth from. 
$3,000,000 to $5,000,000. It remains for the people, by pru- 
dence and forethought, to perpetuate a timber which is, im 
itself, a fortune to them. 
SUMMARY. 
A brief survey of the foregoing pages shows: 
1. That there are vast bodies of valuable timbers lying” 
along all the streams of the Purchase country, but that these 
streams are not well adapted for floating them out. 
2. That as much as two thirds of the upland of this part 
of Kentucky is clothed with valuable timbers. 
3. ‘That there is not, at present, much drain upon the for- 
ests of the Purchase, and that not more than one two hund- 
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