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ton county the timber is good—oak, ash, black walnut, and hickory, worth 
much more than the price of the land, and the soil is fertile, as is generally the 
case in surrounding counties. In Bourbon county the lands reported are not 
properly under this head, being in grass, without building improvements, val- 
ued at $75 per acre. Along the Kentucky river these unimproved lands are 
generally rocky and hilly and in timber, suited to grass and fruits. A portion 
of the soil is clay, on limestone, thin and rolling. In Anderson, most of this 
elass is rough and hilly, of average richness, producing blue grass in abundance, 
and when first cleared will yield 50 to 60 bushels of corn to the acre. In Lin- 
coln, about half the county comes under this head; high, sandy, with heavy 
forests of oak, poplar, and chestnut, capable of producing wheat, corn, tobacco, 
sorghum, &e. In Whitley, the creek and river bottoms are rich, the uplands 
thin. In Russell, the soil of such lands is generally poor and thin, but suscep- 
tible of improvement, a portion heavily timbered. In.Ohio county the hill 
lands abound in coal and iron, and the swamps make good meadow, while the 
whole county is well timbered. In Graves, about one-tenth is bottom land, 
one-fourth broken, timbered, and the remainder level, light-timbered, called bar- 
rens. he general character of these lands is good, and much of that which is 
not already fertile may be readily improved and rendered highly productive in 
general farming, or well suited to grazing purposes. 
3. Kentucky is rich in mineral resources, and her beds of coal and mountains 
of iron and stone are almost inexhaustible. Coal is found in abundance in 
Greenup, Rockeastle, Laurel, Pulaski, Whitley, Clinton, Edmonson, Hardin, 
Ohio, Butler, Christian, Webster, and other counties. In most of these coun- 
ties this coal is of excellent quality, but used only for home consumption, there 
being no means of transportation. In Laurel county the coal beds are from 
three to five feet in thickness. A railroad is now in progress of construction 
through the central part of the county, connecting with Louisville, which will 
open up a market for this coal, now undeveloped for want of means of carriage 
to market. In Pulaski they claim to have “the best bituminous coal on the 
continent.’’ Our Clinton correspondent says: 
A range of hills in the eastern part of this county, extending north and south, contain an 
immense amount of coal in strata of four feet in thickness. 
This coal is now being worked to some extent by a company who ship to 
Nashville. In several counties roads are being built that will encourage the 
more extensive development of this interest, but as yet little has been done in 
that direction. 
Iron is found in greater or less quantity in Greenup, Trimble, Rockcastle, 
Pulaski, Whitley, Russell, Clinton, Edmonson, Ohio, Butler, &c., but, like the 
coal deposits, has been but feebly developed. In Greenup the furnaces are 
closed up, ore within reach of present facilities being pretty well exhausted. 
Tron ore is found all through Russell county. “About 35 years since a very 
superior iron was manufactured here, from which some of the blacksmiths made 
good edged tools without steel. The iron was hard and tough. ‘There has 
been no development since, and it is doubted whether the ore is in sufficient 
quantity to pay for working.” This ore also abounds in Clinton county, and 
David Dale Owen, in his Geological Survey of Kentucky, in speaking of this. 
and counties east of it, says : 
There is every reason for believing that their resources in coal and iron—staple commodi- 
ties of those nations of greatest prosperity—will, when fully developed, compare favorably 
with those of any civilized country on the face of the earth. 
In Butler county there is much iron ore, but it is said to be of the honeycomb 
variety, which is considered comparatively valueless. A large amount of capital 
could be profitably invested in utilizing the iron interest of this State. 
Leadis found in Trimble, Owen, Bourbon, Scott, Franklin, Anderson, Liv- 
ingston, and counties contiguous. In Anderson there is a mine said to yield 
