KENTUCKY 



3225 



KENTUCKY 



noted for its great fertility. The blue grass 

 is native to this soil, and grows all the year 

 round. It spreads like a green, thick, soft mat 

 over the country and gives it the appearance 

 of a beautiful park. About the middle of June 

 it blooms, and on account of the hue of its 

 seed-pods the landscape assumes a bluish tinge. 



The southern part of Kentucky is a continua- 

 tion of the highland rim of Tennessee. Some 

 parts of it are rolling and hilly; others, like 

 the "barrens" between the Green and Cumber- 

 land rivers, are level. Prominent features of 

 this portion are numerous circular depressions, 

 or "sink-holes," on the surface and the numer- 

 ous caverns beneath the surface. Kentucky 

 is noted for these caverns; one of them, the 

 Mammoth Cave, is the largest cave in the 

 world. The whole of this region is underlaid 

 by thick formations of limestone. 



Its Rivers. Most of the rivers in the state 

 rise in the mountains or on the Alleghany 

 plateau, and flow in a general northwestern 

 direction into the Ohio. This river flows along 

 the entire northern border of the state in a 

 winding course of nearly 600 miles, and forms 

 an important navigable waterway. The prin- 

 cipal streams, from west to east, are the Ten- 

 nessee, the Cumberland, the Green, the Ken- 

 tucky, the Licking and the Big Sandy. Most 

 of these are navigable for long distances. The 

 Cumberland flows through the eastern and 

 south-central part of the state, then turns 

 south into Tennessee, but farther west enters 

 Kentucky again and joins the Ohio a few miles 

 east of the mouth of the Tennessee. Some 

 of these rivers have worn deep channels 

 through the hills and low mountains. The 

 drainage of the cave region is mostly through 

 underground channels. On the Cumberland 

 and Tennessee forts Henry and Donelson, of 

 War of Secession fame, were located. 



Climate. Kentucky has a warm-temperate, 

 equable and healthful climate, which is more 

 agreeable here than in the more open prairie 

 states situated in the same latitude. This is 

 due to the rolling and hilly surface of the 

 state, which protects it from winds. The 

 mean annual temperature varies from 55 F. 

 in the east to 60 F. in the west. The winters 

 are warm, having an average of 35 F., and 

 except in the mountainous eastern regions there 

 is but little snow. The average rainfall is 

 about forty inches a year in the northern coun- 

 ties and fifty-three in the mountainous region. 



Forests. This region was in former times 

 almost completely covered with forests, and 



even now a third of the surface of the state 

 is wooded. A great quantity of fine timber, 

 most of it hardwood, is cut every year. The 

 chief trees are oak of various species, maple, 

 beech, ash, elm, walnut, cypress, sweet gum, 

 birch, cedar, white pine, spruce and yellow 

 pine. 



Agriculture. Though Kentucky is not one 

 of the leading agricultural states in the value 

 of its products, only four states (Iowa, Ohio, 

 Indiana and Illinois) have a larger proportion 

 of their land under cultivation.. Over eighty- 

 six per cent of its land area of 25,750,000 acres 

 is in farms, and two-thirds of this is improved 

 land. About sixty per cent of the farms are 

 operated by owners or their managers. 



Tobacco. The great special crop in this 

 state is tobacco. In its production Kentucky 

 not only leads all the states of the Union, but 

 its crop, which averages about 350,000,000 

 pounds a year, represents over thirty per cent 

 of the entire production in the United States. 

 Kentucky produces nearly twice as much to- 

 bacco as North Carolina, its nearest competi- 

 tor, and nearly two and a half times as much 

 as Virginia, the next important tobacco-pro- 

 ducing state. The preeminence of Kentucky 

 in this respect is due not only to the nature 

 of its soil, which is specially adapted to the 

 cultivation of tobacco, but also to its sunny, 

 equable climate, free from extremes of heat 

 and cold, the presence of which are fatal to 

 the growth of such a delicate plant. The area 

 planted to tobacco is about 400,000 acres, and 

 this is nearly all in the western part of the 

 state. One of the principal tobacco-growing 

 regions is the "black patch," in the southwest 

 corner of the state, bordering on the Tennessee 

 "black patch." This produces a black, heavy 

 leaf, which is sold almost entirely for export. 

 Another is situated in the blue-grass region, 

 and its product, the red and white Burley, is 

 a light leaf, used largely for manufacturing 

 smoking and chewing tobacco. The yearly 

 value of the tobacco is nearly $30,000,000. 



Other Crops. The largest crop, as regards 

 both acreage and value, is corn. This has long 

 formed the staple, not only for human food, 

 but also for live stock, and is the chief mate- 

 rial for the large distilleries and breweries of 

 the state. About 4,000,000 acres are planted 

 to corn, and the yield is about 100,000,000 

 bushels a year, valued at over $60,000,000. 

 Wheat is another crop of importance ; it cov- 

 ers nearly 1,000,000 acres, and the annual yield 

 is about 10,000,000 bushels. Hay and forage 



