THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 545 



The eastern part of the state, occupied by the Oumberlaud plateau and the high ranges of the southern 

 Alleghany mountains, is covered with a heavy forest of oak and other hard woods, mixed at high elevations with 

 hemlock, pine, and spruce, and constituting one of the finest bodies of timber now standing in the United States. 

 It contains, besides white and chestnut oak of flue quality, much yellow poplar, black walnut, and cherry. In the 

 southeastern counties, especially in the valley of the Tennessee river, the hard-wood forests have been, however, 

 already destroyed over large areas to furnish charcoal for the iron-manufacturing industry established here. 



During the census year 985,430 acres of woodland were reported devastated by fire, with a loss of $5,254,980. 

 Of these fires the largest number was set in the careless clearing of land for agriculture or to improve grazing, 

 and by hunters, locomotives, etc. 



Mr. A. G. Willey, of Manchester, Tennessee, has supplied the following statement in regard to the efiects 

 produced upon the forest growth by the annual burning of dead herbage to improve pasturage : 



"EFFECT OF FIEES UPON THE FOREST. 



" The practice of burning timber-land, said to have been of Indian origin, has been continued by the whit 

 settlers. The native grasses do not die down when killed by frost; they simply die standing, and the young grass 

 in the spring has to push through the old tuft, which is often 6 or 8 inches high. The fires are set in the timber 

 and old fields to burn these tufts, that stock may graze four or six weeks earlier than if the old herbage had been 

 left upon the ground. In the barrens and on the Cumberland plateau the timber is principally oak of various 

 kinds, which do not shed their leaves at once when killed by frost, or rot when partially green, but remain dry 

 upon the trees and fall gradually during winter and spring. The largest portion, therefore, are on the ground in 

 February, the time when fires are set. The effect of these fires is to destroy all the natural sources of fertility, grass, 

 leaves, and fallen timber. Had these been allowed to accumulate, what are now called barren lands would be the 

 most fertile in the state. The practice kills, too, the young trees, so tliat some of the most valuable timber that 

 the land is suitable to produce is unable to stand. The black-jack, post oak, black oak, etc., however, on account 

 of the protection afforded by their thick bark, are able to gain some headway, and so crowd out more valuable 

 tree.. The state law makes it a misdemeanor with heavy penalty for any one to set fire to and bum a neighbor's 

 land; but the difficulty of detection and conviction in such cases makes thi.s law non-effective. These are the causes 

 and effects of forest fires in this section ; they never occur here in summer." 



Considerable cooperage and wheel stock is manufactured in Tennessee, but, except in the eastern part of the 

 state, manufacturers report a scarcity and deterioration of the best hard woods, especially white oak. In the 

 eastern counties the manufacture of oak staves and other industries using hard woods are capable of large 

 development. 



The ijrincipal center of lumber manufacture in the state is Nashville, where several mills saw large quantities 

 of black walnut, poplar, cherry, ash, oak, etc., received by raft from the upper Cumberland river in Tennessee and 

 Kentucky. The local market takes about one-third of the lumber manufactured here, the remainder being sent 

 north and east by rail. Memphis, on the Mississippi river, is also an important manufacturing center. The mills 

 here are largely supplied by rafts from Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee, and snw large quantities of cypress, ash, 

 poplar, hickory, gum, and black walnut. Considerable hardwood lumber manufactured in Dyer, Lincoln, Obion, 

 and Smith counties, and pine and hard-wood lumber in Knox and Jelferson, largely from logs obtained in the 

 vicinity of the mills, is principally consumed locally, 



KENTUCKY. 



The forests of Kentucky resemble in general features those of Tennessee. Cypress, gnm, and various water 

 oaks occupy the river swamps of the western counties. The central region, now largely cleared and devoted to 

 agriculture, was once covered with the oaks, walnuts, and hickories of the Atlantic region, while over the eastern and 

 southeastern counties the dense forests of the Alleghany mountains extended. The eastern counties still contain 

 great bodies of the best hard wood, especially black walnut, white oak, cherry, and yellow poplar, which are 

 particularly fine and abundant in Bell, llarlan, and other southeastern counties. These forests, protected by the 

 falls of the Cumberland river, which have prevented the driving of logs from its upper waters, and inaccessible to 

 rail communication, are still practically uninjured, and probably unsurpassed in the amount, quality, and value of 

 the timber which they contain. The destruction of forests to supply numerous iron furnaces with charcoal has been 

 great in the northeastern counties, and no small part of this region has already been cut over. 



During the census year 55(5,647 acres of woodland were reported devastated by fire, with an estimated loss of 

 $2.37,635. Of these fires by far the largest number was traced to farmers carelessly clearing land for agricultural 

 purposes. 



In Barren, Edmonson, and other central counties extensive tracts of prairie existed at the time of the 



earliest settlement of the state. The presence of these prairies in the midst of a heavily-timbered region is 



ascribed to the annual burning to which they were subjected by the aborigines. With the disappearance of the 

 35 FOE 



