546 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES 



Indians trees sprang up, and this region is fiow well covered with a vigorous growth of black oaks of different 

 species. White oaks, however, are not abundant, and other species common to the region, such as the walnuts, 

 the yellow poplar, and the beech, are wanting in these young forests, indicating perhaps the effect of fires in 

 checking the subsequent growth or development of many useful timber trees. 



PASTURAGE OF WOODLANDS. 



The forests of Kentucky, as well as those of all the central and southern portion of the United States, suffer 

 severely from the almost universal custom of using woodlands for pasturage. The evil resulting from this practice 

 is only more apparent in Kentucky and Tennessee, because in these states the amount of live stock is proportionately 

 larger than in other parts of the south, while in the thickly-settled agricultural sections of these states the 

 ratio of woodland to toUil area is smaller. The pasturage of woodlands necessitates, or at least induces, the annual 

 burning of the dead herbage, by which underbrush, young trees, seedlings, and seeds are destroyed and the 

 succession and permanence of the forest endangered. What the fires spare, browsing animals devour ; hogs root 

 out seedlings, and by selecting the sweet acorns of the white oak in preference to the bitter fruit of the black oaks, 

 are gradually changing the composition of the oak forests. Comparatively few white oaks spring up in the forests 

 of the more thickly settled portions of the central Atlantic region, and this change of forest composition must be 

 ascribed to the preference of domestic animals for the palatable fruit of what, as regards their timber, are the 

 most valuable species. The injury, too, inflicted by the constant stamping of animals and consequent packing of the 

 land about the stems of old trees is very great, and all reports speak of the gradual djdng of old trees left standing 

 in the grazing regions of Kentucky and Tennessee. 



The spread of the mistletoe {Fhoradendronflavescms), consequent upon the removal of the forest and the increase 

 in the number of birds (the mistletoe seems to require a certain amount of light and air for its development; it 

 does not flourish or increase rapidly in the dense forest, and cannot spread except by the agency of birds), is a cause 

 of serious injury to the forest of this whole region. It slowly but surely destroys the trees upon which it obtains a 

 foothold. The black walnut especially suffers from the growth of this parasite, which seems destined to destroy the 

 finest walnut timber left standing in the settled portions of the southern central region. 



Large quantities of cooperage and wheel stock are produced all over the state, and manufacturers generally 

 report no scarcity or deterioration of timber, with the exception of white oak. The principal centers of lumber 

 manufacture are at the mouth of the Tennessee river, in McCracken county, where a large amount of cypress, 

 sycamore, gum, oak, walnut, and other hard wood is manufactured for the northern market from logs rafted down 

 the Tennessee and other streams flowing into the Mississippi ; at Frankfort, where poplar, oak, ash, walnut, pine, 

 cherry, hickory, and maple logs, rafted from the upper waters of the Kentucky river, are sawed, the lumber being 

 shipped north and east by rail ; and at Louisville, where walnut, poplar, and oak lumber is manufactured for local 

 consumption. The manufacture of pumps and water-pipes from logs of the Jersey pine (Pfwit* inops), at one time 

 an important industry at Louisville, has, since the general introduction of city and town water-works, become 

 unremunerative and unimportant. 



