FOREST POLICY. 



The irrigated crop was valued at $226,000. The construc- 

 tion expense of the irrigation system was $530,000. 



FORESTRY CONDITIONS OF KENTUCKY: 



1. Area: Area of woodlands 22,000 square miles, or 53%. 



2. Physiography: Ohio River on the north. Mississippi 

 River on the west. The Big Sandy, tributary of the Ohio River, 

 on West Virginia line. Cumberland Mountains in the extreme 

 southeast, giving rise to the Kentucky River, which runs north 

 into Ohio, and to the Cumberland River. Undulating plateau 

 well watered. 



The Cumberland Mountains, where limestone formation pre- 

 vails, have coal and iron mines. Middlesborough about the center 

 of the coal industry. 



3. Distribution: Kentucky "barrens" in the southwest, very 

 productive of tobacco, hemp and grain. Here the pioneers found 

 big stumps called "stool grubs," the remnants of a splendid for- 

 est, probably burned by the Indians. The black oak forest (black 

 jack, black post and Spanish oak) is gradually invading the 

 "barrens." 



The bottoms of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, subject to 

 inundations, exhibit in the swamps bald cypress, sweet and black 

 gum. On very wet soil, cottonwoods, cow oaks, gums, ashes and 

 hickories of splendid development occur. On somewhat drier soil, 

 beech, red oak, yellow poplar, white oak and burr oak prevail. 



In the "Blue Grass Region," gigantic red cedars, walnuts, 

 poplars, hickories, beeches, sycamores, lindens, locusts, coffee 

 trees and white oaks have been cleared away, and only groves 

 or fringes of these species are now left. In the mountain section, 

 walnuts, chestnuts, chestnut oaks, yellow poplars, ashes, hickories, 

 three maples, locusts, white, red and black oaks of splendid de- 

 velopment form the bulk of the timber. 



The section above the falls of the Cumberland River was 

 practically untouched as late as 1880. 



The pines form only a small percentage of the timber. 

 White pine, accompanied by hemlock, occurs at the higher alti- 

 tudes of the Cumberland Mountains. Echinata is scattered over 



33 



