486 FOREST RESOURCES OF KENTUCKY. 



Wai-nut. — The black walunt {Juglans nigra) is pretty generally distributed over the 

 rich soils of the State, and it is a sign of fertility. It abounds ia the great Cen- 

 tral Basin and the better part of the Highlands, and flourishes on the north sides 

 of ridges and in the valleys of East Tennessee. It attains a marvelous size on tho 

 calcareo-silicious soils of West Tennessee. A grovo on the Cumberland table-land, 

 a few miles from Wartburg, in the eastern part of Morgan County, could scarcely 

 be surpassed ; some trees being G feet in diameter and more than 100 feet high and 

 thickly set. The bark of the black walnut is used as a domestic dye for woolen. 

 The butternut, or white walnut (Jiiglans cinerea) jirefers the margins of streams 

 and rich northern slopes, and is generally diffused. Its wood makes a lumber 

 valued for inside finishing and for cabinet wares. 



Of trees not sufficiently abundant to be of much economical impor- 

 tance may be mentioned the yellowwood, cucumber, laurel, holly, horn- 

 beam, box elder, chinquapin, crab apple, hackberry, willow, persim- 

 mon, &c. 



The report from which the above statements are condensed, remarks — 



That though the State of Tennessee has as yet an abundant supply of timber, it is 

 every year becoming more apparent that some legislation is demanded for its preser- 

 vation and reproduction. In the neighborhood of our furnaces, especially, the con- 

 sumption of timber is enormous, and many of our finest iron fields will soon be de- 

 prived of half their value unless some legislative protection is given to the young 

 timber. The annual conflagrations that sweep like a devouring fury through the old 

 coaling lands, destroying the young sprouts and rendering barren a large scope of 

 country, should be checked. But for these fires, the timber would soon reproduce 

 itself iu sufficient quantities to supply all the demands of the charcoal furnaces. Old 

 fields are lying idle and unfenced iu every part of the State, that could be reclaimed by be- 

 ing planted iu trees. Were these places broken up and sown with acorns or hickory 

 nuts, or planted with locust trees, the eflect would, in every particular, be salutary. 

 Not ouly would the laud be reclaimed, but the timber would in two score years be vail- 

 uable. * « » The legislature should exempt from taxation for a term of years all 

 these old fields that are planted with trees, and $ilOO worth of property should also 

 be exempted for every mile of shade trees planted along the highways. » » * Had 

 this been done twenty years ago, Tennessee would not be dotted all over with repulsive 

 and haggard old fields that constitute the shame and mark the sliiftlessoess of her 

 farmers. * * * More is involved in this question than mere money. The very ex- 

 istence of the human race is jeopardized by this neglect. 



KENTUCKY. 



Prof. N. S. Shaler, in charge of the Geological Survey of Kentucky, 

 in speaking of the future prospects of the timber of that State, remarks :^ 



I am satisfied that by properly husbanding our timber resources, they will in fifty 

 years become one of the most important of the varied sources of wealth to our State. 

 A large part of the eastern coal-field of Kentucky is not tillable land. The lofty and 

 rugged ridges between the valleys are natural nurseries of timber. While they will 

 not serve for other forms of cultivation, they will yet do admirably for the raising of 

 many of the most valuable woods for our various arts. So large apart of the valley of the 

 Ohio is arable land, that the future sources of limber for its use are very limited. They 

 will be found in the lofty ridges of the Apalachian Mountains where the steepness of 

 the s.opes will forbid plow-tillage. 



I deem it quife likely that within the time of the next generation, these hill lands 

 will become as valuable for timber raising, as the average lands of the valley are for 

 other forms of culture. They are naturally suited to all the most valuable woods of 

 the Mississippi Valley. At the present value of black walnut, an acre of this timber 

 forty years old, growing as thickly as it is able to stand, should be worth several hundred 

 dollars; of hickory and locust of second growth, the value is about as great. There 

 are fow crops of ordinary soil which will give as great average returns when labor and 

 interest are deducted. A very great advantage iu our Kentucky forests is the compara- 

 tive immunity from fires. In most valuable timber regions this danger is so groat as 

 to reduce the value of such lands as investments. In many thousand miles of travel 

 through the timbered districts of Kentucky, I have never seen an acre of forest seri- 

 ously damaged by fiie. In the present state of our American life, when men are hardly 

 willing to wait for the yearly harvests to mature, it seems almost too much to hope 

 for the far-seeing thrift that will look forward to fruits to be gathered at the eud of 

 forty years ; yet these enterprises that tal^e hold on a distant future will become 



'■ Geological lie^iort of Kentuclg, i)art I, vol. 1, ^d series, p. 4. 



