4 INTRODUCTORY. 



state. Blacksmiths even used charcoal for fuel, as also 

 did the iron furnaces in every division of the state. The 

 consumption of coal in Nashville in 1831, when the first 

 grate was erected, did not reach one thousand bushels, 

 or forty tons, per annum. From 1836 to 1860 coal was 

 worth by retail from twenty to fifty cents per bushel, and 

 for the latter year about thirty-six thousand tons only 

 were required to supply the demands of Nashville and 

 the mills in its vicinity. Nearly all the hotels, steam- 

 boats, railroads, and private dwellings used wood for 

 fuel. But the price for wood gradually advanced, and 

 that for coal declined with increased demand and the 

 opening of new sources of supply, until coal for fuel came 

 to be used in the cities almost exclusively. 



The iron furnaces continued to use charcoal until 1869, 

 when coke was first employed in the production of pig- 

 iron. In the meantime the farmers never relaxed their 

 efforts in opening new lands, but the acreage was re- 

 duced to the limit necessary to supply fire-wood for the 

 farm, rails for fences, and in the tobacco districts wood for 

 the burning of plant-beds and the curing of tobacco. 

 Sawmills, however, multiplied more rapidly after 1870, 

 and lumber found a ready market all over the country 

 rendered accessible by river or railway. The shipment of 

 staves, spokes, hubs, and handles to Europe, as well as to 

 every portion of the United States, increased almost in a 

 geometrical ratio. At present it may well be a question 

 of deep solicitude with the people of Tennessee as to 

 what the next generation will do for lumber. From what 

 region will it come? The present accelerated yearly con- 

 sumption will use up all the most valuable forests in the 

 United States within the next twenty-five years. 



And yet it is true that timbered lands are as cheap in 

 Tennessee to-day as they were thirty years ago. It is 

 difficult to give a satisfactory reason for this state of 

 things. It may be because such large areas are offered 

 in the market. It is nevertheless true that such lands 

 may now be bought for less than one-third the price of 

 what the same character of lands will sell for in the 

 Northern states. J. B. KILLEBKEW. 



