22 THE FORESTS OF TENNESSEE. 



coal and iron lands not attached to farms. Add these 

 wild and mineral lands to the unimproved lands at- 

 tached to farms, and it will give 16,303,604 acres nom- 

 inally in timber or in abandoned lands known as old 

 fields. Of the latter I estimate there are something 

 near 500,000 acres. These lands consist of the worn- 

 out hilly slopes and fields that are fenceless, or aban- 

 doned for cultivation. This leaves the wooded area of 

 the state nominally 15,803,604 acres. But it would be 

 misleading to suppose all this area to abound in timber 

 trees. More than one-half of it has either been entirely 

 denuded of its large trees, as is the case around the old 

 charcoal furnace sites, or has been culled to furnish sup- 

 plies to the more than seven hundred sawmills in the 

 state, or to supply railroad ties and stocks for stave, head- 

 ing, and wagon factories. The best estimate, therefore, of 

 the probable area of the virgin forests in the state will 

 not go beyond 7,000,000 acres. There is more than twice 

 this amount unopened to cultivation, a large part of which 

 is covered either with second-growth timber, that may, 

 if properly protected, be valuable to future generations, 

 or by mountain ranges in large part without timber trees. 



But few states in North America can show a greater 

 variety of valuable timber trees than Tennessee. Almost 

 every tree to be found in the United States grows in the 

 state; and this is due partly to the great diversity of soil, 

 partly to the great difference in elevation which gives a 

 great difference in climatic influences, and partly to the 

 abundant rainfall. 



I have collected one hundred and thirty-seven kinds of 

 woods, some eight or ten of them, however being exotics. 

 Among the list of indigenous trees are four varieties cf 

 ash, three of birch, two of beech, two of magnolia, 

 five of elm, two of fir, four of gum, eight of hick- 

 ory, four of locust, three of mulberry, three of ma- 

 ple, four of poplar, six of pine, three of sycamore, 

 fourteen of oak, three of willow, two of walnut, besides 

 many single valuable kinds, such as red cedar, chestnut, 

 cypress, cotton wood (true poplar), pecan, linden, spruce, 

 dogwood, tiswood, etc. 



