THE FORESTS OF TENNESSEE. 27 



to believe that the number of establishments now in the 

 state is fifty per cent greater than they ever were in its 

 previous history; nor is the end yet reached, for nearly 

 every week shows some new lumbering-mill, stave-mill, 

 or shingle-mill erected or planing-mill established. I 

 have no means by which to estimate with any degree of 

 certainty the number of logs now cut or the amount of 

 lumber now made in the entire state, nor have I been able 

 to procure the statistics for hubs, spokes, handles, etc., 

 for the whole state of Tennessee, but I find that the pro- 

 duction for the year 1896, along the line of the Nashville, 

 Chattanooga, and St. Louis railway, was as follows: 

 Spokes, 6,750,000; handles, 594,000; hubs, 60,000; rims, 

 102,000; neck-yokes, single-trees, etc., 750,000. This is 

 about three-fourths of the production in the state. 



The number of staves made along this line for the year 

 1896 was 240,000,000, which is four times as many as was 

 made in the state in 1890. Most of these are made on 

 the northwestern division and branches of the Nash- 

 ville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis railway, where there 

 are now fifty-seven stave-factories in operation. The 

 whole number of staves made in this region in 1873 was 

 only 1,650,000. The increase has been one hundred and 

 forty-five fold. 



The value of exports of lumber and forest products 

 from the United States for the year ending June 30, 1897, 

 was $39,624,800, as against the value of $31,947,108 for the 

 year previous, an increase of twenty-four per cent. The 

 average value of board deals and plank for the month of 

 June was $16.13 per thousand feet, which is an increase 

 of $1.39 over the average value of the preceding two 

 years, and $2.21 over the average for the years 1896-97. 



For many years Nashville was the largest hardwood 

 market in the world, but recently both St. Louis and Chi- 

 cago have gone ahead of it, and it now stands third. 



The average shipments of lumber from Nashville now 

 amount to 27,000,000 feet annually. Of this amount 15,- 

 000,000 is poplar, 7,000,000 feet oak, and 5,000,000 feet ash 

 and other woods. About 60,000,000 feet are carried in 

 stock in the Nashville market. 



It is evident that the destruction of forests in the state 



