INTRODUCTION. 
The following report of Professor Hussey, Botanical Assist- 
ant of the Survey, is published in advance of the completion 
of the work of which it forms a part, in order that there may 
be some immediate record of the economic and scientific value 
of the forest trees and other plants of Western Kentucky. 1 
am satisfied that the very great importance of the store of 
woods useful in the arts found in Western Kentucky has been 
greatly overlooked, and deserves immediate attention. The 
finest hard-wood forests known to me in any country lie between 
the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and the Mississippi river. 
I am confident that there is no other region on this continent 
where as large a mass of timber useful in the arts, and contig- 
uous to transportation, can be found. 
The arts into which these varieties of wood enter are mul- 
tifarious, and of the greatest economic importance. Iam sat- 
isfied that there is no point in America where so extensive 
opportunities exist for the creation of a direct trade in hard- 
wood with Europe. For many years wine-cask staves have 
been shipped from this district to New Orleans, and, though by 
the imperfect organization of the business half a dozen profits 
are paid before they come to the coopers’ hands in France, 
they pay the best profits that are made on the oak timber in 
this district. By very little effort the casks could be made on 
the French models on the ground, and shipped as bundles of 
staves to Europe. A precisely similar industry exists in the 
shipment of sugar-boxes from the State of Maine to Cuba, the 
parts being bound up in “shooks” and bundles. By this 
arrangement the value of this industry to our people would be 
greatly increased. The demand from this source is very great, 
and steadily increasing. Another most promising industry has 
yet to be begun on this ground, though existing elsewhere in 
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