4 REPORT ON THE BOTANY OF 
less favorable portions of this country, viz: the making of car- 
riage-parts hubs, felloes, and other elements in such structures, 
for export. For this purpose the new growth of timber on the 
barrens, as well as much of the slow growth oak, hickory, &c., 
of other parts of this district, is peculiarly fitted, having all 
the properties of second growth. All along the tributaries of 
Green river we have admirable trees for such industries ; places 
where water-powers can be utilized at actual contact with per- 
manent navigation for steamers directly connecting with New 
Orleans by the cheapest possible carriage. 
The ample stores of oak and other ship timbers along this 
stream suggests the possibility of developing another industry 
here. Good ship timber can be had in this district at one third 
the lowest prices ruling on the Atlantic seaboard. Food is 
scarcely half as dear. So I am confident that a given tonnage 
would not cost one third what it would in transatlantic ports, 
as far as these elements of cost are concerned. Coal for run- 
ning saw-mills, where steam-power is preferred, can be had for 
about two dollars and a half a ton. When built, ships would 
not want for cargo. They could be laden with timber or grain, 
and could be taken without risk to New Orleans each winter, 
though drawing as much as twenty feet of water. This is be- 
yond all needs of vessels of this class. Used in this fashion, 
there is an immediate and most important source of wealth 
in our vanishing forests, which exceeds computation. Again 
and again, on the borders of Green river, I have seen, in a few 
dozen acres of tobacco clearings, enough noble ship timber 
going to utter waste by fire or decay to have built half a dozen . 
large merchantmen. If such a demand could be created, there 
are tens of thousands of acres in every Green River county 
that would be worth a hundred dollars per acre for their 
timber alone. 
In a certain way, the hard-wood timber of Western Ken- 
tucky is a more immediate and satisfactory source of wealth 
than its coal or iron. It takes less capital to develop an indus- 
try in it, and the competition will be far less considerable. At 
the same time, in the class of population it attracts to the State, 
30 
