18 REPORT ON THE BOTANY OF 
ing fineness of grain and hardness. For work requiring soft 
white-wood, the elm, holly, buckeye, with many others, such as 
white soft maple and linn, give a wide range for choice, and all 
are to be had in considerable quantities. 
FRUIT-RAISING. 
This branch of industry has been neglected hitherto in the 
part of the State under consideration. But many localities 
offer good inducements to persons fitted for, and inclined to, 
this agreeable and often profitable pursuit. That series of 
hills known as Muldraugh’s Hill, connecting east with the 
spurs of the Cumberland Mountains, and with more or less 
altitude extending westward to the Ohio river, are becoming 
known to be well adapted to the growth of various kinds of 
fruits, among which are the peach and strawberry. The series 
of hills in the western part of Barren county, running nearly 
parallel with Green river, it is also known, are equally adapted 
to the peach, which seldom fails to produce good crops. The 
same is true of localities in Edmonson county, near the course 
of the Nolin, where peach trees are said never to have failed 
in any season, for forty years, to bear. The distance from good 
markets is the great hindrance to the extension of this industry. 
With the use of the new and improved methods of desiccating 
fruits, perhaps it would be equally profitable to take them to 
market in a dried condition, especially when we consider the 
low price of land in settlements remote from railroads and large 
towns, and the comparative cheapness of labor. 
CONCLUSION. 
When a full survey of the resources of the State of Ken- 
tucky shall have been made, it will be found that the wealth of 
her forests and the natural productions of her soil will be a 
matter not insignificant, even when compared with the inex 
haustible resources of coal and iron beneath the surface. From 
the extreme east to the west of this great State every part is 
clothed with the most valuable kinds of wood, from the bald 
cypress of the extreme southwest to the white pine in the 
4 
