FOR ENGLISH IMMIGRANTS. II 



the cultivator of the ground is forced to rely on costly irrigation with 

 the scanty streams derived from the melting snow on the mountain 

 ranges. 



This ample supply of water on Kentucky soil helped to make it a 

 timbered country. Even now, after an extensive clearing of the woods 

 here, and a great waste of what would be at this time most valuable 

 timber, a very large area of the - State is covered with trees of ancient 

 growth, which are becoming more and more valuable. In this we pre- 

 sent a great contrast with the prairie region ; there the new settler, even 

 recently, has frequently built his first hut out of the prairie sods, or the 

 herder on the plains has sheltered himself and family in a hole or cave dug 

 out of the slope of a hill ; here the first settler finds such a surplus of tim- 

 ber that his first thought too often has been how best to destroy it. This 

 system of destruction, in order to make room for the plow or the hoe, is 

 now no longer necessary, when some single walnut tree on the out-lands- 

 of the State might bring the price of many acres of the land on which it 

 stands. Timber is now rapidly becoming more and more commercially 

 valuable, and as our railroads and other means of transportation are 

 extended, the wanton waste of our forests will cease. But forests are- 

 valuable far beyond their money value for timber; they exert a marked 

 influence on rain-fall by aiding the mingling of air-currents which cause 

 the condensation of watery vapor and the fall of rain, as well as by the 

 collection and retention of surface-water, which gradually feeds our 

 springs and water-courses, obviating temporary devastating floods, and 

 keeping up a wholesome equilibrium of irrigation and moisture. 



Many countries which now are arid deserts, because mainly of the 

 destruction of their forests rather than the exhaustion of their soils, 

 were formerly well watered, and supported a dense population ; and the 

 general knowledge of these facts, as well as the increasing demand for, 

 and value of, timber, will not only make the present extensive woodlands 

 of Kentucky very valuable, but induce her intelligent settlers and inhab- 

 itants to adopt a judicious system of forestry, which will supply to the 

 present and following generations a sufficient and constant supply of 

 timber, as well as conserve the climate and productiveness of the region. 

 This cannot too early be taken into earnest consideration. The settlers 

 of the prairie region have, under inducements offered by the Govern- 

 ment, planted out an immense number of forest trees, mostly, however, 

 of soft woods of quick growth, and suited to the soil and dry climate ; 

 but hard wood is and will be scarce and dear in that region, while in 

 Kentucky hard wood is native to the soil, and easily grown, and will 



