upper watersheds are in forested mountain country 

 where precipitation is heavy, and where conditions 

 are ideal for the development of power. It is esti- 

 mated that Tennessee has from 25,000 to 30,000 

 miles of rivers and streams which collect nearly half 

 the rainfall (an annual average of about 50 inches 

 over the State) (8). 



Many resources, in addition to water, lie behind 

 Tennessee's industrial growth. Cotton, tobacco, live- 

 stock, and other farm products have provided the raw 

 materials for some of the State's principal industries — 

 textiles and apparel, food products, and leather goods. 

 Minerals are varied and abundant. Although coal is 

 the chief mineral, Tennessee is among the Nation's 

 leading producers of phosphate, sulfuric acid, virgin 

 aluminum, pyrites, iron sinter, copper, zinc ores, and 

 barite (8). The large variety and abundance of 



valuable trees have long sustained the important tim- 

 ber-products industries. 



Timber industries developed slowly in the last cen- 

 tury. Fuelwood, not lumber, became the first big 

 commercial timber product. Considerable tracts of 

 land were cut over for charcoal until 1869, when coke 

 was first employed in the production of pig iron. 

 Until about 1860, nearly all the hotels, steamboats, 

 railroads, and private dwellings in the cities purchased 

 wood for fuel. As the price of wood advanced and 

 that of coal declined, coal supplanted wood in the 

 cities almost entirely (7) . Yet, even with this decline, 

 the consumption of fuelwood in the State in 1 908 was 

 estimated at 4,730,000 cords (4). 



Other wood-using industry developed gradually. 

 In the early seventies, northern sawmills sent buyers to 

 look for black walnut. As the walnut became scarcer, 



Figure 9. — Norris dam is an important link in the TV A hydroelectric power system. (TV A photo.) 



Tennessee's Timber Economy 



11 



