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,
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