xt71g15t7c8s https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt71g15t7c8s/data/mets.xml DeFriese, Lafayette H. 1880  books b96-13-34924167 English Stereotyped for the Survey by Major, Johnston & Barrett, Yeoman Press, : Frankfort, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Timber Kentucky. Report on the timbers of the district west of the Tennessee River  : commonly known as the Purchase District / by L.H. DeFriese. text Report on the timbers of the district west of the Tennessee River  : commonly known as the Purchase District / by L.H. DeFriese. 1880 2002 true xt71g15t7c8s section xt71g15t7c8s 











GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF KENTUCKY.
          N. S. SHALER, DIRECTOR.


                REPORT ON


  THE TIMBERS
                   OF THE

DISTRICT WEST OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER,

    COMMIONLY KNOWN AS THE PURCHASE DISTRICT.

            BY L. H. DEFRIESE.

        PART VI. VOL. V. SECOND SERIES.
  ST3EEOTYPKD POR THE SURVEY UYNAJOR. JOHNSTON  DASER TTr YEOMAN DOSS, VRANUT2S KY.
           ' 125 &    26

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INTRODUCTORY LETTER.



N. S. SHALER, Director Kentucky Geological Survey:
  DEAR SIR: In the following report on the timbers of that
part of Kentucky lying west of Tennessee river, some dis-
tinctive features of that district will be noticed. First, that
the timber changes are due not, as in the parts of Kentucky
previously studied by me, to geological changes, but mostly
to topographical changes. Second, that the whole of the Pur-
chase is comparatively level. Third, that a very small change
of level usually produces a marked effect upon the timbers,
and thus prevents the monotony which might be expected.
Fourth, that no other part of Kentucky offers such facilities
for studying the ultimate effects upon the timbers of the fires
by which the woods were regularly burned for a great number
of years. I have endeavored to make the most of my limited
opportunity for observation in all these directions.
  I wish to tender my- thanks to the people of the Purchase
for kindness shown me while I was among them.
                 Very respectfully,
                          LAFAYETTE H. DEFRIESE.
  NEW YORK, November, i 877.
                                                    127 & 128

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REPORT ON THE TIMBERS OF THE DISTRICT
       WEST OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER.


       GENERAL REMARKS-GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY.
  There is probably no part of Kentucky where topography
has more, and geology less, to do with the distribution and
general character of the timbers than in what is known as the
Purchase-that is, that part of the State lying west of the
Cumberland river. From this it may be inferred, at once, that
the species of timbers met with are pretty much the same
throughout the entire seven counties which go to make up
the region tnder discussion. There are upland timbers and
lowland timbers, but there are few of those marked changes
in forest growth which one meets with where timbers are
more influenced by geological structure than by topography.
Of geological change, if we except one or two spots where the
limestone extends across the Cumberland river, there is none
sufficient to affect timber growth. The whole of this Pur-
chase region, with the exception mentioned, is apparently of
tertiary age, and consists of more or less rounded whitish or
reddish pebbles. In what may be called the bed-rock of the
region, these pebbles are cemented together with clay, contain.
ing a good deal of iron, into an extremely hard and tough
reddish conglomerate, called by the people iron cement. Over-
lying this cemented rock there is a bed of loose pebbles and
sand varying from a few inches to fifty feet thick. WVhere the
pebbles themselves form the surface of the soil, it is needless
to say that the timbers consist of black jack and scrub oak.
There are no mountain axes in this part of Kentucky to
diversify the topography, but, owing to the peculiarity of the
formation, a difference of level of only a few feet will, in
most localities, completely change the character of the timber.
From this it follows that the number, size, and distribution
    VOL. V.-9                                          129

 


REPORT ON THE TIMBERS OF THE



of streams are of the greatest importance in considering the
present and future value of these Purchase timbers.  The
streams are important in considering the future value of the
timbers, because, as I have previously shown,  wherever
the white oak is the principal forest tree, other timbers
are succeeding it as fast as it is cut away.  This succes-
sion takes place much slower on bottom lands than else-
where, for there are few swamp timbers to supplant white
oak, and there is no danger of upland timbers doing so along
streams. The water timbers are strongly marked, and it
seems impossible that they could ever be supplanted by up-
land timbers. So there is far less tendency in swamp white
oak to disappear along the streams, than there is in the up-
land white oak to disappear from the body of the Kentucky
forests. The same may be said of other swamp timbers, so
that the number and character of the streams are very im-
portant.
  A glance at the map of this part of Kentucky will show that,
in these seven counties, there are no less than five streams of
importance, along all of which the timbers are very fine in-
deed, and are likely to remain substantially the same in kind.
Besides these large streams, smaller creeks and branches form
a perfect net-work over the greater part of the region. Leav-
ing out of consideration the timbers along these streams, the
forest growth varies considerably in these counties. Speak-
ing generally, the timbers through the eastern parts of Mar-
shall and Calloway counties are good, as are - also those
through the western parts of Hickman and Ballard.
  A belt extending directly through the Purchase country,
embracing less than one third of it, with its centre line passing
through Mayfield, will contain about all of the poor timber to
be found in this entire corner of Kentucky. And, inasmuch as
Mayfield creek passes through almost the entire length of
this central belt, and its tributaries and those of Little Obion
river ramify through it in every direction, along all of which
streams the timbers are very fine, it will be seen that this
See Report on Tradewater Timbers, vol. V, this series.
130



6

 


DISTRICT WEST OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER.



comparatively poor strip of forest country is not devoid of
valuable timber growth. There is an area of more or less
flat table land lying south of Wadesboro, between East Fork
of Clark river and the head waters of Mayfield creek, in
which, if we except a few small streams, no water is to be
found. I call especial attention to the position of this strip
of table land here, for it becomes of importance further on in
the Report, in the discussion of the succession of timbers.

DRAINS UPON THE TIMBER AND THE TIMBER RESOURCES OF THIS
                         DISTRICT.
  At Paducah there are several extensive timber establish-
ments, the principal of which are those of Langstaff, Orm &
Co., and McKnight & Co. The former firm claims to have
the fastest saw in the world, with which they cut 8,204 feet
of lumber per hour. They average 8o,ooo feet of lumber per
week the year round, and keep their yard stocked with 2,000,-
ooo feet of ready-sawed and dried lumber. The principal tim-
bers cut are, of course, white oak and liriodendron (yellow
poplar); but, in addition to these, are also elm, ash. hickory,
sweet gum, cotton tree, yellow pine, cypress, walnut. cherry,
etc. The white oak, gum, and cypress are obtained, to a
considerable extent, from the State of Kentucky, from which
they get about one third of their timbers. The value per
thousand feet of these timbers, in the log, at Paducah, is as
follows: Oak, 6 to 1o; poplar, 5 to 8; walnutt, io to
15; white hickory (second growth), 1o; sweet gum, 3 to
5; cotton-wood, 3 to 5; pine, 8; cherry, 10 to 15, and so
on. McKnight & Co. saw 2,000,000 feet of lumber annually,
about 50,000 feet of which is walnut. More than two thirds
of all the timber sawed in Paducah is brought down the Ten-
nessee river, which forms a convenient and cheap means of
transportation for the vast forests that crowd its banks from
its mouth to its head. However, the Paducah lumber estab-
lishments have largely drained the lower Tennessee district,
and the timbers are now floated down from far above. The
time will come, though I think not soon, when the Purchase
                                                        1.31

 


REPORT ON THE TIMBERS OF THE



region and the 'T'radewater country will be called upon to fur-
nish the timbers which are now furnished by the upper Ten-
nessee.  The only practical difficulty in the way is, that
Clark river, the only stream penetrating the Purchase which
is available for floating timber to Paducah, is so flat and
sluggish, and has so little fall, that the floating of any con-
siderable raft of timber upon it will be a matter of some
difficulty. The admirable timbers that grow all along the
smaller streams of the Purchase country can be reached only
by local saw-mills or by railroad. Lumber establishments at
Hickman can float timbers down Mayfield creek and Obion
river.
  At present, so far as I am aware, the drain upon the tim-
bers of the Purchase region comes from the establishments at
Paducah and from local mills. 'Thle two Paducah firms men-
tioned above saw an average of 6, i6o,ooo feet of lumber an-
nually. Not more than one third of this amount is obtained
from Kentucky, and, at most, not more than 2,000,000 feet of
it can come from the Purchase. If we count an average of
ten good lumber trees to an acre, which would be a low aver-
age along the streams in this part of Kentucky, and allow
500 feet of sawed lumber for each tree, which would also be
a low average, we shall have 5,000 feet of good lumber
in each acre of ground. At that rate, these two firms, to
obtain their 2,000,000 feet of lumber, annually strip 400 acres
of ground of its valuable timbers. That is very little, com-
pared with the hundreds of thousands of acres of fine tim-
bers lying along all the streams in this part of Kentucky. It
is impossible even to estimate the amount of timber used by
the local saw-mills, which are scattered along alli the streams
wherever a good body of timber is to be found, and which
change their location as the timber is exhausted. I think it
safe to say, though, that they saw from 3,000,000 to 5.000,000c
feet of lumber annually.  If this be true, at the estimates
given above, they now clear-up from' 500 to goo acres of tim-
ber land yearly, and something like an annual timber drain
of 1,200 acres is made upon the Purchase country. This tim-
132



8

 


DISTRICT WEST OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER.



ber, in the unsawed log, is worth about 5o,ooo. There are
not less than 500,000 acres of land in the Purchase which will
come within the above estimate of timber production; so, at
this estimate, only about one four hundredth of the valuable
timbers is noow cleared-up annually. At this rate, the timbers
can easily reproduce themselves, and the drain is not at all an
alarming one.  At the same rate, considering one third of
the land to be under cultivation, the present forest of the
Purchase alone would be worth io,ooo,ooo or 15,000,000.
Even if the present drain upon the Tennessee river country
were all turned to the Purchase, less than 2,500 acres of tim-
ber annually would be destroyed, or only about one two hun-
dred and fiftieth of the whole.  The forests could easily
reproduce themselves at that rate, except in the upper wood-
lands, where, as I have elsewhere shown, other timbers take
the place of the white oak as that is cut away. Of course,all
this timber wealth is not immediately available, and it is well
that it is not so. Upon the whole, there is not much to be
feared in regard to the present or future timber supply of the
Purchase region. It is scarcely possible that a greater de-
mand than the last estimate will be made upon it at any time
in the near future. When such demand is made, however, it
will probably be concentrated along the Clark river, where
the facilities for cheap transportation are best, and, in that
case, a few years would suffice to strip this stream of its most
valuable forests.  But the reserve supply of timbers, as I
have shown above, is so great that no prospective demand
can cause a dearth of them.
  There is one great difficulty, as I have previously hinted,
in getting at the splendid forests of the Clark river region,
and that is, that the stream is comparatively shallow, its bottom
very flat, and the water sluggish. The difficulties of rafting
on such a stream are greater than they would at first seem.
For instance, the lumber establishntents at Paducah desire
their logs brought to them in their entire length, varying from
thirty to seventy feet, so that they can cut from them plank of
  Report on Tradewater Timbers, vol. V, this series.
                                                           133



9

 


REPORT ON THE TIMBERS OF THE



any length demanded by their customers. The finest timbers
on Clark river are hickory and white oak; but a green hickory
or white oak log, forty to sixty feet in length, will not float
and it takes great buoying power to keep it up. Not only is
Clark river too shallow for such logs, but it is not wide and
open enough to allow the passage of rafts large enough to
support them. On the Tennessee river, a wide raft of tens
of thousands of feet is formed, in which such logs as these
alternate with seasoned poplar, which is sufficiently buoyant
to support the whole. The stream is broad and deep enough,
and has sufficient fall to allowv of the easy transportation of
these enormous rafts.  Of course the only way out of the
difficulty is to form small rafts, of only a few logs; but as it
is comparatively a good deal more expensive to float a small
raft than a large one, we need not expect to see much
demand for the Clark river timbers, until those along the
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers have become sufficiently
scarce and inconvenient of access to render the cost of pro-
curing them as great as that of floating the Clark river tim-
bers.

                    TIMBER VARIATIONS.
  The timbers in this part of Kentucky differ very little, in
kind, from the timbers on the older formations of the State.
The only new timber met with is the cypress (bald cypress),
which is now found immediately on the banks of all the
larger streams, on all marsh lands and swampy grounds.
Its presence is not due to the formation, for it appears else-
where from New Jersey southward, on various formations.
Why it does not appear in other parts of Kentucky, I do
not know, unless it be that a low, level, moist country is
required for its growth. But changes of timbers are often,
so far as can be discovered, capricious.  Magnolias are
found in great abundance on the upper Cumberland; down
towards the Ohio I have not met with a single one. So it
may be, so far as regards geological formations, with the
cypress. The timber is light, fine-grained and durable, and
134



10

 


DISTRICT WEST OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER.



the trees along the large streams, in this part of Kentucky,
grow to a height of eighty to one hundred feet, with trunks
from three to seven feet in diameter.
  There is a marked peculiarity in regard to the growth
of the beeches in the Purchase.  They are not found in
great numbers along the large streams, as they are in the
Rough creek region, along the North Cumberland, and in
nearly every other part of Kentucky. Along the principal
streams, here,very few beeches are met with, and they can
hardly be said to form a part of the timbers along Clark
river, Little Obion river, and Mayfield creek.  They are
scattered through the bottoms of small streams, but are
not conspicuous even there.  A Kentucky swamp without
beeches strikes one peculiarly. I could not see any reason
for their general absence from the bottom lands of this part
of Kentucky.
  The abundance of Spanish oak in the Purchase country is
worthy of note. Nowhere else,here, have I seen that timber
form so conspicuous an element of the forest growth.
  Hickory does not form a large percentage of the upland
forest timbers, and one will often travel for a mile or two
without seeing a single hickory tree.  Along the streams
and on low grounds, however, the hickory is very fine and
valuable.  I know of no finer bodies of hickory timber in
this country, than are to be found along Clark river and May-
field creek. The shagbark, pignut, and white hickories are
the finest varieties, and of these I have often counted, within
sight of where I stood, a dozen which would average ninety
feet in height, with diameters of from two to four feet.
  Chestnut, whose unaccountable presence on one side of
Green river, and absence on the other side, I noticed in a
former report (Tradewater Timbers, vol. V, this series), seems
to be as arbitrarily distributed in the Purchase as anywhere.
About five miles from Benton there is a little creek running
into East Fork of Clark river, called Chestnut creek. It
heads tup between two high hills, whose faces form a topo-
graphical synclinal. On these two hill slopes, facing each
                                                          135



I I

 


REPORT ON THE TIMBERS OF THE



other, a few chestnut bushes are found; but they stop abso-
lutely and abruptly at the tops of these two slopes, and on the
other sides of the same hills not a chestnut bush is to be
found. Nor is there any chestnut in any other part of this
section of the country.  I was told that there were a few
bushes five or six miles off on Middle Fork, but I did not
see any. How these chestnut bushes came to grow upon
the faces of these two hills I cannot imagine; for they could
not have come from seeds floated dlown the stream, inasmuch
as the mountain above the head of the stream has no chest-
nut on it, and never has had any so far as I could find out.
The people have recognized the peculiarity of the growth,
as is indicated by the name of the stream. A few chestnut
bushes were found in one or two other spots in the Purchase,
whose presence and limited distribution are as hard to account
for as those of the Chestnut creek timbers.
  There is a considerable amount of black walnut scattered
through the Purchase country, most of which is found high up
on the heads of streams. There is more or less of it found
on the head waters of all the streams, but an especially large
quantity is met with on Brush creek and on the streams that
form the North Fork of Obion river. There is no market
for walnut timber in this part of Kentucky and no value is
attached to it. It is ruthlessly cut and sawed by the little
saw-mills that spring up wherever there is a local demand for
lumber. It sells for about three dollars a tree, and a piece of
walnut timber that would bring 150 in New York is considered
dear at 4 or 5. There is an amount of improvidence shown
by Kentucky people in dealing with their forests which would
astonish any other civilized people. It is not shown in regard
to the walnut alone. In the wide flat woods south of Paducah
there is considerable valuable white oak, which is all the more
valuable because it is within a few miles of its best market;
but I constantly noticed the people cutting this white oak for
fuel, notwithstanding the woods are fuill of Spanish oak and
black oak, which make fully as good fire-wood, and are valua-
ble for nothing else. As a rule, the tree nearest to the house
136

 


DISTRICT WEST OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER.



of the owner is the first one sacrificed, regardless of its value.
Within a few years, by the time the timber establishments
of Paducah turn to the Purchase for their supplies, this flat
woods will be almost stripped of its white oak timber, and
only the Spanish oak and black oak, which are everywhere
succeeding the white oak, though comparatively valueless, will
be left as " brands snatched from the burning."
  The distribution of the liriodendron (poplar) timber in the
Purchase is about the same as that of the white oak. It is
found in great abundance oil nearly all the streams, large and
small, and the principal demand for it is that made by local
mills, which, of course, waste large quantities of it. But the
reserve supply for future use is so great that no present
apprehension need be felt. The finest body of upland white
oak and liriodendron in this part of Kentucky is probably be-
tween Dublin and Clinton, near the line of the two western
railroads across the Purchase. To this statement a rather
curious exception must be made. About six miles from Clin-
ton the white oak suddenly disappears, even from low grounds,
and on a belt about one mile wide it is almost wholly absent.
Here, black and Spanish oak are very fine and heavy, and
with them are liriodendron, white elm, etc.  About seven
miles from Clinton the white oak abruptly begins again, and
forms, as it did before, about forty per cent. of the forest
growth. I cannot account for this gap in the white oak, un-
less it be that long ago a hurricane passed through the region
and destroyed all the timber in its track, in which case, as I
have elsewhere shown, Spanish and black oak would succeed
the white oak in the new forests.
  In the flat woods south of Paducah, referred to above, the
timbers often alternate most curiously.  Here white oak is
the principal, almost the only, timber; two hundred yards
distant, Spanish oak and black oak have succeeded the white
oak; at the same distance further on, these timbers have
disappeared, and only post oak or hickory is to be seen, and
all this without the slightest change of level, or the least
apparent reason therefor. In places, all these timbers grow
                                                           137



13

 


REPORT ON THE TIMBERS OF THE



together; again, they grow only in streaks. After passing
this flat woods, there are two principal causes of change in
the timbers: one is change of height above drainage, which
always produces corresponding changes in the species of tim-
bers; the other is change in the position of the gravel beds
relative to the surface of the ground. Underlying the whole
of the Purchase country is a bed of pebbles, whose thickness
I could not accurately ascertain. lhis pebble bed is, in some
parts of the country, as much as fifty feet below the surface
of the ground; in others, for miles, it is on a level with the
surface, whose whole formation consists of these pebbles. I
did not have the time or the means to investigate the course
of these pebble beds, but wherever they lie near to, or form
the surface soil,the timbers are very poor, and consist mostly
of black-jack and scrub oak. The fine timbers are always
found where these beds are at a considerable depth below the
surface soil.
  I might call attention here, in passing, to two irregular
marsh-ponds of the Purchase, one a few miles south of Pa-
ducah, the other a few miles north of Mayfield.  They are
low, undrained marsh lands, the former irregularly round, the
latter oblong, and both heavily timbered with swamp timbers.
Buzzard pond, as the one near Paducah is called, contains a
great deal of bartram oak, over-cup, the people call it.
Cypress pond, near Mayfield, takes its name from its prin-
cipal timber. It is one of the cypress swamps often found in
the Southern States.

                   SUCCESSION OF TIMBERS.
  Between Murray and Mayfield there is a considerable area
of more or less flat table land, through which no water passes,
except the extreme head waters of West Fork of Clark river,
and a few other little branches, most of which are dry nearly
all the year. I was surprised, after leaving Benton and pass-
ing into this table land, to find that the woods consisted only
of saplings or tall, slim, young trees, from forty to seventy
feet in height, but not more than twelve to twenty inches in
138



14

 


DISTRICT WEST OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER.



diameter. At a distance, this forest appears very heavy on
account of the height and extreme density of these young
timbers; but on nearer approach, not an old tree can be
found. This peculiar growth extends beyond Murray, and,
as I afterwards found, occupies the entire table land, to
which I have previously called attention.  I examined
closely this young forest, and found that its principal
timbers are black oak and red oak, and that scarcely a
single white oak is to be found. My study of the Trade-
water timbers had convinced me, that wherever the present
forests of Kentucky are, by any means, destroyed. white oak
does not form an element of the new forest growth, but that
it is wholly supplanted by black oak and red oak.  (See
Report on Tradewater Timbers, vol. V, this series.)  I at
once concluded that the whole forests of this table land had
been destroyed thirty or forty years ago, and that the new
forest had succeeded that universal destruction of timbers in
which the white oak had perished forever.  I then passed
off into the head waters of West Fork of Clark river and
those of Mayfield creek, and noticed that as soon as these
streams became large enough to have considerable bottoms,
and to have water in their beds the year round, that in these
bottoms the old forest timbers, consisting of white oak, pop-
lar, and other timbers commonly met with, still exist. But
these timbers are limited strictly to the swamp, at whose
margin they give way abruptly to the young forest.  Of
course, the mystery was at once solved. Fire is the only
agency that could destroy the forests over such a wide area,
and leave none but the timbers in damp places standing
intact. I had before studied the effects of burning off the
woods upon the forest timbers, and had pointed out the fact
that the people living along the foot of the Black Mountains
of Kentucky are rapidly destroying some of the finest tim-
bers in the United States, by pursuing this practice year after
year. (See Report on North Cumberland Timbers, vol. IV,
this series.) It immediately suggested itself to me that the
                                                          139



15

 


REPORT ON THE TIMBERS OF THE



cause I had seen in operation in the Black Mountains had
completed its work in this part of the Purchase.
  I called on Mr. Waterfield, one of the oldest residents of
this part of Kentucky, who lives about six miles from Mur-
ray, for informatiGn. He told me that thirty years ago this
whole region of country was a perfect prairie, in which not a
single bush was tj be found, except along the streams, and
that this result was due, as I had suspected, to the practice of
burning off the woods yearly, in the late fall or early spring.
for the sake of the - range." This practice, when continued
year after year, produces two results, both of which I pointed
out in speaking of the Black Mountain timbers: it kills off
the old forest growth more rapidly than it would be re-
moved by the ordinary agents, by burning and crisping the
outer bark every year, and exposing the body of the tree
to dampness and decay and the ravages of worms, and it de-
stroys, every fall or spring, the bushes which have grown up
since the preceding spring, and which have not yet attained
sufficient size to withstand the heat. Evidently, if this pro-
cess is kept up long enough, the old forest will have passed
away, and no new one will have come on to take its place.
Suppose this stage to have been reached over an extensive
area of almost unwatered country: of course, during the next
summer, after the last old tree had passed away and the
young bushes had been burned down in the fall or spring,
leaving the country absolutely bare, many other young bushes
would spring up from seeds and roots still buried in the
ground, and, if let alone, would form such a forest as we now
see in this part of the Purchase. But if we suppose the pro-
cess of burning to be continued year after year, it is evident
that, before a great many years had passed, the last of the
buried seeds would have sprouted, and the last root have
exhausted itself and died. We should then have a vast ex-
panse of country, not only without a tree or bush, but without
a single seed or root from which one could come. Such are
now the great prairie lands of the Western States. and such
has been the cause which, in my opinion, led to their barren-
140



i6

 

DISTRICT WEST OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER.



ness of forests. These prairie lands were deprived of their
primeval forests by a long continuance of the practice which
the Indians pursued of burning off the woods yearly for the
purpose of gathering nuts and hunting game. The calamity
is irreparable, and Illinois, instead of boasting of the 300,-
ooo,ooo worth of timbers such as now form the glory of Ken-
tucky, must go through the slow and expensive process of
planting and culture to replace the forests which she has so
lamentably lost. I am inclined to think that the burning of
the woods in the strip of country under discussion did not go
so far as to exhaust the buried seeds and roots of the timbers;
for, although the strip burnt over is comparatively so small,
and so surrounded by heavy forests, that, had such been the
case, seeds from these forests would quickly have spread over
the burnt area, nevertheless it seems that, in that case, the
young trees nearer the margin of the surrounding woodlands
would be larger and older than those in the centre of the
burnt district. To a certain extent, this is actually the case;
but, from a close examination, I came to the conclusion that
this appearance was due, not to the fact that the buried seeds
and roots over the whole area had been killed and new sup-
plies been furnished from the surrounding forests, but to the
fact that, as settlements pushed into these burnt areas, the
limits burned over became more and more restricted every
year until the burning ceased entirely. This process would
give to the present young forest the appearance of being
regular and heavy, and yet of gradating into somewhat older
growth as one approaches the limits of the burnt district.
Besides, inasmuch as the country here slopes toward the
north and all the streams flow in that direction, if the forest
destruction had been complete and the seeds of the new for-
est had been furnished from the surrounding old forest, the
trees of the new forest would have grown gradually larger as
one approached the southern limit of the burnt area. The
exact opposite is the case, and the young forest trees grow
larger as we approach the old forests on the north of the
burnt district. This shows that the present irregularity of the
                                                          14l



17

 


REPORT ON THE TIMBERS OF THE



young trees is due to the fact that settlements pushed south-
ward in this part of Kentucky, and that the limit of the burnt
area was pushed a little further south each year for some
years before the burning ceased altogether.
  Luckily for the prairie lands of the United States, they are
nearly all level, or the loss of their timbers would have led to
so great a destruction of the lands themselves, by torrents,
that no amount of human labor and ingenuity could ever have
retrieved them. If the same process of forest destruction
goes on in the mountainous regions of the North Cumber-
land, until the timbers there are entirely destroyed, nothing
can avert from that country the calamity which reckless de-
struction of forests is now producing in the mountain regions
of some parts of Europe. (See Tradewater Timbers, vol. V,
this series.)
  One of the most important results to be reached from a
study of this once burnt district of the Purchase is, however,
that my former conclusions in regard to the disappearance of
the white oak are correct. Here is a strip of country, sur-
rounded on all sides by vast forests of white oak, such as
once evidently occupied this district itself, which is suddenly
entirely stripped of its forest growth, except that immediately
along its streams.  In the new forest which succeeds this
destruction scarcely a single white oak is to be found. This,
taken in connection with previous observations which showed
that the white oak is wanting in the young forest growth in
all parts of Kentucky, whatever the character of the old
growth. seems to prove conclusively that the white oak can-
not hold its own