skunks, and the streams were inhabited by trout, perch, buffalo-fish,
sun-fish, mullet, eels, and suckers. Of the larger game there remain
only a few deer, bears and lynx in the mountain districts, and the
numbers of small game and fish have been greatly reduced. In its
primeval state Kentucky was generally well timbered, but most of
the middle section has been cleared and here the blue grass is now
the dominant feature of the flora. Extensive forest areas still remain
both in the east and the west. In the east oak, maple, beech,
chestnut, elm, tulip-tree (locally “yellow poplar”), walnut, pine
and cedar trees are the most numerous; in the west the forests are
composed largely of cypress, ash, oak, hickory, chestnut, walnut,
beech, tulip-tree, gum and sycamore trees. Locust, pawpaw,
cucumber, buck-eye, black mulberry and wild cherry trees also
abound, and the grape, raspberry and strawberry are native fruits.
Climate.—The climate is somewhat more mild and even than that of the neighbouring states. The mean annual temperature, about 50° F. on the mountains in the S.E., and 60° W. of the Tennessee, is about 55° F. for the entire state; the thermometer seldom registers as high as 100° or as low as −10°. The mean annual precipitation ranges from about 38 in. in the north-east to 50 in. in the south, and is about 46 in. for the entire state; it is usually distributed evenly throughout the year and very little is in the form of snow. The prevailing winds blow from the west or south-west; rain-bearing winds blow mostly from the south; and the cold waves come from the north or north-west.
Soil.—The best soils are the alluvium in the bottom-lands along some of the larger rivers and that of the Blue Grass Region, which is derived from a limestone rich in organic matter (containing phosphorus) and rapidly decomposing. The soil within a radius of some 20 m. around Lexington is especially rich; outside of this area the Blue Grass soil is less rich in phosphorus and contains a larger mixture of sand. The soils of the Highland Rim Plateau as well as of the lowland west of the Tennessee river vary greatly, but the most common are a clay, containing more or less carbonate of lime, and a sandy loam. On the escarpment around the Blue Grass Region the soils are for the most part either cherty or stiff with clay and of inferior quality. On the mountains and on the Alleghany Plateau, also, much of the soil is very light and thin.
Agriculture.—Kentucky is chiefly an agricultural state. Of the 752,531 of its inhabitants who, in 1900, were engaged in some gainful occupation, 408,185 or 54.2%, were agriculturists, and of its total land surface 21,979,422 acres, or 85.9%, were included in farms. The percentage of improved farm land increased from 35.2 in 1850 to 49.9 in 1880 and to 62.5 in 1900. The number of farms increased from 74,777 in 1850 to 166,453 in 1880 and to 234,667 in 1900; and their average size decreased from 226.7 acres in 1850 to 129.1 acres in 1880 and to 93.7 acres in 1900, these changes being largely due to the breaking up of slave estates, the introduction of a considerable number of negro farmers, and the increased cultivation of tobacco and market-garden produce. In the best stock-raising country, e.g. in Fayette county, the opposite tendency prevailed during the latter part of this period and old farms of a few hundred acres were combined to form some vast estates of from 2000 to 4000 acres. Of the 234,667 farms in 1900, 155,189 contained less than 100 acres, 76,450 contained between 100 and 500 acres, and 558 contained more than 1000 acres; 152,216 or 64.86%, were operated by owners or part owners, of whom 5320 were negroes; 16,776 by cash tenants, of whom 789 were negroes; and 60,289 by share tenants, of whom 4984 were negroes. In 1900 the value of farm land and improvements was $291,117,430; of buildings on farms, $90,887,460; of livestock, $73,739,106. In the year 1899 the value of all farm products was $123,266,785 (of which $21,128,530 was the value of products fed to livestock), including the following items: crops, $74,783,365; animal products, $44,303,940; and forest products, $4,179,840. The total acreage of all crops in 1899 was 6,582,696. Indian corn is the largest and most valuable crop. As late as 1849, when it produced 58,672,591 bu., Kentucky was the second largest Indian-corn producing state in the Union. In 1899 the crop had increased to 73,974,220 bu. and the acreage was 3,319,257 (more than half the acreage of all crops in the state), but the rank had fallen to ninth in product and eleventh in acreage; in 1909 (according to the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture) the crop was 103,472,000 bu. (ninth among the states of the United States), and the acreage was 3,568,000 (twelfth among the states). Among the cereals wheat is the next largest crop; it increased from 2,142,822 bu. in 1849 to 11,356,113 bu. in 1879, and to 14,264,500 bu. in 1899; in 1909 it was only 7,906,000 bu. The crop of each of the other cereals is small and in each case was less in 1899 than in 1849. The culture of tobacco, which is the second most valuable crop in the state, was begun in the north part about 1780 and in the west and south early in the 19th century, but it was late in that century before it was introduced to any considerable extent in the Blue Grass Region, where it was then in a measure substituted for the culture of hemp. By 1849 Kentucky ranked second only to Virginia in the production of tobacco, and in 1899 it was far ahead of any other state in both acreage and yield, there being in that year 384,805 acres, which was 34.9% of the total acreage in the continental United States, yielding 314,288,050 ℔. As compared with the state’s Indian corn crop of that year, the acreage was only a little more than one-ninth, but the value ($18,541,982) was about 63%. In 1909 the tobacco acreage in Kentucky was 420,000, the crop was 350,700,000 ℔, valued at $37,174,200; the average price per pound had increased from 5.9 cents in 1899 to 10.6 cents in 1909. The two most important tobacco-growing districts are: the Black Patch, in the extreme south-west corner of the state, which with the adjacent counties in Tennessee grows a black heavy leaf bought almost entirely by the agents of foreign governments (especially Austria, Spain and Italy) and called “regie” tobacco; and the Blue Grass Region, as far east as Maysville, and the hill country south and east, whose product, the red and white Burley, is a fine-fibred light leaf, peculiarly absorbent of licorice and other adulterants used in the manufacture of sweet chewing tobacco, and hence a peculiarly valuable crop, which formerly averaged 22 cents a pound for all grades.[1] The high price received by the hill growers of the Burley induced farmers in the Blue Grass to plant Burley tobacco there, where the crop proved a great success, more than twice as much (sometimes 2000 ℔) being grown to the acre in the Blue Grass as in the hills and twice as large patches being easily managed. In the hill country the share tenant could usually plant and cultivate only four acres of tobacco, had to spend 120 days working the crop, and could use the same land for tobacco only once in six years. So, although a price of 6.5 cents a pound covered expenses of the planter of Burley in the Blue Grass, who could use the same land for tobacco once in four years, this price did not repay the hill planter. The additional production of the Blue Grass Region sent the price of Burley tobacco down to this figure and below it. The planters in the Black Patch had met a combination of the buyers by forming a pool, the Planters’ Protective Association, into which 40,000 growers were forced by “night-riding” and other forms of coercion and persuasion, and had thus secured an advance to 11 cents a pound from the “regie” buyers and had shown the efficacy of pooling methods in securing better prices for the tobacco crop. Following their example, the planters of the Burley formed the Burley Tobacco Society, a Burley pool, with headquarters at Winchester and associated with the American Society of Equity, which promoted in general the pooling of different crops throughout the country. The tobacco planters secured legislation favourable to the formation of crop pools. The Burley Tobacco Society attempted to pool the entire crop and thus force the buyers of the American Tobacco Company of New Jersey (which usually bought more than three-fourths of the crop of Burley) to pay a much higher price for it. In 1906 and in 1907 the crop was very large; the pool sold its lower grades of the 1906 crop at 16 cents a pound to the American Tobacco Company and forced the independent buyers out of business; and the Burley Society decided in 1907 to grow no more tobacco until the 1906 and 1907 crops were sold, making the price high enough to pay for this period of idleness. Members of the pool had used force to bring planters into the pool; and now some tobacco growers, especially in the hills, planted new crops in the hope of immediate return, and a new “night-riding” war was begun on them. Bands of masked men rode about the country both in the Black Patch and in the Burley, burning tobacco houses of the independent planters, scraping their newly-planted tobacco patches, demanding that planters join their organization or leave the country, and whipping or shooting the recalcitrants. Governor Willson, immediately after his inauguration, took measures to suppress disorder. In general the Planters’ Protective Association in the Black Patch was more successful in its pool than the Burley Tobacco Society in its, and there was more violence in the “regie” than in the “Burley” district. In November 1908 the lawlessness subsided in the Burley after the agreement of the American Tobacco Company to purchase the remainder of the 1906 crop at a “round” price of 2012 cents and a part of the 1907 crop at an average price of 17 cents, thus making it profitable to raise a full crop in 1909.
Kentucky is the principal hemp-growing state of the Union; the crop of 1899, which was grown on 14,107 acres and amounted to 10,303,560 ℔, valued at $468,454, was 87.7% of the hemp crop of the whole country. But the competition of cheaper labour in other countries reduced the profits on this plant and the product of 1899 was a decrease from 78,818,000 ℔ in 1859. Hay and forage, the fourth in value of the state’s crops in 1899, were grown on 683,139 acres and amounted to 776,534 tons, valued at $6,100,647; in 1909 the acreage of hay was 480,000 and the crop of 653,000 tons was valued at $7,771,000. In 1899 the total value of fruit grown in Kentucky was $2,491,457 (making the state rank thirteenth among the states of the Union in the value of this product), of which $1,943,645 was the value of orchard fruits and $435,462 that of small fruits. Among fruits, apples are produced in greatest abundance, 6,053,717 bu. in 1899, an amount exceeded in only nine states; in 1889 the crop had been 10,679,389 bu. and was exceeded only by the crop of Ohio and by that of Michigan. Kentucky also grows considerable quantities of cherries, pears, plums and peaches, and, for its size, ranks high in its crops of strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Indian corn is grown in all parts of the state but most largely in the western portion. Wheat is grown both in the Blue Grass Region and farther west; and the best country for fruit is along the Ohio river between Cincinnati and Louisville and in the hilly land surrounding the Blue Grass Region. In the eastern part of the state
- ↑ North of the Black Patch is a district in which is grown a heavy-leaf tobacco, a large part of which is shipped to Great Britain; and farther north and east a dark tobacco is grown for the American market.
