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 20½ 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 where crops are generally light, Indian corn, oats and potatoes are the principal products, but tobacco, flax and cotton are grown. The thoroughbred Kentucky horse has long had a world-wide reputation for speed; and the Blue Grass Region, especially Fayette, Bourbon and Woodford counties, is probably the finest horse-breeding region in America and has large breeding farms. In Fayette county, in 1900, the average value of colts between the ages of one and two years was $377.78. In the Blue Grass Region many thoroughbred shorthorn cattle and fine mules are raised. The numbers of horses, mules, cattle and sheep increased quite steadily from 1850 to 1900, but the number of swine in 1880 and in 1900 was nearly one-third less than in 1850. In 1900 the state had 497,245 horses, 198,110 mules, 364,025 dairy cows, 755,714 other neat cattle, 1,300,832 sheep and 2,008,989 swine; in 1910 there were in Kentucky 407,000 horses, 207,000 mules, 394,000 milch cows, 665,000 other neat cattle, 1,060,000 sheep and 989,000 swine. The principal sheep-raising counties in 1905 were Bourbon, Scott and Harrison, and the principal hog-raising counties were Graves, Hardin, Ohio, Union and Hickman.
Forests and Timber.—More than one-half of the state (about 22,200 sq. m.) was in 1900 still wooded. In 1900 of the total cut of 777,218 M. ft., B.M., 392,804 were white oak and 279,740 M. ft. were tulip-tree. Logging is the principal industry of several localities, especially in the east, and the lumber product of the state increased in value from $1,502,434 in 1850 to $4,064,361 in 1880, and to $13,774,911 in 1900. The factory product in 1900 was valued at $13,338,533 and in 1905 at $14,539,000. In 1905 of a total of 586,371 M. ft., B.M., of sawed lumber, 295,776 M. ft. were oak and 153,057 M. ft. were “poplar.”
The planing mill industry is increasing rapidly, as it is found cheaper to erect mills near the forests; between 1900 and 1905 the capital of planing mills in the state increased 117.2% and the value of products increased 142.8%.
Manufactures.—Kentucky’s manufactures are principally those for which the products of her farms and forests furnish the raw material. The most distinctive of these is probably distilled liquors, the state’s whisky being famous. A colony of Roman Catholic immigrants from Maryland settled in 1787 along the Salt river about 50 m. S.S.E. of Louisville and with the surplus of their Indian corn crop made whisky, a part of which they sold at settlements on the Ohio and the Mississippi. The industry was rapidly developed by distillers, who immediately after the suppression of the Whisky Insurrection, in 1794, removed from Pennsylvania and settled in what is now Mason county and was then a part of Bourbon county—the product is still known as “Bourbon” whisky. During the first half of the 19th century the industry became of considerable local importance in all parts of the state, but since the Civil War the heavy tax imposed has caused its concentration in large establishments. In 1900 nearly 40% and in 1905 more than one-third of the state’s product was distilled in Louisville. Good whisky is made in Maryland and in parts of Pennsylvania from rye, but all efforts in other states to produce from Indian corn a whisky equal to the Bourbon have failed, and it is probable that the quality of the Bourbon is largely due to the character of the Kentucky lime water and the Kentucky yeast germs. The average annual product of the state from 1880 to 1900 was about 20,000,000 gallons; in 1900 the product was valued at $9,786,527; in 1905 at $11,204,649. In 1900 and in 1905 Kentucky ranked fourth among the states in the value of distilled liquors.
The total value of all manufactured products of the state increased from $126,719,857 in 1890 to $154,166,365 in 1900, or 21.7%, and from 1900 to 1905 the value of factory-made products alone increased from $126,508,660 to $159,753,968, or 26.3%.[2] Measured by the value of the product, flour and grist mill products rose from third in rank in 1900 to first in rank in 1905, from $13,017,043 to $18,007,786, or 38.3%; and chewing and smoking tobacco and snuff fell during the same period from first to third in rank, from $14,948,192 to $13,117,000, or 12.3%; in 1900 Kentucky was second, in 1905 third, among the states in the value of this product. Lumber and timber products held second rank both in 1900 ($13,338,533) and in 1905 ($14,539,000). Distilled liquors were fourth in rank in 1900 and in 1905. Men’s clothing rose from tenth in rank in 1900 to fifth in rank in 1905, from $3,420,365 to $6,279,078, or 83.6%. Other important manufactures, with their product values in 1900 and in 1905, are iron and steel ($5,004,572 in 1900; $6,167,542 in 1905); railway cars ($4,248,029 in 1900; $5,739,071 in 1905); packed meats ($5,177,167 in 1900; $5,693,731 in 1905); foundry and machine shop products ($4,434,610 in 1900; $4,699,559 in 1905); planing mill products, including sash, doors and blinds ($1,891,517 in 1900; $4,593,251 in 1905—an increase already remarked); carriages and wagons ($2,849,713 in 1900; $4,059,438 in 1905); tanned and curried leather ($3,757,016 in 1900; $3,952,277 in 1905); and malt liquors ($3,186,627 in 1900; $3,673,678 in 1905). Other important manufactures (each with a product value in 1905 of more than one million dollars) were cotton-seed oil and cake (in 1900 Kentucky was fifth and in 1905 sixth among the states in the value of cotton-seed oil and cake), cooperage, agricultural implements, boots and shoes, cigars and cigarettes, saddlery and harness, patent medicines and compounds, cotton goods, furniture, confectionery, carriage and wagon materials, wooden packing boxes, woollen goods, pottery and terra cotta ware, structural iron-work, and turned and carved wood. Louisville is the great manufacturing centre, the value of its products amounting in 1905 to $83,204,125, 52.1% of the product of the entire state, and showing an increase of 25.9% over the value of the city’s factory products in 1900. Ashland is the principal centre of the iron industry.
Minerals.—The mineral resources of Kentucky are important and valuable, though very little developed. The value of all manufactures in 1900 was $154,166,365, and the value of manufactures based upon products of mines or quarries in the same year was $25,204,788; the total value of mineral products was $19,294,341 in 1907. Bituminous coal is the principal mineral, and in 1907 Kentucky ranked eighth among the coal-producing states of the Union; the output in 1907 amounted to 10,753,124 short tons, and in 1902 to 6,766,984 short tons as compared with 2,399,755 tons produced in 1889. In 1902 the amount was about equally divided between the eastern coalfield, which is for the most part in Greenup, Boyd, Carter, Lawrence, Johnson, Lee, Breathitt, Rockcastle, Pulaski, Laurel, Knox, Bell and Whitley counties, and has an area of about 11,180 sq. m., and the western coalfield, which is in Henderson, Union, Webster, Daviess, Hancock, McLean, Ohio, Hopkins, Butler, Muhlenberg and Christian counties, and has an area of 5800 sq. m. In 1907 the output of the western district was 6,295,397 tons; that of the eastern, 4,457,727. The largest coal-producing counties in 1907 were Hopkins (2,064,154 short tons) and Muhlenberg (1,882,913 short tons) in the western coalfield, and Bell (1,437,886 short tons) and Whitley (762,923 short tons) in the south-western part of the eastern coalfield. All Kentucky coal is either bituminous or semi-bituminous, but of several varieties. Of cannel coal Kentucky is the largest producer in the Union, its output for 1902 being 65,317 short tons, and, according to state reports, for 1903, 72,856 tons (of which 46,314 tons were from Morgan county), and for 1904, 68,400 tons (of which 52,492 tons were from Morgan county); according to the Mineral Resources of the United States for 1907 (published by the United States Geological Survey) the production of Kentucky in 1907 of cannel coal (including 4650 tons of semi-cannel coal) was 77,733 tons, and exclusive of semi-cannel coal the output of Kentucky was much larger than that of any other state. Some of the coal mined in eastern Kentucky is an excellent steam producer, especially the Jellico coal of Whitley county, Kentucky, and of Campbell county, Tennessee. But with the exception of that mined in Hopkins and Bell counties, very little is fit for making coke; in 1880 the product was 4250 tons of coke (value $12,250), in 1890, 12,343 tons ($22,191); in 1900, 95,532 tons ($235,505); in 1902, 126,879 tons ($317,875), the maximum product up to 1906; and in 1907, 67,068 tons ($157,288). Coal was first mined in Kentucky in Laurel or Pulaski county in 1827; between 1829 and 1835 the annual output was from 2000 to 6000 tons; in 1840 it was 23,527 tons and in 1860 it was 285,760 tons.
Petroleum was discovered on Little Rennick’s Creek, near Burkesville, in Cumberland county, in 1829, when a flowing oil well (the “American well,” whose product was sold as “American oil” to heal rheumatism, burns, &c.) was struck by men boring for a “salt well,” and after a second discovery in the ’sixties at the mouth of Crocus Creek a small but steady amount of oil was got each year. Great pipe lines from Parkersburg, West Virginia, to Somerset, Pulaski county, and with branches to the Ragland, Barbourville and Prestonburg fields, had in 1902 a mileage of 275 m. The principal fields are in the “southern tier,” from Wayne to Allen county, including Barren county; farther east, Knox county, and Floyd and Knott counties; to the north-east the Ragland field in Bath and Rowan counties on the Licking river. In 1902 the petroleum produced in the state amounted to 248,950 barrels, valued at $172,837, a gain in quantity of 81.4% over 1901. Kentucky is the S.W. extreme of the natural gas region of the west flank of the Appalachian system; the greatest amount is found in Martin county in the east, and Breckinridge county in the north-west. The value of the state’s natural gas output increased from $38,993 in 1891 to $99,000 in 1896, $286,243 in 1900, $365,611 in 1902, and $380,176 in 1907.
Iron ore has been found in several counties, and an iron furnace was built in Bath county, in the N. E. part of the state, as early as 1791, but since 1860 this mineral has received little attention. In 1902 it was mined only in Bath, Lyon and Trigg counties, of which the total product was 71,006 long tons, valued at only $86,169; in 1904 only 35,000 tons were mined, valued at the mines at $35,000.
In 1898 there began an increased activity in the mining of fluorspar, and Crittenden, Fayette and Livingston counties produced in 1902, 29,030 tons (valued at $143,410) of this mineral, in 1903 30,835 tons (valued at $153,960) and in 1904 19,096 tons (valued at $111,499), amounts (and values) exceeding those produced in any other state for these years; but in 1907 the quantity (21,058 tons) was less than the output of Illinois. Lead and zinc are mined in small quantities near Marion in Crittenden county and elsewhere in connexion with mining for fluorspar; in 1907 the output was 75 tons of lead valued at $7950 and 358 tons of zinc valued at $42,244. Jefferson, Jessamine, Warren, Grayson and Caldwell counties have valuable quarries of an excellent light-coloured öolitic limestone, resembling the Bedford limestone of Indiana, and best known under the name of the finest variety, the “Bowling Green stone” of Warren county; and sandstones good for structural purposes are found in both coal regions, and especially in Rowan county. In 1907 the total value of limestone quarried in the state was $891,500, and of all stone, $1,002,450. Fire and pottery clay and cement rock also abound within the state. The value of clay products was $2,406,350 in 1905 (when Kentucky was tenth among the states) and was $2,611,364 in 1907 (when Kentucky was eleventh among the states). The manufacture of cement was begun in 1829 at Shippingport, a suburb of Louisville, whence the natural cement of Kentucky and Indiana, produced within a radius of 15 m. from Louisville, is called “Louisville cement.” In 1905 the value of natural cement manufactured in the state (according to the United States Geological Survey) was only $83,000. The manufacture of Portland cement is of greater importance.