Many Sorghum grasses are used as fodder and one, sorghum bicolor, is cultivated as a grain and is used to make sweet sorghum (molasses).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorghum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_sorghum
Maple trees grow across most of the US. Different species produce differing amounts and qualities of syrup.
From Wikipedia
Maple trees have many uses, from Wikipedia:
"Commercial uses
Maples are important as source of syrup and wood. Dried wood is often used for the smoking of food. Charcoal from maples is an integral part of the Lincoln County Process used to make Tennessee Whiskey. They are also cultivated as ornamental plants and have benefits for tourism and agriculture.
Maple syrup
The Sugar maple (A. saccharum) is tapped for sap, which is then boiled to produce maple syrup or made into maple sugar or maple taffy. It takes about 40 litres (42 US qt) of sugar maple sap to make 1 litre (1.1 US qt) of syrup. While any Acer species may be tapped for syrup, many do not have sufficient quantities of sugar to be commercially useful.
Timber
Some of the larger maple species have valuable timber, particularly Sugar maple in North America, and Sycamore maple in Europe. Sugar maple wood — often known as "hard maple" — is the wood of choice for bowling pins, bowling alley lanes, pool cue shafts, and butcher's blocks. Maple wood is also used for the manufacture of wooden baseball bats, though less often than ash or hickory due to the tendency of maple bats to shatter when broken. The maple bat was introduced to Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1998 by Sam Holman of Sam Bats. Today it is the standard maple bat most in use by professional baseball. Maple is also commonly used in archery as the core material in the limbs of a Recurve Bow due to its stiffness and strength.
Maple wood is often graded based on physical and aesthetic characteristics. The most common terminology includes the grading scale from common #2; which is unselected and often used for craft woods; common #1, used for commercial and residential buildings; clear; and select grade, which is sought for fine woodworking.
Some maple wood has a highly decorative wood grain, known as flame maple, quilt maple, birdseye maple and burl wood. This condition occurs randomly in individual trees of several species, and often cannot be detected until the wood has been sawn, though it is sometimes visible in the standing tree as a rippled pattern in the bark.
These select decorative wood pieces also have subcategories that further filter the aesthetic looks. Crotch Wood, Bees Wing, Cats Paw, Old Growth and Mottled are some terms used to describe the look of these decorative woods.
Maples have a long history of use for furniture production in the United States.
Tonewood
Maple is considered a tonewood, or a wood that carries sound waves well, and is used in numerous musical instruments. Maple is harder and has a brighter sound than Mahogany, which is another major tonewood used in instrument manufacture.
The back, sides, and neck of most violins, violas, cellos, and double basses are made from maple.
Electric guitar necks are commonly made from maple, having a brighter sound than rosewood. The necks of the Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster were originally an entirely maple one piece neck, but later were also available with rosewood fingerboards. Les Paul desired an all maple guitar, but due to the weight of maple, only the tops of Gibson's Les Paul guitars are made from carved maple, often using quilted or flamed maple tops. Due to its weight, very few solid body guitars are made entirely from maple, but many guitars have maple necks, tops or veneers.
Maple is also often used to make bassoons and sometimes for other woodwind instruments like maple recorders.
Many drums are made from maple. From the 70s to the 90s, maple drum kits were a vast majority of all drum kits made, but in recent years, Birch has become popular for drums once again. Some of the best drum-building companies use maple extensively throughout their mid-pro range. Maple drums are favored for their bright resonant sound.
Drum Sticks
Recently, maple has been used in drum sticks by Vic Firth®. The product line is called "American Heritage"® and the sticks have the same dimensions of the traditional hickory sticks. Currently, only 7A, 5A, and 5B sizes are made. (April 2014)
Agriculture
As they are a major source of pollen in early spring before many other plants have flowered, maples are important to the survival of honeybees that play a commercially important role later in the spring and summer.
Pulpwood
Maple is used as pulpwood. The fibers have relatively thick walls that prevents collapsing upon drying. This gives good bulk and opacity in paper. Maple also gives paper with good printing properties."
I went through the listing for trees in Tennessee to find what trees typically grow in West Tennessee and the Jackson Purchase area of Kentucky on Wikepedia. Two examples:
Oxydendrum arboreum - sourwood, sorrel tree - The leaves are a laxative. The shoots make excellent arrow shafts.
Pinus taeda - loblolly pine, bull pine, rosemary pine - This pine tree can reach a height of 30–35 m (98–115 ft) with a diameter of 0.4–1.5 m (1.3–4.9 ft). Exceptional specimens may reach 50 m (160 ft) tall. They are used for lumber, pulp and utility poles.
I have downloaded maps from the USGS that lists minerals processing and mines like the attached pdf. Unfortunately there is not a diversity of mineral deposits in West Tennessee. (If you trace north from the red bucket on the GA and SC border to a green bottle next to a gold and silver cross one finds a gold and silver mine in the eastern US.)