People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1894-03-23
BLACK WALNUT.
Wright. Producing Limited Quantinty
ta.s q" Of This Valuable Timber

~. OF This Valuable Timber
) hBlack walnut Is worth twice as
much nowadays" said Mr.. Nichols,
''as it was ten years ago The sup
ply Is practically exhausted. Ten
years ago there was a big quantity
in sight in Southern Indiana-great
trees, eighty feet to the first limb,
and from three TO FIVE feet in diane
ter. But all that is gone and Mis-
souri, has the only supply Of any con-
siderable amount, and that is melting
away fast These logs OF mine come
from the woodland on top of the
Katoctin range. They are none Of
them what would be called frst-class.
A lew years ago nobody would think
OF buying them. That, indeed, is
why they are in my hands to-day.
Thousands of just such logs have
been cut and used for fire wood by
Virginia farmers, and every little
while hear nowadays Of some old
backwoods mossback who has burned
up ffty-dollar log in his two-dollar
cook stove. That is thing to make
you swear, but those old fellows
can't read or write and see few out
siders, so they do just as they did
fifty years ago 49,
81 found the other day a black
walnut plank four feet wide nailed
up in a Virginia barn, where it had
been for twenty years, waiting until
its owner could get the IS or 81 nec-
essary to pay for getting it made up
in good kitchen table. That plank,
just as it stood. was worth money
enough to buy the old man four good
cherry tables. | tell you it is hard
to find four-foot black walnut logs in
my neighborhood now. Six years
ago | was travelling in the South
western part of West Virginia, where
saw some very fine timber land.
asked the people met what land was
worth around there.
"'Oh, they said, If you 90 back
Always it can be bought for fifty
cents an acre.
81 was through that way last sum-
mer, and that same land, which I'M
luckily did not buy, YVES stripped of
its heavy timber, and they were
grubbing out numerous black wal
nut stumps, which they told me were
worth anywhere from $50 to 500
for the splendid souno burl vcneering
to be cut from them.
"These little logs that we ship
from the Katoctlns will seldom square
over fourteen inches, but they are
sound and make a good quality of
lumber. pay about twelve cents a
square foot in the log, the owner
grubbing the tree out Ly the roots,
according to my directions. II a
tree will cut into a log fourteen
feet long it does well. The farmers
are glad to get rid Of them, for the
black walnut is not much of a shade
tree. Nothing will grow under it on
account OF the peculiar acid-like
quality OF the tree, and there is
hardly a tree that grows that sends
its roots and limbs further laterally.
so that it bespoils a good deal Of
land IL farmer can, by expanding
50 worth of labor, take out a tree
that will bring him $l2 to Sl5, and
leave him soil enough to bring in
IS or s. hereafter in crops, why, he
is making a good thing of it. | get
on an average $3.50 per 1000 feet for
the black walnut take to market,
There is good margin between buy
ing and selling, but the quantity to
be had is so limited that it is not a
safe or very profitable business to be
engaged in. 1t would not pay me, or
anyone, to put my whole time into it.
And let me tell you this: II you
want to leave your children and
grandchildren a fortune, buy some
worthless mountain land and plant
black walnuts. You can get thou
sands of acres for 81 an acre in some
parts OF Virginia and West Virginia,
and the walnuts are to be had in
almost endless quantities every fall
anywhere within forty or fifty miles
of Washington. The tree really
grows rapidly, Notwithstanding its
strong acid character and peculiarly
dark, firm grain. II you choose to
cut a tree fifteen years old you could
make money planting for that length
Of time. It's q good crop to try.n