Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1894-02-08
Virginia Black Walnut.

Twelve carloads of black walnut
logs passed through Washington yes
terday. over the Richmond and Dan
Vile road, en- route to Philadelphia
These logs were consigned by Mr..
James Nichols. Of Wood Grove, Lou
doun county, Va, who is in the busi-
ness Of picking up black walnut trees
here and there in the mountains of
Virginia, near his home, and getting
them to market. Mr.. Nichols accom-
panied his logs to Philadelphia, and
while in Washington gave the reporter
some idea OF his interesting occupa-
ton.
BLACK walnut is worth twice a
much nowadays said Mr. Nichols,
''as it was ten years ago. The supply
is practically exhausted. Ten years
ago there was big quantity i'll sight
in Southern Indiana-great trees,
eighty feet high TO the first limb, and
from three to five feet in diameter
But all that is gone, and Missouri has
the only supply Of any considerable
amount. but that is melting away fast.
These logs OF mine come FROM the
woodlands on top OF the hatoctln
range. They are none Of them what
would be called fiTst-class. y few
years ago nobody would think OF
buying them. That, indeed, IL why
they are in my hands today. Thou
sands of just such loge have been cut
and used for hrewood 10y Virginia
farmers, and every little while | hear
nowadays OF some old backwoods
mossback who has burned up a $50
log in his 80 cookstove. That is a
thing to make you swear, but those
old fellows can't read or write. and
see few outsiders, so they do just as
they did fifty years ago.
Il found the other day a black wal
nut plank four feet wide nailed mp in
a Virginia barn, where it had been
for twenty years, waiting until It's
owner could get the SO or "a necessary
for getting it made up into q good
kitchen table. That plank, just as 1t
stood, was worth money enough TO
buy the old man four good cherr!
tables. tell you, it is hard TO hhd
four-foot black walnut logs in my
neighborhood now. Six years ago l
was travelling in the southern part OF
West Virginia, where saw some very
fine timber land. | asked the people
| met what land was worth around
there.
oh they said, it you go back
aways il can be had for fifty cents an
acre
II was through that way last sum
msr, and that same laEd, which | un-
luckily did not buy, was stripped OF
its heavy timber, and they were grub
bling out numerous black walnut
stumps, which, they told me, were
worth anywhere from $50 TO 500 for
the splendid sound curl veneerinS to
be cut from them.
These little logs that we ship from
the Katoctins will seldom square over
fourteen inches, but they are sound
and make q good quality Of lumber.
I nav about twelve cents square
foot in the log, the owner gruoolns
the tree out by the roots, according
to nv directions. II a tree will cut
into a log fourteen feet long 1t does
well. The farmers are glad TO get rio
OF them, for the black walnut IS not
much OF a shade tree. Nothing VIII
grow under il on account OF the pecu-
liar oid-li quality OF the tree, aud
there is hardly q tree that grows that
sends its limbs and roots further later
ally, SO that it despoils a good deal OF
land. ia farmer can, by e1pending
So worth OF labor, take out tree
that will bring him sl2 to Sl5, and
leave him soil enough to bring in "a
or s. hereafter in crops, why, he Is
making a good thing OF it. | get on
an average sl60 per 1000 feet for
black walnut | take TO market.
There is a good margin between
buying and selling, but the quantity
to be had is so limited that it Is not
safe or very profitable business TO he
engaged in. 1t would not pay me, OF
any one, to put my whole time into
IL.
And let me tell you this: II you
want to leave your children and
grand children fortune. buy som,
worthless mountain land aud plant
black walnuts. You CAM get thousand:
OF acres for 81 all acre in some part'
Of Virginia And West Virginia, and
| the waluuts are To be had in alIuos'
endless quantities every fall any w"er'
within forty or fifty miles Of Washing
ton. The tree really grows 70 IDLY
not withstaudiug its strong acid char
acter aud peculiarly dark, hriu grain
III YOU choose TO cut n tree fiiteei
years old you could make mone!
planting them for that length oi Iim-
1t is a good crop TO try. "-WasHlHgto'
Star.