The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-08
WALNUT TIMBER.
Tree Hunters Making Fortunes in
Kentucky.


Kentucky.
Ashland Correspondence Cincinnati Fri
bune-
The recent placing of an extensive con-
tract for the supply of walnut logs and
high-grade lumber to Hamburg Ger
many manufacturers by a local lumber
firm has In manner revived the waning
interest in this famous wood that dozen
years ago was being searched for through
out all the mountains of Eastern Ken
lucky and the adjoining territory of Vir-
ginia, West Virginia and Tennessee. The
supply in these states is by no means ex-
hausted, but the slowing up that has
been felt in the demand for several years
has caused a cessation of the old-tlme,
energetic activity.
When, thirty years ago, the walnut
craze was sweeping over the country the
supply in the Kentucky mountains ap-
peared unlimited but with the reckless
methods employed by the woodsmen and
induced by the general plentitude of the
trees, there was soon made apparent the
fact that care must be exercised in this
work. as well as any other. At the OUT
set only the choicest trees were cut. That
this was mistake was shown later, as
the prices still advanced until doubleethe
were cut. and RATS come out of the Big
Sandy every season yet that will not aver
age more than twelve inches in diameter
| of each log.
FINALLY in the sections of easiest access
| to the river the timber was all cut off
| and then for the first time came the real
| difficult work of securing the timber. AS
| the timber became scarcer the price rose
| correspondingly, and many men picked
| up neat fortunes in getting out the stumps
| of the trees that had been cut years be-
| fore and selling them to the veneer mill
/ companies of the east. Some of the finest
! figured wood or curly walnut was found
in these stumps, and the high estimate of
| this peculiar feature to a large extent
came too late for the pioneer dealers, as
| their finest trees of this sort had been
disposed of without respect to the UNI
| usual properties of the grain, and had in
many cases been worked up by the manu-
| fcturers in the same blissful ignorance.
Before the demand arose for the wood
walnut was especially sought by the Big
| Sandy rail splitters as the most saatis-
| factory timber for rail making. 1t was
not difficult to work, and in lasting quail
tiles it was practically unequaled. Hum
dreds of thousands of dollars worth of
fine walnut has been wasted in the Big
Sandy valley alone in raflfence making.
But there is no more of it worked up
in this manner. The top limbs of many
an old tree cut years ago have recently
been sought out in the accumulated waste
heaps of the mountain holloWs and sold
| to dimension mill men who can work up
the smallest bits of the wood. The stumps
have all been uprooted and j. n. Valley
of Jersey City, N. j., alone has handled
thousands of them to eastern veneer
works in the past fifteen years, and found
the business a paying one. Dozens of
others have given attention to the work
on smaller scale, but with pleasing re-
suits
Had such a condition been preached at
the outset of the fad for walnut furniture
the idea would have been hooted as utterly
ridiculous. Then only the choicest trees
were deemed of sufficient value to handle
to oVer-the-ocean points, mainly in Eng
land, Germany and France. The logs were
hewn with four square faces on the same
principle as at present, the idea being to
rid them of the sap and thus escape the
payment of dead freight, and cut into
lengths ranging from 20 to 80 feet. Very
often 40-foot longs were shipped without
| cutting.
While the foreign demand is still an i'm
portant feature in the timber business, es-
pecially in walnut, there has been a de-
| cided decrease, while the price has fallen
also. The penchant for carved work in
Germany and France has kept up the de-
mand more than any other feature, as they
|
nit of this, while in America the veneer
is used largely for a foundation Of infer
ior and in many instances very ordinary
wood with satisfactory results. American
made desks and side-boards are veneered
wherever possible, while foreign-made fur
niture is almost universally of the solid
wood. This accounts for the foreign orders
for sawed walnut always calling for thick
ness ranging from one to four inches.
Prices of logs range according to the d.
ameter of the stick, recent quotations al
New York city, placing the price per foot
Scribner's measure, at $27 per NJ. logs aver
aging 1S inches while diameter of 30 inches
and up brought $S5 per M. board measure
These prices are not a circumstance Ia
what was paid twenty years ago. There
are still varieties Of walnut, however, that
bring handsome returns, the figured wood
or curly walnut being valued according
to the beauty of the figure and its extent
in the log. Burl knots, from which the fine
birdeye veneers are cut, bring almost their
weight in coin of the realm, selling alto
gether by the pound instead of the foot
as with the more ordinary material. Speci-
mems of this sort have been bought in the
Big Sandy Valley for a few dollars and
sold for the foundation of a fortune to the
eastern veneer companies.
The scouting for valuable trees Is a bust
ness that requires no small tact and q
thorough experience in walnut timber
There are dozen or more men scattered
throughout the Kentucky and West Vr.
ginia hills who do nothing but look ur
black walnut trees Of more than ordinary
promise one of these men has accumu.
lated fortune of $4,000 in the past nine
years at this work alone. AS an example
of the profits may be cited an instance
Of three years ago, when he brought oul
Of the Big Sandy river a single tree OF
figured walnut at a cost all told of $50
when in the millyard at Catlettsburg, and
sold It within a week to a New York We.
neer mill for trihe more than 5000.
Down along the state line I'm Bell
Whitley and Harlan counties. the large
coal companies that control hundreds OF
thousands Of acres of territory have for
several years been planting walnuts in
quantity with the intention of allowing the
lands to grow up into veritable walnut