The Glenwood post., 1909-11-06
eRkE4RlNc J7U1ze roe NEMZER a:

county, Kansas, hitched
~ his horse to the fence and
climbed over into a field
where several big stumps protruded
from the plowed earth. He bent over
ly. Then he crossed another fence
Into another field and examined some
walnut trees that grew there.
A few minutes later he went to the
farmhouse and was talking to the
owner. He told the farmer that he
was buying walnut timber, and that
there were a half dozen trees in the
walnut grove on his place that he
would like to buy. They agreed upon
a price and then the stranger said:
Now. ri give you $40 more for
those three stumps in the plowed
field and will dig them out for you
and carry them away"
The farmer snapped at the propo-
sition. For 40 years he had been
blowing around those massive stumps
and thousand times he had "cussed"
when the point of his pillow or a cor
ner Of his harrow had caught them
fered to dig them out and give him
$40 into the bargain must be a little
bit insane. but. anyway. he was glad
to get rid of them.
A few days later three men came to
the farm and cut down the walnut
trees and dug out the three old
stumps and hauled them all away.
One Of those old stumps was worth
5000. The others were worth not
much more than the expense of dig
ging them up and hauling them to
Kansas City
The stumps came to the mill Of a
walnut corporation on the bank Of the
Blue river near Sheffield. There the
stumps will be trimmed and steamed
for hours and then fastened into a
veneer machine, where they will re-
volve against the cutting edge of a
great knife that will slice off thin
veneer as the stump turns.
This veneer will be used for cover
ing pianos. the finest kinds of furni-
ture and cabinet work, and the inside
finish of railroad cars.
This one stump was particularly val
burls and warts that ran through it..
The veneer sliced from it would have
a beautiful waving grain with birds
eyes and all sorts of curious convolu-
tions The more of these a veneer has
the more valuable it Is.
There is not one walnut stump In a
hundred that is worth anything to the
veneer mills. There is not one in a
thousand that is worth $500. And
there is not one man in a million who
knows the value of stump by look
ing at 1t in the ground. The men who
do know this and wko spend their
time looking for these stumps are
called cruisers" They drive all over
the states of Missouri and Kansas
looking for walnut timber and stumps
that are good for veneer.
The men who buy these stumps and
cut them say that stumps of young
trees are of no value. The best ones
are of trees centuries old. The more
aged and gnarled the tree the richer
the stump will be in burls and birds
eyes. Some of the most valuable
stumps are of trees that were cut SO
|
country. The best of them are found
along the rivers, where the lands were
too rough to be cultivated. From
these tracts the trees were cut tor
lumber or firewood and the stumps
remained to be dug up half century
later and used to decorate some par
lor in modern house.
The men who cut these stumps into
veneer do not always get them for a
small price. Many farmers know
their value and demand it. In the
yard of the mill near Sheffield are
stumps for which the owners paid
from $50 to 5000 and there is one for
which the man who dug 1t out de-
mands $500 This stump is nine feet
In diameter at the butt of the tree.
This mill has been saving walnut
lumber for is years. In that time it
has cut 9O,0OO,0O0 feet of walnut lum-
Der. the greater part of which has
been sent to Europe. But shipments
have gone from here to Australia,
Russia and China.
Now the saving of walnut into lum-
ber is to be abandoned and the mill
| Will CuI OAAy NShNSio. hc lcdbOu lS
that nearly all the large walnut tim
ber has been cut. There is plenty of
small walnut timber in Missouri and
Kansas, but 1t does not pay to cut 1t.
the black heart is too small and the
white sap Is Of no value. It is the
black heart Of the tree that has the
fne grain and takes the rich. black
polish.
owins to the scarcity Of big walnut