The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1909-11-05
PRER4RlNC JTLIHo FoR NEMEERe 40

III Iarm IN eastern JdChSoH
county. Kansas, hitched
his horse to the fence and
climbed over into field
where several big stumps protruded
from the plowed earth. He bent over
ohs stumps and examined them close
~ Then he crossed another fence
info 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
n price and then the stranger said:
Now, I'll give you SO more for
those three stumps in the plowed
gietd and will dig them out for you
md carry them away"
The farmer snapped at the propo-
zatiOn. For 40 years he had been
Di0wing around those massive stumps
and thousand times he had 'cussed"
vUaen the point of his pillow or cor
usr of his harrow had caught them.
kfe had an idea that the man who Of
Esrsd TO dig them out and give him
$40 into the bargain must be little
biE insane. but, anyway. he was glad
ca get rid of them.
a few days later three men came to
she farm and cut down the walnut
eTess and dug out the three old
stamps 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
EIng 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
aSumps will be trimmed and steamed
for hours and then fastened into a
veneer machine, where they will re-
~olve against the cutting edge of a
great knife that will slice off a thin
veneer as the stump turns.
This veneer will be used for cover
ing pianos, the finest kinds of furni-
SlTe and cabinet work, and the inside
finish of railroad cars.
This one stump was particularly val
uable because of the wrinkles and
bnrls and warts that ran through 1t.
The veneer sliced from 1t would have
"A beautiful waving grain with birds
eyes and all sorts of curious convolu-
lions. The more of these a veneer has
the more valuable 1t 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
shere is not one man In a million who
kuozs the value of a stump by look
Rnz at it in the ground. The men who
d0 know this and who spend their
tune looking for these stumps are
called CRUISERS" They drive all over
the states of Missouri and Kansas
locking for walnut timber and stumps
chat 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
eyes. Some of the most valuable
Efnmps are of trees that were cut SO
years ago by the pioneers of this
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 for
k1smber or firewood and the stumps
r@xaained to be dug up half century
Xzfssr and used to decorate some par
EOr In a modern house.
The men who cut these stumps into
veneer do not always get them for a
zrnzM price. Many farmers know
gheir value and demand it. In the
yard of the mill near Sheffield are
sfumps for which the owners paid
nom $50 to 5000 and there is one for
which the man who dug 1t out de
nands 5000 This stump is nine feet
IN diameter at the butt of the tree.
This mill has been saving walnut
amber for is years. In that time II
aaz cut 90,00O,000 feet of walnut lum
Der. the greater part of which has
.,een sent to Europe. But shipments
lave gone from here to Australia
Russia and China.
Now the saving of walnut into lum
ser Is to be abandoned and the mil
xfIY cut only veneers. The reason II
chz4 nearly all the large walnut tim
5xr has been cut. There is plenty o.
sznaH walnut timber in Missouri and
EaDsas, but 1t does not pay to cut it
he black heart is too small and the
white sap o of no value 1t is the
slack heart of the tree that has the
y1ne grain and takes the rich, blacl
polish.
Owing to the scarcity of big walnu