The log cabin Democrat., 1909-11-12
RRES4RlYc J7LLlzo FoR YEMEER -SI

farm in eastern Jackson
 county, Kansas, hitched
 O his horse to the fence and
 climbed over into field where several big stumps protruded from the plowed earth He bent over the stumps and examined them close 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 half dozen trees in the walnut grove on his place that he would like to buy. They agreed upon price and then the stranger said:
 Now. I'll give you $10 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 blow or cor ner of his harrow had caught them He had an idea that the man who of fered to dig them out and give him s10 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 $500. 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 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 uable because of the wrinkles and burls and warts that ran through it The veneer sliced from 1t would have Q beautiful waving grain with birds eyes and all sorts of curious convolu- ttons. The more of these a veneer has the more valuable 1t is.
 l. lv,,,f rt,,y Tn o hundred that is worth anything to the veneer mills. There Is not one in thousand that is worth $500 And there is not one man in million who knows the value of stump by look ing at 1t in the ground. The men who do know this and who 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 50 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 tor lumber or frewood and the stumps remained to be dug up half century later and used to decorate some par Tor in a modern house.
 The men who cut these stumps into veneer do not always get them for 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 S200 and there is one for which the man who dug it out de- mands S300 This stump is nine feet fin diameter at the butt of the tree
 This mill has been saving walnut lumber for IS years. In that time it has cut 90.000,000 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- Der Is to be abandoned and the mill will cut only veneers. The reason is that nearly all the large walnut tim Der has been cut There is plenty Of small walnut timber in Missouri and Kansas. but 1t does not pay to cut it. 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 fine grain and takes the rich. black polish.
 Owing to the scarcity of big walnut