The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1910-03-24
Fortune in Old Walnut Stumps

One day last week man in a buggy
stopped at farm in Eastern Jackson
county, hitched his horse to the fence
ana climbed over into a field where
several big stumps protruded from the
plowed earth. He bent over the
stumps and examined them closely.
says the Kansas City Star Then he
crossed another fence into another
Held 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
price and then the stranger said:
NOW, I'll 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 PROPOSE
ton, For forty years he had been
plowing around those massive stumps
and a thousand times he had "cussed"
when the point of his pillow or a corner
OF his harrow had caught in them. He
had an idea that the man who offered
TO hig them out and give him $40 into
the bargain must be a little bit in
sane, but, anyway, he was glad to get
rid Of them.
One of those old stumps was worth
$500, The others were worth not
much more than the expense Of dig.
g1ng them up and hauling them to
Kansas City.
Made Into Fine Veneer.
The s;umps came to the mill Of the
Penrod Walnut Corporation, on the
bank Of the Blue river, near Sheffield
There the stumps will be trimmed
and steamed for hours and then fast
ened into veneer machine, where they
viii revolve against the cutting edges
OF a great knife that will slice OFF a
thin veneer as the stump turns. This
veneer will be used for covering pianos,
the finest kinds OF furniture and cab
met work and the inside finish Of Pull
man cars.
This one stump was particularly val
liable because of the wrinkles and
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-
tons, 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
a thousand that is worth $780, And
there is not one man in a million who
knows the value Of stump by looking
at it 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.
Only Old Trees Are Used.
The men who buy these stumps and
cut them say that stumps Of young
trees are of no value. The best ones
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 fifty years ago
by the pioneers Of this country. The
best of them are found along the riv-
ers, where the lands were too rough
to be cultivated. From these tracts
the trees were cut for lumber or fire
wood an& the stumps remain to be
dug up a half century later and used
to decorate some parlor in a 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 it out demands $500.
This stump is nine feet in diameter at
the butt of the tree.
TI,is Mill hor ham coutiro y,,oIp,,t