Dresden enterprise and Sharon tribune. (Dresden, Tenn.) 1907-1997, 1915-10-22
HUNT BLACK WALNUT
Demands of War Cause Short
age in Supply.
Is the Best Wood for Gun Stocks and
Experts Are Trying to Find Suit
able Substitute-Two Dying
Trees Sell at Top Price.

Washington.-Th European war has
caused a marked shortage in black
walnut for the manufacture of gun
stocks, and agents of gun manufac-
turers are securing the forests.
Recently two partly decayed black
walnut trees in the Arkansas National
forest, Arkansas, were sold at $40 per
1000 feet on the stump. This is the
highest price ever paid for any unfin'
ished hardwood so far as is known,
and certainly for any sold from ma,
tional forest.
The two Arkansas trees were in
splendid condition for manufacture in
the near future, being well cured.
Black walnut has long been recognized
as the best material for gun stocks.
The American pioneers made rife
stocks of maple, but in war times the
musket stocks were of black walnut.
AT a convention of gunsmiths held
in Atlanta, Ca, in August, 1861, the
consensus of opinion was that black
walnut was easily the superior of all
hard woods for gun manufacture, with
maple second and persimmon third. II
was held that gun stock material
should be air-dried for 20 years before
being used in construction.
During the Civil war walnut for
gun stocks was obtained both in the
North and South by purchasing miles
of fence rails, and by taking floors
and beams out of old barns and mills
where the wood had been seasoned
for a. quarter to a half century. The
toughness and durability of black
walnut is we'll known.
The forest service has record of a
roof of black walnut shingles in the
Shenandoah valley of Virginia that
has shed the rain successfully for "a
years. A black walnut beam used
in the construction of the famous
Alamo at San Antonio, Tex, was found
to be perfectly sound when the build
ing was restored in 1912 after a
period Of 125 years.
Apparently buyers have been about
as eager to find black walnut suitable
for immediate use in the manufacture
of gun stocks as they have been tc
purchase horses and mules suitable
for military use in Europe. Owing tC
the increasing scarcity of black wal
nut gunmakers have for some time
been experimenting with possible
substitutes.
It is understood that the forest
products laboratory at Madison, Wis,
is making tests of gun lumber, which
heretofore has been considered of q
rather low grade, as substitute fo'
walnut for gun stocks.
The laboratory also is conducting
experiments designed to develop &
substitute for teakwood as backing
for armor plate on the sides Of oul
great dreadnaughts and armored
cruisers.
The general public is not aware
that three-inch backing of teakwooG
lies behind every belt of armor, act
ing as a sort of cushion between the
armor and the steel hull proper. The
reason for this is that the back o.
the armor and the steel hull are boil
rough and do not meet exactly. The
backing Of lockwood serves to bring
the two more firmly together, The
protruding rough places on the stee
sinking into the wood.
Up to date no suitable substitute
for teakwood has been found. The
most promising is Port Oxford cedar
product of the Northern Pacific
coast. Teakwood is popularity re
garded as imperishable. The scien
lists are not very hopeful Of finding
a suitable substitute for it. There i:
some talk of making tests with diff
ferent varieties of hardwood from the
Philippine islands. So far only woods
found in continental United States
nave been used.
In addition to the laboratory tests
conducted in Madison, tests of the re
sistant qualities of different woods
when exposed to the action of sal
water between plates of armor ant
steel are being carried on in the Gull
of Mexico and off the Pacific coast.