254 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in decadence, and which will not to-day bring five dollars an acre. Near some 

 large consuming centers timber has become scarce, and in prairie countries it 

 has to be planted. But there has really become a scarcity of black walnut, 

 and there is little danger of any one 'investing in a dead horse" who plants 

 it. When traveling through Indiana some weeks ago the writer saw some logs 

 that had brought $100 each. Even under the ordinary course of nature suck 

 logs could be produced in 40 years in an Indiana climate; but with a little 

 careful culture in infancy, such as one would give corn, we believe as good logs 

 could be had in half the time. Thousands on thousands of people flock to the 

 life insurance companies, paying perhaps from 8100 to $1,000 a year for the 

 future good of their families ; starving the present that the future may be 

 made rich, but which insurance would not yield anything like the sum ten 

 acres of black walnut would do, and without all the annual drain on the 

 family revenue. Mr. Nuttal says in the Sylva that the next neighbor to the 

 black walnut, the butternut, yields as much sugar as the sugar maple. We 

 have never heard of any further experiments in this direction than those quoted 

 by Mr. Nuttal. 



The above is culled from the Gardeners' Monthly and the editor asks for 

 information as to whether further experiments have ever been tried with the 

 butternut as a sugar producer. 



PLANT BLACK WALNUT. 



The Boston Furniture Exchange, at a meeting the other day, announced an 

 advance of from 10 to 15 per cent in the price of black walnut furniture. The 

 advance was based on information that the great demand for furniture of this 

 kind since the war had made such great inroads on the black walnut forests of 

 Indiana, our main source of supply, that the supply there had begun to fail. 

 Everywhere prices for this timber arc rising. From $75 to $80 a thousand in 

 1874, the price has already gone up to from 890 to $125 a thousand, according 

 to size and quality. Next to oak and hickory, black walnut used to be the 

 commonest tree in the State of Illinois, but the State of Illinois is now almost 

 destitute of black walnut, and attention is being directed to other sources of 

 supply, especially to Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. A black walnut 

 tree will grow to sawing size sooner than a pine ; and to-day in our markets it 

 is quoted at three times the price of pine. In view, then, of the ease with 

 which it can be propagated, its rapid growth, the high value of its timber, and 

 the certainty of a constant and profitable demand, why is it not more exten- 

 sively planted? In this as in other cases, we are living on our timber capital 

 instead of on the interest of it. 



TIMBER TO LAST. 



A question has arisen anioung our western tree planters whether a tree of 

 rapid growth, laying on a thick grain of wood each year, will last as long as 

 one of slower growth. The question arose by the catalpa (sjjeciosa) being a 

 very fast-growing tree here; it was thought that it would not last as long as 

 those grown in their native woods. But the evidence fails in this case, for 



