210 



THE GARDENER'S MONTUL Y 



[July, 



ing from tht; Marysville Appeal, as to the ra- 

 pidity of tlieir growth, corresponds with our 

 own observation : "At the gunsmith shop of 

 B. Bigelow, may be seen some very beautiful 

 and valuable timber from English walnut trees 

 grown at the old Briggs' ranch, on Yuba river. 

 In 1858, Geo. Briggs planted the nuts and the 

 trees grew to be large and very prolfic in yield, 

 one being thirty-five inches in diameter at the 

 time of their destruction by the flood of 1875, 

 the roots being covered to such a depth by sand 

 that they ceased to leaf and were soon after cut 

 down and the body of the trees used. The an- 

 nual growth for the seventeen years is clearly 

 discernible by the rings or grain of the larger 

 pieces. Mr. Bigelow had the stumps grubbed 

 out a few months since and shipped by boat to 

 to the planing mills of D. A. McDonald & Co., 

 217 Spear Street, San Francisco. This mill has 

 the first and largest band saw manufactured on 

 on the Pacific coast, it being five inches wide 

 and forty-four feet long, and is perhaps the only 

 place where the stubber and tough wood could 

 have been worked up. Mr. Bigelow has now a 

 very large stock of the best of timber at a small 

 cost, and will use the most of it for the manu- 

 facture of gunstocks.' " 



OuK Future Timber Supply. — The Journal 

 of Commerce says : 



" The three States of Michigan, Wisconsin 

 and Minnesota are the only ones that have a 

 supply of timber beyond their own necessities, 

 and at present rate of consumption, their forests 

 are soon likely to be robbed of the riches which a 

 few years ago were tliought inexhaustible. At 

 the present rate of demand six years will ex- 

 haust the supply of wliite pine that these States 

 now afford. Many persons have relied upon the 

 forests of Canada after our own are entirely de- 

 spoiled, but the statement of experts go to 

 prove that Canada has not a sufficient quantity 

 to last us three years. In view of these facts, 

 it seems to be the bounden duty of our Legisla- 

 tures, both National and State, to take early 

 and active steps to preserve our forests from 

 useless destruction, and to encourage the growth 

 of new timber land." 



The great difficulty in all these suggestions 

 about " legislation " is that no one is able to tell 

 the Legislatures how to legislate to any advan- 

 tage. When the members of the Legislature 

 ask for this information they are generally told 

 "See how they do it in Europe." European 

 governments own the people. In America the 



people own the government, or are supposed so 

 to do. No one here wants tlie government to 

 go into the foresting business '' as they do in 

 Europe "—at least no one ought to want it. All 

 that is left is to encourage individual enterprize. 

 But this can best be done by the agricultural 

 papers. If there is to be no more white pine 

 " after six years," the one who has a few hund- 

 red acres of white pine will surely have a nice 

 little fortune, and the average "Yank" is not 

 slow to go into a fortune when it can be shown 

 to be surely before him. But the great trouble 

 is to make the capitalist believe there is this 

 "imminent scarcity." Let those who dread it 

 show that it is not mere vague apprehension, 

 but solid fact, and there will need very little 

 legislation to induce the people to go into the 

 forestry business. — Philadelphia Press. 



Black Walnut ; Important to the Cabi- 

 net Trade. — The N. W. Lumberman of Chi- 

 cago says : 



" There has been much said of late about the 

 rapid exhaustion of the supply of black walnut 

 timber in this country.* Sensational newspaper 

 writers and hard-fisted individuals having a little 

 walnut timber, for which they are anxious to 

 get as good a price as possible, have industri- 

 ously spread the report that about all of this 

 kind of wood has been consumed, and that the 

 supply remaining will not suffice for the require- 

 ments of a dozen years. It is declared that 

 black walnut trees are becoming almost as 

 scarce in Ohio and Indiana as date palms, and 

 that the time is near at hand, indeed, when the 

 most diligent searching will fail te disclose a 

 single specimen. While it is no doubt true that 

 the supply of walnut, like that of every other 

 commercial wood, is rapidly diminishing under 

 the constant and ever increasing industrial de- 

 mands of the country, we are inclined to be- 

 lieve that the end of it is still a long way off. 

 In conversation recently with a hardwood lum- 

 berman of very wide experience, this subject 

 was brought up, and he expressed the opinion 

 that there is no necessity for the present gener- 

 ation, at least, to become alarmed about the 

 stock of black walnut. 



There is no small amount still standing in Ohio 

 and Indiana in spite of all that is said about the 

 impossibility of finding it. Farmers and laud- 

 holders who came into possession of the timber 

 when it was comparatively valueless are hold- 

 ing it very much as they are their bank stocks 

 or Government bonds, if they have any, as a 



