HARDWOOD RECORD 



A Plea for the Young Walnuts. 



The time has now arrived when it is safe 

 to sa\' that the passing of the hewn export 

 walnut log is an evident fact. The logs 

 represented in the picture are a bunch of 

 eighty-five choice pieces of wood, running from 

 eighteen to thirty-two inches in diameter, 

 making an average of twent3'-three inches. 

 They were collected at considerable expense 

 from a territory thirty-five or forty miles in 

 extent, and shipped to the Hamburg market 

 about eighteen months ago. It would be a 

 diflBcult task to assemble such a collection of 

 logs again. The area of country that pro- 

 duces this variety of timber, though large, 

 has been scoured from center to circumfer- 

 ence by timbermen in search of walnut. They 

 have for years been selecting and picking out 

 the largest and best trees, adjusting the re- 

 quirements as to size and standard of logs to, 

 in a way, make them conform to the specifi- 

 cations of inspection rules. This accommo- 

 dating method of adjustment has now reached 

 the limit, as the logs have dwindled so' in 



tion with a large mill, and most of the small 

 dealers, who have been getting out export 

 walnut logs exclusively, are eliminated from 

 that branch of the business. 



The best of the walnut has been taken, to 

 such an extent that there is but little of the 

 good left. It was handled similar to the 

 manner iu which the company of soldiers 

 handled the farmer's zigzag string of fence. 

 On a certain wintry day, when the ther- 

 mometer registered considerably below zero, 

 and the bluecoats were shivering from the 

 cold, the captain realized that the temptation 

 io appropriate the well seasoned rails for 

 fuel would be too great for resistance, so he 

 gave orders that only the top rails should be 

 taken. Strange to say, this order was not 

 violated, and yet when they broke camp there 

 was little left but the ground chunks. 



I do not wish to convey the idea, however, 

 that the walnut business is about at an end 

 in America or that this noble timber will soon 

 become extinct, for such will not be the case. 



profit, should not be cut, from the fact that 

 they have just reached the point at which they 

 most rapidly increase in value. Very few of 

 these trees are large enough for shipment in 

 the log, but they are a tempting morsel to 

 the saw mill man who is hungry for walnut. 

 If the ax could only be withheld from this 

 walnut, and if left unmolested for a period 

 of at least twenty years, what a grand in- 

 heritance they would be for the next genera- 

 One of its most favorable features is that 

 it is mostly growing on lands that would 

 otherwise be comparatively non-productive of 

 wealth. As if by its own intelligence of a 

 proper sphere in which to locate itself, the 

 walnut seems not to encroach upon the realm 

 of the plow. It establishes itself along the 

 lanes and byways, or in nooks and corners of 

 the fields, not intruding upon lands desir- 

 able for agricultural purposes. It invitingly 

 reaches out its graceful limbs, and the sprays 

 of its beautiful foliage form shady spots 



BfNCH 



EXPORT WALN'I 



REAL>Y 



'MI 



measurement that no further attempt will 

 be made to form rules iii their favor. 



It is hardly possible for a shipper of wal- 

 nut to find a big log even occasionally, to 

 mix with his little stuff, to sweeten it up, 

 and make a small shipment of but a car load 

 or so, possible. Some dealers who have mills 

 and are buying large numbers of walnut logs, 

 have for several years been combining the 

 log and lumber business by holding out the 

 choice and most suitable logs for hewing, 

 probably finding on an average, about one 

 first class prime log to seventy-five or a hun- 

 dred. These have been nicely dressed and 

 prepared for export in the log, and brought 

 very attractive prices, but it was robbing 

 Peter to pay Paul, and the lumber piles suf- 

 fered, so this method is being abandoned, 

 and the passing of the export walnut log 

 will soon be complete. This way of handling 

 the business is not possible except in connec- 



Proper action will doubtless be taken before 

 such a lamentable condition could possibly 

 come about. It is only to the passing of the 

 hewn export logs that I refer. And as to 

 these I must say there is no special regret 

 attached to their disappearance. They have 

 not been cut before their time; as a rule, 

 only the older and fully matured trees were 

 taken. 



It is the waste and destruction of the 

 smaller trees that has set in, that most 

 grievously concern us now. There are 

 myriads of them, actually more clean, straight 

 bodied and thrifty young walnut trees scat- 

 tered all over the Mississippi valley states 

 now, than ever before; many times more 

 than iu all the rest of the world combined. 

 They range from the size of saplings, and I 

 might say from seedlings, to trees from ten 

 to sixteen inches in diameter, breast high. 

 These latter sizes, while they might yield a 



about the border of the fields, aud at the end 

 of the corn rows, where the plowman stops to 

 snatch a moment's rest, and breath of cool- 

 ness beneath it; and where the panting cat- 

 tle seek shelter from the summer sun. It 

 has taken up its abode along all the streams, 

 and in every secluded spot, and waste piece 

 of rich, though neglected overflow lands along 

 the bottoms. It has crowded its way into 

 these irregular shaped plots of ground, sur- 

 rounded by the many bends and crooks of 

 streams that follow a tortuous course through 

 the valleys. The lands have become set to a 

 stand of this indiginous growth of thrifty 

 l)lack walnut, and the aggregate of its area 

 would amount to milUons of acres. There is 

 no logical or any other reason why it should 

 be cut down before maturity, and wasted. It 

 is a foolish crime to do so, and it should be 

 prohibited by law. The land on which the 

 treos grow is not nwdcd. further than as 



