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The Prospect for Walnut Supply 



The prominence which black walnut has lately attained has caused 

 inquiries concerning supplies to meet present and future demand. 

 There has not yet been any trouble in meeting demand as it has 

 come: but persons who expect the call for this wood to increase in 

 the future have been looking ahead to discover whether a larger 

 demand could be met. 



Xo one knows just how much standing walnut of merchantable size 

 and grade is in the country. It is certain that this tree is much 

 scarcer than it once was, though it is not certain that it is becoming 

 scarcer from year to year, but 

 such is probably the ease. The 

 tree is not marketable until it 

 has attained considerable age, be- 

 cause its value lies in heartwood 

 and this is poorly developed in 

 trunks which have not a good 

 many years to their credit. For 

 that reason young walnuts of 

 rapid growth are not an imme- 

 diate asset, though size may be 

 satisfactory. 



Black walnut 's natural range 

 embraces not less than 600,000 

 square miles, from New York to 

 Texas. The annual drain upon 

 it is usually placed at 50,000,000 

 feet, including lumber, veneer, ^ 

 and export stuff; but it is diffi- 

 cult to show this by itemized fig- 

 ures, because it cannot be ascer- 

 tained how much walnut is 

 counted twice in reaching the 

 fifty million total. The Forest 

 Service was able to find only 

 23,988,346 feet of black walnut a 

 year used for manufacturing pur- 

 poses in the United States. This 

 included veneer as well as lumber, 

 but did not include any lumber 

 used in its rough form. It is 

 certain that not much is used as 

 rough lumber. 



W.AixuT Semi-Domestic 



Black walnut was once an ab- 

 solutely wild tree, confined 

 wholly to forests, but its habits 

 underwent a modification as the 

 country became settled. It was 

 one of a few trees which showed 

 a disposition to become domesti- 

 cated. As fields replaced woods, 

 the walnut became more and 

 more conspicuous in the open 

 ground, along fence rows, in the 



corners of pastures, and even in door yards. Some were wild trees 

 left standing when the thickets were cleared, others were planted on 

 purpose or by chance. The nuts which the tree bears have always 

 been etseemed, and have been the saving grace in many instances 

 which preserved it when forest associates of other species were 

 destroyed. 



A radical change in rate of growth occurs when the black walnut 

 emerges from forest conditions and takes its place in open ground. 

 ■When shaded and crowded, its rate is slow, and forest-grown trunks 

 of large size are usually very old; but in the full light of open ground, 

 where the roots are permitted to spread freely through good soil, the 

 growth rate is rapid and trunks quickly increase to large size. 



During early life, however, the tree in the open does not increase 

 in value proportionately as it grows in diameter, because heartwood 

 forms slowly, and the "sudden sawlog" of black walnut is apt to be 

 principally sapwood which, on account of its white color, is not valued 

 highly by the woodworking factory. Years are required to change the 

 sapwood into heart, and when the transformation has finally occurred, 

 the pasture field walnut is as valuable as that grown in the wilderness, 

 except that it may be shorter of trunk, and that may be compensated 

 for by more desirable figure. 



X.\TUR.*L TiMBEB 



no statistics are 



irOW M-\X PL.\NTS BL.\CK W.\LNCT. THE T.\LL SHAPKLY 

 TRUNKS PROMISE CIJ:aR LUMBER IX YEARS TO COME. FARM 

 OF R. I.. OGG, HANXOCK COUNTY, INDIANA. 



Planted and 

 Apparently 

 available which give the quantity 

 of planted black walnut now 

 growing in this country. The 

 acreage is considerable and is dis- 

 persed through several states, 

 some of which are not included 

 in this tree's natural habitat. In 

 California, for example, the tree 

 grows rapidly in situations where 

 the soil is sufficiently damp; but 

 the nuts are so valuable, and the 

 trees produce such abundant 

 crops, that no one cuts the 

 groves for lumber, and the grain, 

 color, and figure of the wood 

 have not been described in re- 

 ports. 



.\s the walnut shall become 

 more domestic and less a product 

 of the wild forest, it is not im- 

 probable that the desire to save 

 it for its nuts will become a pow- 

 erful factor in reducing the sup- 

 ply of walnut lumber. The fruit 

 will be worth more than the saw- 

 logs which may be cut from the 

 trunk. Apparently, age sets no 

 limit on the productiveness of the 

 walnut tree. Of course, a time 

 comes in the existence of all trees 

 when they must cease their ac- 

 tivities; and at that period the 

 domestic black walnut may be ex- 

 pected to go to the sawmill. It 

 should not be expected, however, 

 that young walnut trees, with lit- 

 tle heart and much sap, will be 

 cut in large quantities, because it 

 will not be profitable to do so. 

 The black walnut is a tree which 

 depends largely upon age for the 

 value of its wood. Rapidity of 

 growth, though in itself a desir- 



able asset, cannot wholly take the place of the value due to age. 



The Massachusetts Forestry Association offers as a prize the plant- 

 ing of fifty acres of white pine to the town which gains first place in 

 a contest for town forests. 



The Boise national forest in Idaho had thirty fires during the past 

 summer, yet twenty-eight were held down to less than ten acres, and 

 of these fifteen were less than one-quarter of an acre. The supervisor 

 says this success was due to a lookout tower and to efficient telephone 

 and heliograph service. 



