240 TREES OF MINNESOTA. 



and elsewhere. In good locations the young trees grow rap- 

 idly, and soon make good, durable fence posts or nut-bearing 

 trees. It is one of the most valuable woods found in America, 

 and is largely used in cabinet making, interior finishing, floor- 

 ing, gun stocks, furniture, saw handles, veneering, and for- 

 merly in boat building and for fence rails and posts, for which 

 it was highly esteemed. It is used in the making of school 

 apparatus, artists' goods, billiard tables, carpet sweepers, clock 

 cases, butter and lunch plates. This timber is now very scarce. 

 The nuts are much sought for, and find ready sale. They are 

 oily, and have a sweet, pleasant taste, but become rancid with 

 age. The husks are used for dyeing, and the leaves are sup- 

 posed to possess medical properties. It was formerly believed 

 that this tree could be grown at a profit for its valuable timber, 

 but it has been found that the wood does not take on its dark, 

 rich, even color until very old, but remains for many years a 

 mixture of yellow and brown; hence its cultivation for timber 

 has not proved so profitable as was expected. It will, however, 

 make board timber in about twenty-five years. 



Juglans cinerea. Butternut. 



Leaves fifteen to thirty inches long; leaflets eleven to nine- 

 teen, oblong, lanceolate, pubescent, especially underneath; peti- 

 oles and branchlets clammy pubescent. Fruit two to three 

 inches long, very clammy pubescent, of a rather pleasant odor 

 when fresh, oblong, pointed, two-celled at the base; nut shell 

 deeply and irregularly furrowed with rough, ragged ridges; 

 embryo very rich in oil and of a delicious flavor. A tree occa- 

 sionally 100 feet high and three feet in diameter in forests, but 

 generally much smaller. Where it grows in the open it forms 

 an immense spreading top. 



Distribution. From the valley of the St. Lawrence river to 

 Eastern Dakota, southward to Northern Georgia and Northeast- 

 ern Arkansas. Not common south of the Ohio river. In Min- 

 nesota common in the southern part except far southwest, 

 extends north to Aitkin county, where trees have been found 

 two feet or more in diameter. 



Propagation. Same as for Black Walnut. 



Properties of Wood. Light, soft, not strong, rather coarse 

 grained, easily worked, with a satiny surface capable of receiving 



