134 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



over the State, some of them of a size and quality that have been found 

 acceptable even in the Liverpool market. 



The growth is scattered, the most of it being found near the Blue River, 

 not far from Seward. There the trees grow from twenty to forty-eight inches 

 in diameter, some of the logs cutting one thousand feet of lumber. 



The quality is all good and finds a ready market. The walnut lumber 

 company has just shipped to Liverpool three carloads of logs that have been cut 

 near Seward. 



In the early days of Kansas there were numerous black walnut trees of 

 immense size growing in the rich bottom lands bordering the Kansas, Marais 

 des Cygnes, and other rivers, undoubtedly planted by the Aborigines. 



The early settlers built many fences of solid logs of oak and walnut, not 

 taking the trouble to split them into rails. But walnut had no value at that 

 time, and the great prairies now so thickly settled were considered unin- 

 habitable. 



It seems that Europe now demands all the walnut obtainable, while other 

 more abundant woods have the run in American markets. 



The land owner who plants walnuts and takes care of them will have a 

 competency in old age which can not be assured by any of the life insurance 

 plans yet devised. 



A billion dollars can be added to the value of realty in the United States 

 by the systematic planting upon the waste lands of American farms, the wal- 

 nuts which go to waste in one year. 



Less than forty years ago the walnut, oak and other hard-wood trees 

 which had covered the rich lands of the Kansas River and other streams of the 

 State of Kansas, were cleared away entirely, the land having been farmed 

 continuously for many years. Yet to-day there are many walnut trees of from 

 six to eighteen inches thickness, mingled with the fringe of timber which has 

 grown up since that period. 



At Topeka, Lawrence, Junction City, and away out to the head waters of 

 the Kansas streams there are walnut trees which have been planted naturally 

 within the past few years. 



Usually these trees are in rather open woods or alone in fence corners, 

 and naturally they are short-bodied, but by proper care with systematic plant- 

 ing they would be tall and upright. 



For several hundred miles along the Union Pacific Railway, single trees 

 and groves of walnut are frequent ; scarcely a mile is traversed but they are 

 in evidence. At shipping time many carloads of these nuts could be secured 

 if proper efforts were made to save them. 



At Lawrence, Kan., a few days ago we saw quantities of walnut logs 

 being hewn preparatory to ship out to Europe. Foreign buyers have the 

 logs hewn or roughly squared for convenience of handling on steamships. 



