6 BULLETIN 933, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



(Hicoria minima) are typically found with walnut. Cottonwood is 

 exceedingly common along streams, but it is more frequently an in- 

 habitant of the bars and sandy banks of the large rivers than of the 

 deep, rich soils of the smaller stream bottoms where the walnut is 

 found. In Kansas, elm, hackberry, and walnut are constantly found 

 together in stands of varying composition as far south as the Ar- 

 kansas River, where a flora more characteristically southern, contain- 

 ing various oaks, makes up much of the valley forest. Wherever 

 Kentucky coffeetree, is found walnut is almost invariably present, 

 and this tree may be accepted as a trustworthy indicator of a site 

 suitable for black walnut. 



SUPPLY. 



The supply of black walnut has been reduced in much the same 

 way as that of all our hardwoods since the settlement of this coun- 

 try. Certain factors, however, notably the value of both the tree 

 itself and the soil it thrives on, have together induced a compara- 

 tively rapid decrease in the amount of black walnut, which never 

 was really abundant. Therefore we now have less of this than of 

 any other commercially important wood, with the exception of 

 cherry and, possibly, black locust. 



ESTIMATED STAND BY STATES. 



To make a definite statement in regard to walnut resources at this 

 time would be quite impossible, because the trees are so widely scat- 

 tered and so seldom found in any large quantity that authentic fig- 

 ures for even limited regions are difficult to obtain. The fact that 

 such large amounts came to light during the war has led to over- 

 optimistic estimates in many quarters, as a sort of reaction from 

 the unduly low estimates that were popular for many years before 

 the war. The best information at hand gives the present stand for 

 the country as 821 million feet, distributed among 28 States, as 

 shown in Table 1. Of this amount probably 50 per cent is inac- 

 cessible to the manufacturers, half of this on account of the unwill- 

 ingness of owners to sell at any price and half on account of the 

 excessive cost of getting the timber out from the remote valleys of 

 the southern Appalachians and Ozarks. Even at war prices hauls 

 of over 20 miles to railroads were very rare, and all timber farther 

 removed is virtually inaccessible. The remaining 50 per cent con- 

 sists of material generally smaller and of poorer quality than existed 

 in the older stands, and in the East it is very largely in the form 

 of scattered field and fence-corner trees and of shade trees about the 

 farm. 



