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



Louisiana, Mississippi^ and Alabama. — In Louisiana walnut is not 

 found in the pine type and is rare in the alluvial bottom-land type — 

 the two types which comprise by much the greater part of the forest 

 area ; but commercial amounts are sometimes found in the Red River 

 Valley, in the northwestern corner of the State. In Mississippi wal- 

 nut is widely scattered through the extensive alluvial bottom hard- 

 wood type, but is so scarce that shipments of logs from any part of 

 the State are rare. Alabama has never figured as a walnut-producing 

 State, most of this species being found in the northeastern part, in the 

 valleys of the Tennessee and Coosa Rivers. 



FUTURE SUPPLIES. 



The future supply of walnut can not well be inferred from any 

 statement of the present stand of merchantable timber, because in 

 such a statement immature trees are not considered. An estimate of 

 the average annual yield is much more expressive of what may be 

 expected in the future. Previous to the war the average annual cut 

 probably ran between 40 and 50 million board feet a year, and those 

 most familiar with the situation believed that this represented fairly 

 well the cut that might be sustained continuously. This was borne 

 out by the discovery during the war that the country actually had 

 much more merchantable walnut than anybody supposed, although 

 the increase was due in part to closer utilization and the release, as 

 an act of patriotism, of supplies not usually on the commercial 

 market. The war cut heavily into the growing stock, however, and 

 the yield for some j^ears will be reduced. Nevertheless, if the amount 

 of young growth is in normal proportion to the older trees there is 

 no reason why the old sustained yield of 40 to 50 million board feet 

 should not be resumed. 



An estimate of the amount of immature timber is even more dim- 

 cult to make than an estimate of the merchantable stuff. Among 

 those informed, the opinion is common that in most of its range there 

 is an abundance of young walnut down to 6 or 8 inches in diameter. 

 There is an astonishing lack of reproduction below this size, except 

 in the upper Ohio and eastern region. The trees now rated as un- 

 merchantable — and this is particularly true in the western part — 

 are, as a rule, not thrifty young trees, but older growth that has been 

 suppressed and stunted, though still capable of recovery and of de- 

 velopment into saw timber. From this source there is a fair assur- 

 ance of a moderate supply of black walnut for, perhaps, 30 years, 

 comparable in amount to the walnut cut during the 20 years before 

 the war. If a great war should occur during the next 30 years much 

 difficulty would be experienced in securing desirable amounts of 

 walnut. It is too late now to provide for any material increase in 



