BLACK WALNUT: ITS GROWTH AND MANAGEMENT. 



17 



of the forest canopy. 

 The greater merchant- 

 able length, the more 

 slender and more grad- 

 ually tapering stems, and 

 the smaller, more re- 

 stricted crowns of forest- 

 grown trees are in con- 

 spicuous contrast to the short, thick, rapidly 

 tapering trunks and full crown of trees 

 grown in the open. Of two neighboring 

 trees measured in Indiana — one a field and 

 the other a forest tree — the former 

 of rapid taper and low branches, had only 

 about 15 feet of merchantable length, but 

 the latter had nearly 30 feet. Forest-grown 

 trees near Fort Wayne, which measured from 

 30 to 35 inches in diameter, breast high, had 

 from 64 to 72 feet of merchantable length. 



It is very characteristic of walnut, both in 

 the open and in the forest, for the main trunk 

 to break up within a few feet of the lowest 

 limbs into a number of large branches, no one 

 of which appears to be the leader. 



TWIGS. 



A characteristic feature of the twigs, by 

 which black walnut and butternut may be dis- 

 tinguished from other trees, is the way in 

 which the pith is divided by thin diaphragms 

 into spaces or chambers. The pith of black 

 walnut is of a pale buff Color, but that of but- 

 ternut is dark brown. 



ROOTS. 



The root system of black walnut is deep 

 seated and characterized by a marked tap- 

 root. This is well defined even during the 

 irst year of the seedling. Later the tree 

 irows out prominent lateral roots. 



BARK. 



The bark of black walnut is one of the most 

 variable features of the tree, the differences 

 )eing caused largely by different rates of 

 19340°— 21 3 



Fig. 4. — Black walnut seed- 

 ling from a brushy site, 

 at beginning of third 

 year of growth. 



