68 
BLACK WALNUT. 
tiful ; but as its color soon changes to a dusky hue, the Wild Cherry wood 
is frequently preferred for this use. The Black Walnut is also employed 
for musket stocks ; it is stronger and tougher than the Red-flowering Maple, 
which, from its superior lightness and elegance, is chosen for fowling 
pieces. In Virginia, posts ar'e very commonly made of Black Walnut, and 
as it lasts undecayed in the ground from twenty to twenty-five years, it 
appears every way fit for this, purpose. I have been assured that it makes 
excellent naves for wheels, which further proves its strength and durability. 
At Philadelphia, coffins are very frequently made of it. 
The timber of this tree is also excellently adapted to certain uses in 
Naval Architecture. It should never be wrought till it is perfectly seas- 
oned, after which it is asserted to be more durable, though more brittle, 
than the White Oak. Brecke], in his History of North Carolina, affirms 
that it is not liable, like the Oak, to be attacked by sea-wornis in warm 
latitudes. This advantage, if it is real, is highly important, and deserves 
to be ascertained by further observation. In the marine lumber yards of 
Philadelphia, I have often seen it used for knees and floor timber ; but in 
the vessels built at Wheeling and Marietta, towns on the Ohio, it consti- 
tutes a principal part of the frame. On the river Wabash, canoes are made 
of it which are greatly esteemed for strength and durability. Some of 
them fashioned from the trunk of a single tree, are more than 40 feet long, 
and 2 or 3 feet wide. 
The Black Walnut is exported in small quantities to England in planks 
of 2 inches in thickness : which are sold at Philadelphia at four cents a 
foot.* 
The husk of the fruit yields a color similar to that which is obtained 
from the European Walnut. It is used in the country for dying woolen 
stuffs. 
This tree has long since been introduced, in England and France, into 
the gardens of the lovers of foreign culture. It succeeds perfectly and 
yields fruit abundantly. Though differing widely from the European 
species, it bears a nearer resemblance to it than any other American Wal- 
nut. By comparing the two species as to their utility in the arts and in 
commerce, it will appear that the wood of the Black Walnut is more com- 
pact, heavier and much stronger ; that it is susceptible of a finer polish, 
and that it is not injured by worms ; qualities which, as has been seen, 
render it fit not only for the same uses with ours, but also for the larger 
works of architecture. These considerations sufficiently evince that it is 
a valuable tree, and that it is with great reason, that many proprietors in 
* [The demand for Walnut wood in the Atlantic cities, and the want of attention to its culti- 
vation, have since made it necessary for the cabinet makers, &c., to import from the west the 
greater portion of their supplies. This resource must fail intime, and the wood may not impro- 
bably become nearly as costly as Mahogany, which it resembles in many of its properties.] 
