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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Gene GeRue wrote:
 Those trees are now about 25
> years old and most of them are ten to twelve inches in diameter. For  
> the best furniture wood I prefer a slow-growing tree with tight grain.  
> These are candidates but I will refrain from cutting them as long as  
> possible.

That is great news, Gene.  I was worried that it would be DS's wood 
instead of DH's.  The tree I am pulling from is a foot in diameter near 
the base.  It was planted about 20 years ago.

> If I were planting black walnuts I would plant them near a stream or  
> at least in a low area likely to have greater soil moisture. Most of  
> the trees at Heartwood are within a hundred feet of the stream or at  
> an elevation that means their tap roots are down into the side seepage  
> from the stream. Many trees are at the stream bank. The twelve above  
> are an exception and there are many other young ones planted the same  
> way. None are more than about thirty feet in elevation above the  
> stream level.

My tree is about 250 feet from the dry creek, but not more than 5 feet 
in elevation.    It makes sense to plant them near the creekline.  It is 
a dry creek, but the water is underground.


> The nut crop this year is very good.

In the almost an hour that I was out there, I have picked up over two 
hundred pounds of walnuts.  How many pounds of meat will that yield?  I 
only got the bottom branches-those that I could reach and shake, so I 
only 'cleaned' about a quarter of the tree at best.


--
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from 
the government and I'm here to help.'"  Ronald Reagan