+Black Walnut Has Great Value+
Of the nut tree group, the black walnut is one of the most important. It ranks among the first for lumber, furniture, cabinets, and finishing material. It has no rival in use for gun stocks and airplane propellers; as walnut wood is light, strong, will not get rough, but wears smoother with use. Neither will it splinter when pierced by a bullet. Walnut wood has been largely responsible, at times, for keeping us a nation of free people.
The black walnut tree is an aristocrat of forest and field. It can justly be proud, for no other tree can fill its place. As the late author A. H. Marks said, "Who has not noticed the look of contended usefulness which a nut-bearing tree wears? It is of use to the world and knows it."
Walnuts, like other species of trees, are not all alike, either as to nut production or in the grain of the wood.
+The Lamb Black Walnut+
Several years ago an unusually highly figured, and very valuable,
black walnut tree was discovered by Mr. George N. Lamb, then
Secretary-Treasurer of the American Walnut Manufacturers Association of
Chicago, Illinois.
When the logs from this tree came into the mill, and their value was realized, Mr. Lamb went to the place where the tree had grown. He secured some twigs from the branches of this top and sent these, as I have been informed, to Dr. Robert T. Morris and Mr. Willard G. Bixby, knowing of their interest in propagating better varieties of nut trees.
This wood had been taken from the top many days after the tree was felled, and so was dry and nearly dead. I believe Dr. Morris succeeded in getting only one graft to grow, and Mr. Bixby two. This variety was then named in honor of Mr. Lamb.
Several years later Mr. Bixby sent me a very small stick of graft wood from one of his trees, from which I made two grafts. One of them grew, giving me a start of this variety. I have annually propagated a few trees of it ever since, though with little encouragement, and even much discouragement from others, including State and U. S. Government authorities.
On one occasion I thought I practically had an order for a quantity of these Lamb walnut trees for a reforestation project. However, the prospective purchaser, before placing his final order, wrote to government authorities, then wrote me as follows: