This is one of the walnut plantations cut for gun stock material. I put this in to show you how the buyers cut the trees down, and measure off the logs to get the best grade of material. They aren't interested so much in volume as in lumber. They want the best grade of wood, and they want it in that butt log.
I put these in to show poor quality logs that weren't worth taking. This is an open pasture grown tree. No care or attention given it, so the limbs stayed on and grew quite large.
This shows how they load logs with a tractor and chain. This "cross haul" is a trick of the logger's trade. This is the improper way. The tractor was broken down so it took five or six men to load it because they didn't have the tractor. There are some good logs and here are some poor logs.
This is a group of logs, at a railroad siding. Some look small, but at that time—with the market as it was—they could use the smaller logs. You see some of nice length, good form and free of defects. I mentioned metal. Here's a man with an Army mine detector. They tried them out to locate metal. This company uses this mine detector to test all logs for metal content.
Here's what happens. The metal discolors or stains the wood. This tree probably grew in a fence line. The buyers are just a little reluctant to buy them. If they do they cut them off this high so they are pretty sure all fence wire is left in the stump portion.
In this grove of walnut a wire is nailed on every tree. Such a practice ruins the tree.
This shows wasteful practice. This small mill in southern Illinois was buying these short bolts cut from small trees. Be careful that you don't sell trees that are too small and too young. It is like, I suppose, harvesting your walnuts before the kernel develops.
This is the result of fire. That log, from outside appearance, didn't have a blemish. Loggers left this part because it was hollow. The infection developed from a fire scar and rotted out the inside.
This shows the same thing. Fire scarred. Bumping machines used to harvest the nut crop or any defect or injury may result in something like this and decrease the tree's value for timber.
I mentioned hickory. Here are some single-trees that are made out of pecan. Hickory is also used. Hickory grows to a commercial size in southern Illinois but in most states it is too small and knotty. One time the Peoria office of the WPB got a release from Washington indicating that hickory was needed for axe handles. They released it to the newspapers. We answered letters for a month after that. Farmers who had hickory they wanted to sell had to be told that there wasn't enough hickory involved to make it commercially possible to market. In addition, there wasn't a single handle mill in the state at that time.