Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1881 — Profit in Black Walnuts. [ARTICLE]

Profit in Black Walnuts.

The smartest Texan, and, in fact, the smartest farmer, I have ever met, is old Sim Graves, who lives on a 1,000-acre farm west of Waxahatchie, in Central Texas. After Mr. Graves had shown me his cattle and cotton, he took me over to see his woods. “Well, what of it?” I said, as he pointed to a ten-acre forest. “‘What of it?’ Why, them’s black walnuts, sir. Ten acres of ’em. Planted ’em myself ten years ago. See, they’re nine inches through. Good trees, eh?” And sure enough there were ten acres of hand-planted black-walnut trees. They stood about twelve feet apart, 200 to the acre —in all 2,000 trees. “Well, how did you get your money back ?” I asked. “Black walnuts are worth $2.50 a bushel, ain’t they? I’ll get 400 bushels this year. That’s SI,OOO. A hundred dollars an acre is good rent for land worth sls an acre, ain’t it ?” “ Well, what else?” I inquired, growing interested. “ The trees, ” continued Mr. Graves, “ are growing an inch a year. When they are 20 years old they will be nineteen inches through. A black-walnut tree nineteen inches through is worth $25. My 2,000 trees ten years from now will be worth $50,000. If I don’t want to cut them all, I can cut half of them and then raise a bushel of walnuts to the tree—that is, get $2,500 a year for the crop. Two hundred and fifty dollars an acre is fair rent for sls land, ain’t it ?”— Letter from San Antonio, 'Texas. When a boy walks with a girl as though he were afraid some one would see him, the girl is his sister. Ts Re walks so close to her as to nearly crowd her against the fence, she is the sister of some one else.

If the bowels are sluggish and the liver torpid use Kidney-Wort. 11l habits gather by unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, and rivers run to sea.