meter at
breast height. In short, he wants high quality material.

What I am saying may not apply to nut growing. Foresters grow trees for
the wood crop, with nuts as a by-product. The first 16 feet of trunk or
the butt log is his main interest. It should be completely free of
limbs, knots, and other defects for at least 16 feet. You can use the
logs above the butt-cut but they usually produce lower grade material.

You have two courses to follow. You can grow wood either in natural
stands or in plantations, and the end product is very little different.
It is probably easier to grow a high quality tree in a plantation than
in the wild. What can be easier than growing a timber tree in the
woodlands? It eventually reaches merchantable size and is harvested.
Well, nature can do better if you give her help. Your chances of growing
a high quality tree to merchantable size are better in the plantation.

About ten years ago Dr. R. W. Lorenz of our Department made a study of
150 plantations growing on prairie soil in Illinois. Thirty-six were
walnut which ranged in age from 22 to 75 years. The one thing we had the
most trouble with was determining their ages. One day we stopped at a
farm and talked to a farmer, and we asked him when the trees were
planted. This man said he could tell us the exact day. "I was a young
lad and a neighbor drove by and said, 'Yesterday Abe Lincoln was shot.'"
So we had the historical records to determine the age of that particular
plantation.

These plantations ranged in number of trees per acre from 46 to 330. The
number of trees per acre has a direct influence on the size or diameter
growth of the timber tree. An eight by eight spacing, or 680 trees per
acre, eventually will be thinned to 200 trees per acre. That gives each
tree proper spacing for best height and diameter growth.

The trees ranged in height from about 31 feet to 85, averaging about a
foot and a quarter in height each year. The average diameters ranged
from about 12 inches to 15 inches. Individual trees, however, ranged up
to 24 inches at breast height (4-1/2' above ground level). Each
plantation had had very little or no care. If some of them had been
cared for, or "managed", their owners would have had a better wood
crop--higher quality and higher quantity too.

Now, as to the growth in the managed plantations. We believe it is
possible to grow 300 board feet per acre per year. Compared with upland
oak, walnut exceeded it i