each, the contractors voluntarily refraining from presenting any claims above the statutory dollar which had to be paid to make the settlement legal. Many were the interesting episodes which occurred during the ordnance liquidation. The St. Louis district was the chief source of black walnut timber secured during the war. Walnut was used in making gunstocks and airplane propellers. In hunting for walnut in this district we discovered that we were gleaning where Germany had reaped before us. The former solid stands of walnut in this district had been cleaned out in recent years, much of the timber having been shipped to Germany _via_ the Gulf ports. Yet our gleaning was successful. Walnut trees, growing as individuals or in small groups, were still to be found along the country lanes, in farm lots, at the edges of orchards, and shading the grounds of the farmsteads. Nowhere were more than thirty trees in a group discovered. Consequently an adequate supply of walnut for the munitions plants depended upon a foot-by-foot search of the entire American countryside in the walnut regions. In this work the Government was assisted by tens of thousands of volunteers aroused to the need by the widespread publicity. The Boy Scouts turned their hikes into walnut-hunting expeditions. The country doctor, the circuit-riding clergyman, the bee hunter, and the muskrat trapper all made it their business to locate and report stands of walnut timber. As a result unexpectedly ample quantities of the wood were secured from regions supposedly denuded of it. On the day of the armistice the timber dealers found themselves stocked up with enough black walnut to meet all commercial demands for five years ahead.