Today, I figure that the thousand well-grown trees in this planting are each adding a dollar per year to the value of the 20 acres upon which they stand. $1000 per year in all. This estimate, which of course seems optimistic, is based upon the statement of a walnut tree buyer--a sawmill man--who tells me that a well grown, deep-soil, 50-year-old Eastern Black walnut tree should average about $50 in value. Thus far, my 17-year-old youngsters, some of them nearly 3 feet in girth (9-1/2 to 11 or more inches in diameter at breast height) look promising. In addition to the potential added value of $1000 per year, this 20 acres has produced about two tons of in-hull nuts from selected trees only, in each of the past two years, (with more than that in prospect this year), while the land beneath the trees grows good pasture and helps to support a small herd of cattle and calves. Once the trees were thoroughly established, the labor investment has been very small. Nature, for the most part, has done her own pruning, and has done it better than I deserve. Since the first half-dozen years, there has been no cultivation. The trees have been practically trouble-free. Winds have damaged a few and one wet spot has killed three trees. There are a few black locust trees among the walnuts. I can see no evidence that the walnuts have made either better or poorer growth because of the proximity of these nitrogen storers. Perhaps the evidence will show up later. We shall see. The last item in this inventory, added value to the estate, is still potential, but the potential is surprising. If my walnut timber buyer's estimate is trustworthy, in 17 years the best 1000 trees have added 17,000 potential dollars to the value of that 20 acres. And they have done it with safety, with little labor on my part and, lately, with annual dividends of excellent nuts and good pasture. No other kind of forestry that I know of can do that. It would, of course, be foolish to claim that the kind of management here described would be wise or workable with other forest species. Wise forest management requires, first of all, that the choice of species shall be adapted to the soil and climate favored by that species. It requires a proper density of stand. Finally, good management demands that a choice be made of the most valuable type of timber that can be produced upon your land. If you can grow walnut successfully, it would be foolish to grow Willow or Box Elder.