Because black walnuts prefer deep, dark soil, American settlers could choose fertile sites for their homesteads by noting where such trees grew most vigorously. Those farmers might have done better to leave the trees in place as a legacy for their descendants, since mature black walnuts can sell for prices as towering as their heights these days. Of course, that just is timber value . Because the trees often were planted near houses to deflect lightning strikes from those buildings, they smell of home to some people. And that, as the ad says, is “priceless!” Aficionados also go nuts over the...