138 



HARD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



is permitted to marry a wife till he bring proof that 

 he had planted and is father of such a stated number 

 of walnut trees ; and this law is inviolably observed 

 to this day for the extraordinary benefit which this 

 tree affords to the inhabitants. . . . The Bergstrasse 

 (which extends from Heidelberg to Darmstadt) is all 

 planted with walnuts, for so, by another ancient law, 

 the Borderers were obliged to nurse up and take care 

 of them, and that chiefly for their ornament or shade, 

 which some have causelessly defamed for its ill effect 

 on the head." He then recounts the universal use 

 of the timber on the Continent and in England. He 

 says: "It is of singular account with the joiner for 

 the best grained and coloured wainscot ; with the 

 gunsmith for stocks ; the coachmaker for wheels and 

 bodies of coaches. In New England they make of it 

 hoops and bows for want of yew ; the drum-maker 

 uses it for rims, the cabinet-maker for inlayings. . . . 

 To render this wood better coloured, joiners put the 

 boards into an oven after the batch is forth, or lay 

 them in a warm stable, and, when they work it, 

 polish it over with its own oil very hot, which makes 

 it look black and sleek, and the older it is the more 

 estimable. The fruit it is thought better to cudgel 

 off the tree when dropping ripe, than to gather it by 

 hand. In Italy they arm the tops of long poles with 

 nails and iron for the purpose, and believe the 

 beating improves the tree, which I no more believe 

 than that discipline would reform a shrew." ... As 

 to the utility of the fruit, " It makes food and oil, 

 this last of extraordinary use with the painter in 

 whites and other delicate colours, also for gold size 

 and varnish. They fry with it in some places, and 

 eat it instead of butter in Barry, where they have 

 little or none good, and therefore they plant an 

 infinite number of trees all over that country. The 

 use of it to burn in lamps is common there. In 

 Italy, when a countryman finds any pain in his side, 

 he drinks a pint of the fresh oil, and finds immediate 

 ease." 



An entry in Evelyn's Diary, dated 1662, recounts a 

 visit to Sir Josiah Child's at Wanstead House, "to 

 see the prodigious cost in planting walnut trees about 

 his seat." 



Nor are the uses to which wood and fruit are alike 

 put, less in our own day. The wood used by cabinet- 

 makers, joiners, coachmakers and musical instrument 

 makers is preferred by them when grown on a poor, 

 hilly soil. It is much esteemed for gun-stocks, but 

 the wood for this purpose is imported from the Black 

 Sea, and that of the black walnut (Juglans nigra) 

 from North America, so that the cultivation of the 

 tree for its timber has almost ceased in England. 



The fruit is used for table in almost every stage of 

 its growth. Young, green and tender (so long as a 

 pin will pierce it to the heart) it is good for pickling, 

 husk, nut and all ; after this stage some pickle the 

 green husks alone ; when half ripe a liqueur is dis- 

 tilled from the nuts. In August, before they are 



quite ripe, the French eat them en cerneaux. They 

 scoop out the kernel with a knife, and eat it with 

 vinegar and pepper and shallots ; and we all are 

 acquainted with the ripe nut as we get it in Sep- 

 tember and October fresh and sweet, a fruit which, 

 in common with most nuts, is very wholesome and. 

 nutritious so long as it is fresh and easily parts with 

 its skin, but when it has become dry is oily and 

 indigestible ; in fact, in its fresh state it is a very 

 important and staple article of diet in many parts of 

 Italy, France, Spain and Germany, and in Switzer- 

 and, fwhere the villagers hold festivals to celebrate 

 its in-gathering. The fruit is still almost univerr 

 sally gathered by thrashing (or, as Evelyn has it, 

 cudgelling) the trees with a long pole, but whether 

 merely because it is the easiest way of reaching the 

 fruit, or on account of the supposed benefit to the 

 tree, is hard to say ; in all probability the reduction 

 of excessive growth, accomplished by this rough 1 

 method of pruning, may lead to better fruiting in 

 many cases. The walnut contains a large quantity 

 of oil, which is much used on the Continent. It is 

 obtained by reducing the nuts to a pulp by means of 

 a stone wheel, and then expressing the oil, cold first, 

 then by the application of heat. That obtained cold 

 only, is used as an articlelof diet, and is said to be 

 nicer in salad than olive oil, and to keep well ; to 

 some tastes, however, the flavour of the walnut, 

 which always remains, is objectionable. The oil 

 obtained by heat is used by artists and also for lamps. 

 Artists prefer it for mixing white and delicate 

 colours, on account of the rapidity with which it 

 dries. It is in great demand in Paris by copper- 

 plate printers, who say that ink made with other .oil 

 cannot be relied upon to produce a fine impression ; 

 for this use the oil is brought to the required con- 

 sistency by boiling, and then setting fire to it and 

 burning it in a close vessel. About seven pounds of 

 this oil can be obtained from a bushel of nuts.; The 

 refuse left after extracting the oil from the nuts is 

 made into cakes, and used as food for pigs, sheep, 

 and poultry, and in some places into candles, which 

 give a tolerable amount of light. The husks and the 

 root of the walnut both yield a dye, which is used 

 for staining the skin by gipsies and others, as well as 

 by cabinet-makers for staining white and light woods, 

 to give them the colour of walnut wood. The husks 

 must be allowed to decay, and then be boiled in . 

 water sufficient to make the decoction of the desired 

 hue. 



A large quantity of saccharine matter is contained 

 in the sap of the trees, which in some countries, 

 before the extensive use of beetroot, were tapped for, . 

 the purpose of obtaining the sap, which by boiling 

 was evaporated and thus converted into sugar. In 

 many parts both of Europe and Asia this sap is 

 distilled and a spirit made from it, or it is fermented 

 and becomes wine. 



Nor do the leaves of the tree lack useful properties. 



