I08 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



imported from Italy and Turkey yearly. Nor is the consumption confined to the 

 peasant classes, who use the flour almost exclusively for bread ; but chestnuts 

 roasted, steamed, pureed, as a dressing for meats, and as vegetables, are served 

 extensively on the tables of the rich. 



In this country the variety of food stuffs is so great, and their production so 

 easy, that necessity has never taught us the value of nuts as food. The great grain 

 fields of the West are looked upon as the one legitimate source of the " staff of life," 

 yet the fact remains that chestnut flour makes an equally palatable and a more 

 nutritious bread. The chestnut when raw is not easy to digest ; but in cooking the 

 starch grains are broken up, making tliem readily digestible. Prejudice, coupled 

 with ignorance and lack of appreciation of its good qualities, are the factors which 

 to-day retard the adoption of the chestnut as one of our staple articles of diet. 



In chemical composition and relative food value, the chestnut differs widely 

 from other nuts, since it contains a large percentage of the carbohydrates, especially 

 starch, and less proteine matter and oils. In this respect it quite closely resembles 

 wheat flour. Since the carbohydrates are the chief source of the energy used in 

 maintaining the vital processes of the body, it follows that the chestnut, by reason 

 of its high percentage of these carbohydrates and the comparatively small amount 

 of nitrogenous matter, is a better balanced and more nutritious food than other 

 nuts, or even many of the cereals. 



It may be that when the wheat lands become less productive and the margin of 

 profit lower that men will turn to the idle, untilled woodlands of the East and util- 

 ize them for the production of nuts as a substitute for cereals. A change in our 

 bread-making material, if ever made, will come slowly, since public taste and long- 

 established customs are slow to alter, and new introductions are looked upon with 

 distrust. The growing realization that the fine white bread in use at present is lack- 

 ing in nutriment, and is injurious to the digestive organs, and the general crusade 

 against it by physicians and health food advocates, will, however, rapidly turn public 

 attention to new cereals or substitutes for them. 



An acre of land will grow 35 bushels of wheat in a year if properly cultivated. 

 A like area of chestnut trees will produce many times as many bushels of equally 

 nutritious food yearly for an indefinite period, and require no outlay for cultivation, 

 replanting or fertilization. More than this, the spring frosts, beating rains and sum- 

 mer droughts, which are a constant menace to a wheat crop, work no injury upon 

 the chestnut tree or its fruit. Why then is wheat grown on millions of acres, while 

 we fail to produce even enough chestnuts to supph' the now limited demand, and 

 allow Southern Europe to exact large tribute from us annually for the nuts we 



