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activities of the Nut Growers Association and of the marvelous 

 efficiency of nut trees as producers of protein and fats, the two 

 elements of our foodstuffs which are most costly because hardest 

 to produce. 



I am creditably informed that one acre of land supporting 35 

 black walnut trees in full bearing, will produce not less than 350 

 pounds of walnut meats, each pound of which has a nutritive value 

 in protein and fats fully four times that of an equal weight of beef 

 or an equivalent of 1400 pounds of meat. To produce a steer 

 weighing 1600 pounds, requires two acres and two years. Two 

 acres and two years will produce 1400 pounds of nut meats, the 

 equivalent of 5600 pounds of beef or more than 9 times the amount 

 of nutritive material in the form of protein and fat produced by 

 beef raising. 



Of course, the question might be raised whether nuts as a 

 source of food are equal in value to meats, which supply the same 

 sort of food material, namely, protein and fats. If the anthropolo- 

 gists are right, this is a question which need not worry us, for, 

 according to Professor Keith, the eminent English anatomist and 

 a leading paleontologist, and Professor Elliot, of Oxford, nuts were 

 the chief staple of our hardy ancestors of prehistoric times. Pro- 

 fessor Elliot, indeed, tells us in his work, "Prehistoric Man," that 

 the first representatives of the human race who appeared in the 

 Eocene Period were fruit and nut eaters, and were abundantly sup- 

 plied with this sort of nutriment. This eminent author says, — 



"On the bushes by the rivers and along the shore there were 

 all sorts of fruits and nuts. For the subsistence of our lemur- 

 monkey-man in the early stages of evolution, what fruits would 

 seem a priori most suitable? 



"I think that one would select the banana and bread-fruit. An- 

 cestral forms of both were flourishing in the Eocene. Many other 

 fruits with which man has been afterwards continually (perhaps 

 one might venture to say most intimately) associated, occur at this 

 period. These are, most of them, found in so many places that one 

 is apt to think they were then of world-wide distribution. 



"In the temperate brushwood and on the river-sides, acorns, 

 hazel-nut, hawthorne, sloe, cherry and plum might be found. Here 

 and there, he might alight upon a walnut or an almond; figs also of 

 one kind or another seem to have been common. Palm trees existed, 

 and some of them were of enormous size." 



If, in modern times, nuts have come to be used as a luxury 

 rather than as a staple article of diet, it must be because we have 

 neglected to cultivate this choicest of food products which Nature is 

 ready to provide with a lavish hand when invited to do so by our 

 co-operation. But as the public become better informed respecting 

 the high food value of nuts and especially in view of the steadily 

 rising cost of flesh meats, the nut is certain to gain higher appreci- 

 ation, and the writer has no doubt that some time in the future nuts 



