99 



bread, and comments upon the use of dried acorns as a substitute for 

 coffee. 



Burbank comments upon the great economic importance of nuts 

 among the older nations of the world. He refers to the fact that in 

 Korea the chestnut takes the jalace in the dietary not unlike that which 

 the potato occupies with us, being used raw, boiled, roasted or cooked. 

 He calls attention to the large use of chestnuts in France and Italy, 

 generally boiled, dried and ground to a flour from which sweet and 

 nutritious cakes are made. In this he doubtless refers to the "necci", 

 a cake of Italy which is a very common food and is highly valued. 

 The polenta, or chestnut pudding, of Italy, is another staple chestnut 

 product which is ground into meal for thickening soups and for bread 

 baking. If these facts were more widely known we would Jiave an 

 increase of that relatively small number of people in America who 

 are at present using chestnut flour, and we might hope to have the 

 time come when, in the leading chestnut districts of America, the nut 

 harvest w^ould be considered the great event of the year, just as it is 

 along the Appenines and Pyrenees. There, for three or four weeks, 

 tl;e principal occupation of every mountain village is the gathering of 

 the nut crop, and on the size of the nut crop the prosperity of tlie 

 population depends. 



Tl:e great use of the chestnut in Italy is fairly well known. There 

 is too general a tendency in the average mind to assume that it is 

 restricted to Italv, whereas the chestnut is an important food crop of 

 other leading countries including Spain, Portugal, France, Switzerland, 

 Germany and Japan, and will. I confidently believe, assume with each 

 decade a greater importance in America. The same is true of the 

 walnut crop of the countries mentioned above and of China also. In 

 America the pecan crop is destined to assume a position of equal, or 

 greater importance as the American public learns more of the food 

 value of nuts in genera] and of pecans in particular. 



Experts in agricultural economics and leading students of nutri- 

 tion emphasize the need for increasing use of nuts in America as a 

 staple food. Yet I can find no record of a single comprehensive cook 

 book, or recipe book, which will show the average housewife how to 

 prepare nuts as a staple food. This book which I hold in my hand is 

 the result of the first year's work at the Keystone Pecan Research 

 Laboratory. It is the first copy off the press of a new book entitled, 



