APPENDIX. 257 



g-enei-ally used to open the burrs fiillinj^- to the ground and which do not 

 burst open naturally, or yet holding one or two nuts. In European coun- 

 tries, where chestnuts are grown on a very large scale, women generally do 

 the harvesting, using to that'eti'eet a forked stick to rake off the leaves that 

 cover the nuts, the same stick being used to force the nuts out of the burrs, 

 which are put in a little basket and then emptied into sacks, to be after- 

 wards hauled away to the sweating grounds or shed. 



SwcdtiiKj and dyijiiHf of ihr nrits — Whenever chestnuts are intended to be 

 eaten as a dessert nut. either roasted or boiled, they have, before being 

 placed oil the market and sold as fresh nuts, to go through a certain sweat- 

 ing process to take out of them their vegetation water and so prevent them 

 from moulding and rotting ; that o]>erution has to be done at once, to pre- 

 vent the mould from getting a start. The larger the nuts are the more im- 

 portant it is to dry tht'ni ])ro))erly : iov instance, Marrons, the largest chest- 

 nuts grown, will require more time to sweat than the smaller nuts of the 

 Italian and Spanish kinds, propagated solely from the seed on this coast. 

 An evaporator or dryer, whenever one is at hand, can very well be used, but 

 used intelligently, in drying chestnuts, for it would not do to dry them too 

 hard. In Europe they simply place the nuts on ordinary trays made of 

 willow, or trays with a wooden frame and screen bottom, so as to permit the 

 air to get around the nuts, the trays being placed under the roof of a build- 

 ing opened at least on two sides, or in the shade, where the sun does not 

 shine on the nuts; but wherever there are heavy dews at night the trays 

 have to be stacked, one on top of the other, or i)ut under the i^oof of a 

 building until morning. According to size, chestnuts require from one to 

 two weeks to dry sufficiently to keep, when they are then taken to market 

 in sacks and sold fresh. But, if cured in a kiln or evaporator, it would take 

 much less time, and I have an idea that nuts so dried would .show a less per- 

 centage of moulded ones, because the operation of drying, instead of going 

 on gradually, would be done at once. I use prune trays, which are quite 

 handy, for the drying of my crop of chestnuts. One can easily tell when 

 the nuts are cured, for the shell must feel a little loose to the touch; that is, 

 the meat somewhat shriveled, but fresh. Whenever the nuts have to be 

 used at once they are taken to market after a couple of days of natural sweat- 

 ing; such ones are the best for roasting, but not so sweet as when they have 

 been put to sweat a longer time. When chestnuts have been properly 

 dried they will keep well in sacks or barrels for future use; to keep them a 

 longer time they should be put in very dry sand and in a dry room, being 

 taken out of the sand as fast as they are wanted. 



For the manufacture of meal or flour, chestnuts have to be dried hard 

 and every particle of pelicle removed ; they then have a white appearance 

 and are what is called "bleached." Bleached nuts keep indefinitely if 

 stored in a dry room. A kiln or dryer would be the thing here on the 

 Pacific Coast to dry chestnuts hard for the manufacture of chestnut meal, 

 which, cooked with milk, makes a delicious mush. 



How to ijreparc chestnuts — French and Italian chestnuts are always eaten 

 cooked, that is, either roasted or boiled. They can very well be roasted in 

 17 



