A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 



HISTORY OF NUT CULTURE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



As given by H. E. Van Deman, Ex-Pomologist, U. S. Department of 



Agriculture. 



E WILD NUTS of America were used as food by the aborigines long 

 before the white man set foot on her shores* This is proven by speci- 

 mens found burie'd in the graves of their dead. Captain John Smith mentions 

 them in his history of the country as it was in his day, they being gathered by 

 the Indians and eaten both raw and prepared in various ways. Acorn "and 

 Chestnut meal were common articles of use in the cookery of the ancient and 

 modern squaws. To-day the western Indians use acorn meal made into cakes, 

 and a sort of gruel. 



After the occupation of the country by the present races, the principal use 

 made of nuts by them was as a table luxury or delicacy eaten on festive occa- 

 sions. Here and there a tree was left to stand in the fields when the forests 

 were cut away, because of the choice nuts which it produced. Rarely were 

 nut trees planted, and they more for ornament or shade than for their fruit. 



The Persian Walnut, European Chestnut, and Hazel or Filbert, and the 

 Almond were introduced in the early settlement of the country, but the culture 

 of all these nuts was rarely and but feebly attempted. This was perhaps largely 

 due to the fact that the wild, native trees of various kinds furnished an abun- 

 dant supply for the limited demands for home and market use. But the increas- 

 ing consumption of nuts in America, and the gradual destruction of the native 

 trees for their timber, has induced a few persons to begin their culture in 

 earnest. Not only is this true of the foreign species, but of the b.est of our 

 native kinds. Although there are already many large orcfhards of nut trees of 

 several kinds in America, the business may be said to be yet in its infancy. 



