CHAP, ix S Y L V A 109 



peeping red buds and leaves reduced to powder, serves 

 instead of pepper, to condite meats and sauces. 'Tis 

 thought better to cudgel off the fruit, when dropping 

 ripe, than to gather it by hand; and that the husk may 

 open, lay them by in a dry room, sometimes turning 

 them with a broom, but without washing, for fear of 

 mouldiness. In Italy they arm the tops of long 

 poles with nails and iron for the purpose, and believe 

 the beating improves the tree ; which I no more 

 believe, than I do that discipline would reform a 

 perverse shrew : Those nuts which come not easily 

 out of their husks, should be laid to mellow in heaps, 

 and the rest expos'd in the sun, till the shells dry, 

 else they will be apt to perish the kernel : Some 

 again preserve them in their own leaves, or in a chest 

 made of walnut-tree wood ; others in sand, especially 

 if you will preserve them for a seminary ; do this in 

 October, and keep them a little moist, that they may 

 spear, to be set early in February : Thus after two 

 years they may be removed at a yard asunder, cutting 

 the top-root, and side branches, but sparing the head; 

 and being two yards high, bud, or remove them 

 immediately. Old nuts are not wholsome till mace- 

 rated in warm, and almost boiling water ; but if you 

 lay them in a leaden pot, and bury them in the earth, 

 so as no vermin can attaque them, they will keep 

 marvellously plump the whole year about, and may 

 easily be blanched : In Spain they use to strew the 

 gratings of old and hard nuts (first peel'd) into their 

 tarts and other meats. For the oyl, one bushel of 

 nuts will yield fifteen pounds of peel'd and clear 

 kernels, and that half as much oyl, which the sooner 

 'tis drawn, is the more in quantity, though the dryer 

 the nut, the better in quality ; the lees, or marc of 



