CHAPTER IV 



THE ACORN AS HUMAN FOOD AND 

 SOME OTHER WILD NUTS 



Happy age to which the ancients gave the name of golden. . . . 

 None found it needful, in order to obtain sustenance, to re- 

 sort to other labor than to stretch out his hand and take it from 

 the sturdy live-oak, which liberally invited him. 



Don Quixote. 



CERTAIN nuts growing wild in the United 

 States, such as the chestnut, the hickories, the 

 pecan, the beech-nut and the walnuts, have secured 

 so firm a place in our civilized dietary that every 

 one knows them, and they need not be discussed here. 

 Perhaps, though, we have not exhausted all their 

 culinary possibilities. For instance, William Bar- 

 tram tells us that the Creek Indians in his day 

 pounded the shellbark nuts, cast them into boiling 

 water and then passed the mass through a very fine 

 strainer. The thicker, oily part of the liquid thus 

 preserved was rich like fresh cream, and was called 

 by a name signifying " hickory milk." It formed 

 an ingredient in much of their cookery, especially in 



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