USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



hominy and corn cakes. Peter Kalm speaks of a 

 similar practice observed by him with hickory nuts 

 and black walnuts. A cooking oil is also said to have 

 been obtained from acorns by some Eastern tribes, 

 the nuts being pounded, boiled in water containing 

 maple-wood ashes, and the oil skimmed off. 



Of the nuts of our country unregarded by the 

 white population from the standpoint of human food 

 value, the noble genus of oaks supplies the most im- 

 portant. Every farmer realizes the worth of acorns 

 for fattening hogs, but in America only the Indians, 

 I believe, have taken seriously to utilizing them for 

 human consumption ; and it is significant that among 

 the fattest of all Indians are those the Calif ornians 

 whose staple diet from prehistoric times has been 

 acorn meal. There is, to be sure, a difference in 

 acorns. All are not bitter. Several species of oak 

 produce nuts whose sweetness and edibility in the 

 raw state make it easy to believe the acorn's cousin- 

 ship to the chestnut and beechnut. In this class are 

 the different sorts of Chestnut Oaks, easily recog- 

 nized by the resemblance of their leaves to the foliage 

 of the chestnut tree; and of these perhaps the best, 

 in respect of acorns, is Quercus Michauxii, Nutt. 

 commonly known as Basket Oak or Cow Oak. It 

 is a large tree, indigenous to the Southern Atlantic 



68 



