USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



hominy and corn cakes. Peter Kalm speaks of a 

 similar practice observed by him with hickoiy 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 

 w^hite population from the standpoint of human food 

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

 portant. Every farmer realizes the w^orth of acorns 

 for fattening hogs, but in America onij the Lidians, 

 I believe, have taken seriously to utilizing them for 

 human consumption ; and it is significant that among 

 the fattest of all Lidians are those — the Calif ornians 

 — wdiose staple diet from prehistoric times has been 

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

 acoiTLS. All are not bitter. Several species of oak 

 produce nuts w^hose sweetness and edibility in the 

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

 ship to the chestnut and beechnut. Li 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 Michaiixii, Nutt. 

 — commonly known as Basket Oak or Cow Oak. It 

 is a large tree, indigenous to the Southern Atlantic 



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