The ^Valnuts and the Hickories 



The shiny red pecans in the grocer's box owe their pohsh and 

 fresh colour to rapid friction with other nuts in revolving barrels. 

 Unfortunately this process restores the bloom of youth to the shells 

 of stale nuts which are commonly mingled with the fresh ones. In 

 many places the nuts are cracked and shelled, the meats sold at 

 50 cents to 60 cents per pound. There is economy of time, at 

 least, in this for the confectioner and the cook. 



The "get-rich-quick" man is sure to be interested in pecans 

 and pecan culture. Large, thin-shelled nuts, for seed, bring from 

 50 cents to ^2.50 per pound. Budded and grafted trees, one or two 

 years old, cost from 50 cents to Si. 50 each at the nursery. An 

 orchard of thrifty, prolific trees, whose nuts have thin-shelled, 

 plump kernels, with delicate flavour and the minimum of the 

 astringent red shell lining, is certainly as good as a gold mine on 

 any farm. 



Of the seventy and more varieties that have been described, 

 not twenty are worth considering. Anyone interested in the 

 subject should get the Report on Nut Culture, Division of Pomol- 

 ogy, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, 



Bitternut, Swamp Hickory {Hicoria minima, Britt.) 

 A tall, handsome tree, 60 to 100 feet high, with straight trunk, 

 stout branches and slender twigs, forming a broad, symmetrical 

 head. Bark greyish brown, smooth, close; branches smooth; 

 twigs yellowish brown, pale, dotted. Wood brown, heavy, hard, 

 close grained, tough. Buds slender, pointed, yellow, granular. 

 Leaves alternate, compound, 6 to 10 inches long, of 7 to 1 1 narrow, 

 almost willow-like leaflets, bright green, paler beneath, leathery; 

 yellow in autumn; petioles downy, slender. Flowers in May, with 

 leaves; monoecious, staminate catkins, 3 to 4 inches long, in threes, 

 stalked; pistillate on terminal peduncles, i to 3 flowers, f inch 

 long, with spreading stigmas, green. Fruit globular, or pear 

 shaped, f to i inch long, wider; husk thin, with 4 prominent 

 winged sutures, reaching half way to base; sometimes 2 go to 

 base, never 4. Golden scurf on husk. Nut thin shelled, com- 

 pressed, marked with dark lines; kernel bitter, white. Preferred 

 habitat, low wet woods; swamps. Distrihuiion, Maine and Ontario 

 to Florida; west to Minnesota, Nebraska and Texas. Uses: 

 Valuable ornamental and shade tree, not yet appreciated. 

 Wood used for ox yokes, hoops and for fuel. 



The bitternut is known among the hickories by its flattened 



143 



