CHAPTER VI 

 THE FIRST NUT CROP 



)HAT year the nut crop was a 

 failure. This was the off- 

 year for the red oaks; they 

 bear only every other sea- 

 son. The white oaks had 

 been nipped by a late frost. The beech- 

 trees were very scarce, and the chestnuts 

 were gone — the blight had taken them 

 all. Pignut hickories were not plentiful, 

 and the very best of all, the sweet shag- 

 hickory, had suffered like the white oaks. 

 October, the time of the nut harvest, 

 came. Dry leaves were drifting to the 

 ground, and occasional "thumps" told of 

 big fat nuts that also were falling, some- 

 times of themselves and sometimes cut 

 by harvesters; for, although no other 



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