The Walnuts and the Hickories 



October's woods. O the smell of those juicy brown husks as we 

 cracked the green nuts on a convenient stone, and wiped our 

 damp fingers ineffectually on the grass! The stains wore off at 

 length, but the memories are indelible. The Shakers of Lebanon, 

 Massachusetts, got a rich purple dye by adding something to 

 the brown extract of those husks. 



The wood of butternut is not so hard nor so strong as black 

 walnut, but for the interior finish of houses it has a distinct ad- 

 vantage. Black walnut is sombre compared with the cheerful 

 browns and fawn colours which this wood shows. The "natural 

 wood finish" brings out these quiet tones and imparts a soft 

 lustre to the grain. It is a pity that this wood is not more comm.on 

 and more widely employed for this particular purpose. It is 

 made into wooden bowls, and used for veneering bureaus, for 

 carriage panels, and for coffins, posts, rails and fuel. 



The frugal housewife in the country looks with interest upon 

 the butternut when it is half grown — when the pale green, clammy, 

 fuzzy fruit hangs in clusters, surrounded by its umbrella of leaves. 

 If a knitting needle goes through husk and nut without hindrance, 

 it is not too late to make "pickled oil nuts," which are a delectable 

 relish with meats in winter. The husk and all are put down 

 in vinegar, sugar and spices. The unpleasant part of this process 

 is the rubbing off of the "fur," after scalding the nuts. This 

 task usually falls to the children. 



Butternut husks and bark have long been used in home 

 remedies, and in dyeing woollen cloth. The backwoods regiments 

 in the Civil War were clad in "butternut" jeans, a home-made, 

 home-dyed uniform that worthily stood the hardest service. 



Black Walnut (Juglans nigra, Linn.) — A majestic, spread- 

 ing tree, 80 to 150 feet high, with tall trunk, 4 to 6 feet through. 

 Bark dark brown, furrowed, scaly. fVood dark purplish brown, 

 with silvery lustre; hard, fine grained, heavy, strong, durable 

 in contact with soil. Buds: terminal, flattened, silky, tomentose; 

 axillary, small, globose, silky; flower buds naked. Leaves alter- 

 nate, 12 to 24 inches long, odd pinnate of 13 to 25 leaflets, ovate- 

 lanceolate, serrate, pubescent beneath, 3 to 3^ inches long, sessile 

 on leaf stem; yellow-green, becoming yellow in autumn; petioles 

 downy. Flowers, May, with leaves, greenish, monoecious, stam- 

 inate in catkins 3 to 6 inches long on wood of preceding year; 

 pistillate on new shoots, in axillary few-flowered clusters, or 



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