32 NUT GROWING 



coarse bags and washing the bags with their contents 

 in running water. The washed residue is then dried 

 and made into cakes. 



Cakes made from sweet acorns are already an 

 important food in some parts of the Pacific coast 

 region and we shall doubtless devise means for mak- 

 ing palatable food from astringent and bitter kinds 

 of acorns later. Tropical nuts of kinds not referred 

 to in these pages will be raised more and more in the 

 southern parts of Florida and of Texas. 



A boy once asked me why it was that fruit 

 farmers were more prosperous than other farmers. 

 One who is familiar with the cattle, corn, cotton, 

 and wheat farmers may deny the boy's premises, yet 

 his observation made in western New York carried 

 meaning. Trees are grown with less labor than is 

 required for annual crops, they are cared for with 

 ease, and fewer hands are needed for the work. The 

 fruit farmer whose fruit ripens at a definite time in 

 the year has an abundance of time for travel, attend- 

 ing society meetings, and for obtaining an enlarged 

 view and outlook upon life which does not belong 

 to one who is closely engaged with the time-consum- 

 ing details of regular ordinary varied farm work. 

 Nut trees are fruit trees. They represent kinds of 

 fruit which do not require to be gathered in feverish 

 haste for the market. 



In the nut trees we combine the Greek ideal of 

 utility with beauty, because nut trees are quite as 

 beautiful as other trees. The reason why our parks, 

 highways, and private grounds are not graced with 



