224 NUT GROWING 



come the various species of nut bearing pines and 

 allied cone bearing trees. The chestnuts may rank 

 third so far as nut tree food supply for various peo- 

 ples is concerned. Statistics are not available, be- 

 cause the people who use pine nuts extensively de- 

 pend upon them for home use and not for market 

 purposes. Most of the pine nuts belong to the sweet 

 and oily group with high protein content, but the 

 Araucarias with their large, starchy nuts furnish 

 carbohydrate food for peoples of the southern hemi- 

 sphere of both continents and in Australia. Like 

 potatoes or peanuts the Araucaria nuts are not good 

 until cooked. Nuts of the Bunya Bunya pine are 

 about the size of the average Persian walnut, and 

 from that size downward pine nuts occur in various 

 shapes and sizes until we come to the smaller kinds 

 some of those which are used for food not being 

 any larger than grains of buckwheat. The smaller 

 ones are sometimes eaten shell and all. Pine nuts 

 of the oily group are sometimes very highly flavored, 

 sweet and delicious some of the pignolias and 

 pifions taking high rank for quality. Pine nuts of 

 the starchy group are commonly roasted or boiled 

 before being eaten, while those of the oily group 

 are sometimes roasted, although most of them are 

 more delicious when eaten raw out of hand. Another 

 way for preparing pine nuts of the oily group con- 

 sists in covering them with a little water and squeez- 

 ing out the contents with a press. The thick milky 

 residue being subjected to partial evaporation will 

 keep for a long time and may practically take the 



