NUTS OF THE FARM 25 
Fic. 7. The pig-nut hickory (Hickoria glabra) ; the whole nut, a cross section of 
same, and the nut in its hulls (after Mayo). 
occupy space in the corner of the barnyard or in the fencerow, 
and there, relieved of competition, shows what it can do in the 
way of producing large and regular crops. But the nuts are 
wild. There has been but little selection for improved varie- 
ties and little scientific culture of nut-bearing trees. When 
we consider the abundance and value of their product, the 
permanence of their occupation of the ground, the slight cost 
in labor of their maintenance, and the conservation of the soil 
which they promote, this neglect of nut crops among us seems 
unfortunate. 
Two families of plants furnish most of our 
valuable nuts: the hickory family and the 
oak family. The former includes the more 
valuable kinds of nuts; besides true hickories, 
these are pecans, butter-nuts and walnuts. 
In all these there is a bony shell, enclosing 
the four-lobed and wrinkled edible seed. 
The oak family includes besides the acorns 
(few of which are valuable as human food) 
the chestnuts, the filberts, the hazels and the 
beech nuts. In these there is a horny shell 
Fic. 8. Cross sec- enclosing the smooth but compact seed. 
tions of two types of 
nuts in their hulls: (a) Certain other members of the oak family, as 
ting hull; (0) hickory the hornbeams, produce nuts that are too 
Pull. small to be worthy of our consideration as 
