THE BEECHNUT. 



51 



nuts, or search our forests for precocious and superior 

 varieties, we have to admit that the field remains unex- 

 plored, and as baiTcn of results as it was when our an- 

 cestors first discovered 

 America. Every hunt- 

 er, woodman, farmer 

 and botanist who has 

 roamed through for- 

 ests where the beech 

 trees grow, is well 

 aware of the fact that 

 distinct varieties are 

 not at all rare, some 

 having nuts twice the 

 size of others in the 

 same woods or groves, 

 and it is possible and 

 probable that some 

 nut culturist in the 

 near future will find 

 time to select these 

 choice wild varieties 

 for cultivation and 

 propagation. It 

 would not, in my opin- 

 ion, be beneath the 

 dignity of our national 

 department of agricul- 

 ture, or some of its 

 numerous costly an- 

 nexes, to occasionally 

 take into considera- 

 tion the natural prod- 

 ucts of this great *'io- 9- beechnut leaf, bub and nut. 

 country, and determine, by a series of experiments, 

 whether or no they were not worthy of attention. 



