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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



L 



HP* 



Photograph by H. W. Henshaw, from C. Hart Merriam 

 POMO INDIANS SHUCKING AND DRYING ACORNS, NEAR UKIAH, IN RUSSIAN RIVER 



VALLEY^ CALIFORNIA 



The split meats may be seen spread out to dry on cloths on the ground and also on an 

 elevated platform alongside the house. One of the large carrying baskets in which the acorns 

 are gathered stands near the door. 



very ancient times, and notwithstanding undigested. The superiority of the meth- 



the importance of the wood for timber ods employed by our Indians is obvious, 



and fuel, and of the bark for tanning. That a food of such genuine worth 



acorn mast was long considered the most should be disregarded by our people is 



valuable product of the oak forests. one of many illustrations of the reluc- 



In England, France, and Italy, during tance of the white man to avail himself 



periods of food scarcity, boiled acorns of sources of subsistence long utilized by 



were used as a substitute for bread ; and the aborigines. 



in most of the Mediterranean countries We seem to prefer crops that require 



the sweet fruit of Quercus esculcnta laborious preparation of the soil, fol- 



(mind the name) is still prized by the lowed by costly planting and cultivation, 



inhabitants. In Algeria and Morocco the rather than those provided without price 



large acorns of an evergreen oak are by bountiful nature, 



eaten both raw and roasted, while in M ■ r - 



o • r ^ 4, i COMPARATIVE ANALYSES OE CORN MEAL, 



bpam those ot the Gramont oak are re- ■ . , ' 



1 i i i , , WHEAT FLOUR, AND ACORN ELOUR 1 



garded as even superior to chestnuts. 

 V. K. Chesnut quotes Giovanni Memmo Wheat Acorn flour 2 



to the effect that in Spain and Italy SOme- Corn meal flour Leached Unleached 



times as much as 20 per cent of the total Water 12.5 n. 5 11.34 5-82 



food of the poorer people consists of Ash 1.0 .5 .29 1.90 



sweet acorns. But as the indigestible Fat r -9 i.o 19.81 25.31 



tannin is not removed, it has been found ^ vo \ e f 9' 2 r 4 ' 48 



•■, , Carbohydrates 74.4 75.4 62.02 59.62 

 that 10 per cent of the acorns pass away Fiber 1.0 .2 2.06 1.91 



