82 
SHELLBARK HICKORY. 
fingers like the European Walnut, which is certainly a superior fruit. 
These nuts are in such request, that they form a small article of commerce, 
registered on the list of exports of the products of the United States. 
This exportation, which does not exceed 400 or 500 bushels annually, 
takes place from New York, and from the small ports of Connecticut, to 
the Southern States, to the West India Islands, and even to Liverpool; 
where the fruit is known by the name of Hickory nuts. In the market of 
New York, they are sold at two dollars a bushel. They are gathered in 
the forests, and from insulated trees which in some places have been 
spared in clearing the lands : a precaution which I have particularly notic- 
ed to have been used near Goshen in New Jersey, and on several estates 
about 30 miles beyond Albany, 
The Indians who inhabit the shores of Lakes Erie and Michigan, 
lay up a store of these nuts for the winter, a part of which they pound in 
wooden mortars, and boiling the paste in water, collect the oily matter 
which swims upon the surface, to season their food. 
Before speaking of the properties of the wood, I cannot forbear menti- 
oning a fine variety of Shellbark nuts, produced upon a farm at Seacocus, v. 
near Snakehill in New Jersey. They are nearly twice as large as any that 
I have seen elsewhere, and have a white shell with rounded prominences 
instead of angles. A century of cultivation, perhaps, would not advance 
the species generally to an equal degree of perfection, and probably this 
vmriety might still be improved by grafting. 
The wood of the Shellbark Hickory possesses all the characteristic pro- 
perties of the Hickories, being strong, elastic, and tenacious. It has also 
them common defects of soon decaying and of being eaten by worms. 
As this tree stretches up to a great height with nearly an uniform diameter, 
it is sometimes employed at New York and Philadelphia for the keels of 
vessels; but it is now seldom used for this purpose, most of the large trees 
near the sea ports being already consumed. Its wood is found to split 
most easily and to be the most elastic ; for this reason it is used for making 
baskets, and also for whip-handies which are esteemed for their suppleness, 
and of which several cases are annually exported to England, For the same 
excellence, and for the superior fineness of its grain, it is selected, in the 
neighborhood of New York and Philadelphia, for the back-bows of Wind- 
sor chairs, which are wholly of wood. I have frequently observed that 
among the Hickory wood brought to New York for fuel, this species pre- 
dominated. 
Such are the uses to which the Shellbark Hickory appears peculiarly 
adapted. It has before been seen to be a . tree of lofty stature and majestic 
appearance : I should therefore recommend its introduction into the Euro- 
pean forests, where it should be consigned to cool and humid places, con- 
genial with those in which it flourishes in America. In the North of 
