INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT NUTS 
71 
leaves have a fragrant odor when bruised. The tree contains a sugary 
sap and is sometimes tapped like the sugar-maple. The unripe nuts 
are sometimes put in vinegar and converted into pickles. In the Old 
World the walnut is an important food for the poor people. The black 
walnut is found in most parts of the United States except in the extreme 
northern. It grows on one of the most! beautiful trees of the American 
forest. The nut has a thick, woody shell, and is inferior to the English 
walnut. 
The chestnut is native in most of the Eastern States. There are 
a number of dwarf forms, known as chinkapins, which are quite com¬ 
mon in the States south and east of Pennsylvania. These small nuts 
are edible, and are marketed to some extent. The chestnuts grow in 
prickly burs, usually three nuts in a bur, packed closely side by side. 
After a frost these burs break open, and then the nuts may be easily 
obtained. In Europe chestnuts are steamed and eaten either with salt 
or with milk. They are also boiled like potatoes by the poor people, 
or roasted, or ground into flour, from which bread is made. 
Two species of the hazelnut are native to the United States—the 
American hazel, and the beaked, or California, hazel; but neither of 
these is cultivated. Most of the cultivated varieties are known as cob¬ 
nuts and filberts. These nuts yield an excellent oil, which is used in 
painting pictures and also- in making costly perfumes. 
The butternut is so called on account of its oil, which is sometimes 
extracted. When the nuts are dried, they form agreeable food, and when 
taken green and picked, they are prized for the table. Sugar can be 
made from the sap of the tree, but it is much inferior* to maple-sugar. 
A dyestuff was formerly prepared from the bark and husks, and was 
widely used for dyeing woolens, etc. It was sometimes resorted to by the 
early settlers in the United States to dye their homespun clothing. 
The hickory-nut and the pecan belong to the same genus of trees, 
the pecan being a species of the hickory. These trees are strictly 
North American. The nuts of some of the species have an excellent 
flavor. The pecans are grown for the market in some parts of the 
United States. The varieties called paper-shells a,re the most de¬ 
sirable as they can be cracked between the fingers and easily separated 
from the shell. . 
The meat of the nuts contains about fifty times as much tat as 
wheat flour, and has about double the fuel value, or energy producing 
