Betel nut

“ So important a part does the betel-nut play in the daily life of the native, that, if possible, a house is always built near a grove of areca-palms, in order that there may be a never-failing supply of the nut. Betel is not eaten alone, but with a mixture of turmeric, seri-leaf, lime, and tobacco. Chewing betel produces copious supplies of blood-red saliva. If this is ejected upon wood or stone, it leaves nasty rusty-red stains that cannot be removed even by the most diligent scrubbing. Hence a spittoon is a very necessary domestic article. Everybody chews; everybody possesses spittoons. ”

“ I have seen palm-trees in the South Sea islands, many kinds in the forests of South America, and in India; but, of the whole tribe, the betel-nut palm is certainly the most elegant and beautiful. Dr. Hooker likens it "to an arrow shot from heaven, raising its graceful head and feathery crown in luxuriance and beauty above the verdant slopes." A tree will produce 300 nuts in the year, and continues to bear for twenty-five years. The nut is very hard, the size of a cherry, and is chewed by all the natives of India with the leaves of the betel-pepper (Chavica betel) spread with chunam. ”

“ At Singapore, Penang, and Colombo it was observed that the common classes were incessantly chewing the betel-nut, which gives to their teeth and lips a color as if bathed in fresh blood. It is a well-known and long-established practice. The men carry the means about them at all times, and taking a piece of the nut, enclose it in a leaf of the same tree, adding a small quantity of quicklime ”

“ In remembrance of this celestial origin of the tree, and of the manner of its introduction to earth, Indians who desire to plant the Betel invariably steal a few young shoots.——The Betel, or Pepper-tree (Piper betle) , is most highly esteemed by the Indian races, who attribute to its leaves no less than thirty properties or virtues, the possession of which, even by a plant of heavenly origin, can scarcely be credited. It is the leaf of the Betel which serves to enclose a few slices of the Areca Nut (sometimes erroneously called the Betel Nut) ”

“ On the top of the Tree among the Branches the Betel-Nut [281] grows on a tough stem, as big as a Man’s Finger, in clusters much as the Coco-Nuts do, and they grow 40 or 50 in a cluster. This Fruit is bigger than a Nutmeg, and is much like it, but rounder. It is much used all over the East-Indies. Their way is to cut it in four pieces, and wrap one of them up in an Arek-leaf, which they spread with a soft Paste made of Lime or Plaster, and then chew it altogether. Every Man in these parts carries his Lime-Box by his side, and dipping his Finger into it, spreads his Betel and Arek leaf with it. ”

“ The betel-nut tribute.--In all dealings with the unseen world, the offering of betel nut is the first and most essential act, just as it constitutes in the ordinary affairs of Manóbo life the essential preliminary to all overtures made by one man to another. ”

“ The poor, indeed, employ it to keep off the pangs of hunger. In certain parts of the East, it is not considered polite to speak to a superior without some of the Betel and Areca compound in the mouth. At Indian marriage ceremonies, the bride and bridegroom exchange between themselves the same Areca Nut, with its accompanying Betel-leaf.——In Borneo, a favoured lover may enter the house of the loved one’s parents, at night, and awaken her, to sit and eat Betel Nut and the finest of Sirih-leaves from his garden. ”

“ After a while, however, he finds a pleasant stimulation of sensation in the constant presence of the biting betel nut in his mouth; he craves it and cannot do his work so well without it. He will ever advert to its use and will be restless without it. He continues to use it in spite of the fact that the intense irritation set up by the biting qualities of the substance causes cancer of the tongue to occur ten times as frequently among those who chew betel nut as among the rest of the population. ”

“ The chewing of betel leaves is one of the peculiar customs of the country, even more common than tobacco chewing ever was with us. At almost every street corner, in the porticos of the temples, at the railway stations and in the parks, you will see women and men, squatting on the ground behind little trays covered with green leaves, powdered nuts and a white paste, made of the ashes of cocoanut fiber, the skins of potatoes and a little lime. They take a leaf, smear it with the lime paste, which is intended to increase the saliva, and then wrap it around the powder of the betel nut. ”

“ The chewing of betel nut requires more apparatus and makes greater demands on a man's time and personal care than the smoking of tobacco or any of the allied vices. To cut the nut neatly an instrument is used like an enormous pair of nutcrackers with a sharp cutting edge. ”

“ A.D. 70.—"Beryls ... from India they come as from their native place, for seldom are they to be found elsewhere.... Those are best accounted of which carrie a sea-water greene."—Pliny, Bk. XXXVII. cap. 20 (in P. Holland, ii. 613) . c. 150.—"Πυννάτα ἐν ᾗ βήρυλλος."—Ptolemy, l. vii.
BETEL, s. The leaf of the Piper betel, L., chewed with the dried areca-nut (which is thence improperly called betel-nut, a mistake as old as Fryer—1673,—see p. 40) , chunam, etc., by the natives of India and the Indo-Chinese countries. The word is Malayāl. ”

“ In the Louisiade we had not observed the betel pepper, but here it was found in common use--both the leaf and green fruit, especially the latter, being added to the lime and areca-nut. Still betel chewing, although a very general habit, is by no means universally practised, for many elderly people retained the original whiteness of the teeth. By the males it appears to be adopted only after attaining the state of manhood, and among the females is almost entirely confined to the old women. ”

“ The chief purpose for which betel nuts are cultivated and collected is for use as a masticatory,—their use in this form being so widespread among Oriental nations that it is estimated that one-tenth of the whole human family indulge in betel chewing. ”

“ The nuts of the Areca palm are called betel-nuts because they are chewed with betel leaves and lime. Aside from this fact they might be called beetle nuts because of their striking resemblance to a pigeram beetle. They are plentiful in south Formosa where the disgusting habit of chewing the nuts is universal among the people. A handful of these nuts wrapped in a betel leaf with a little slacked lime is the first offering of friendly greeting that a lady makes to her gentleman caller. The effect of the practice is to utterly destroy the teeth before middle age is attained. ”

“ The shrub in itself has beauty, and it bears nuts sometimes as large as those of the average shagbark hickory. The kernel is of good quality, but the shell is so thick that these nuts are chiefly attractive to squirrels and to men who are out of work. I do not know the origin of the nut which is known in the market as the Barcelona hazel, but I imagine the plants bearing this nut are derived from the Corylus pontica. (Specimens of branches and nuts of various species and varieties of hazels are now passed about in the audience.) ”

“ One mistake we must not make is not to be too sure of the value of a nut because it is large, thin-shelled and has a fine flavor but is a poor cropper. The nut that produces a very heavy crop is the valuable nut. Thus McAllister hican and the Stabler black are worthless because of their extremely thin crop.
Another nut that looks large and excellent on the tree is the Ohio black walnut, whose huge dirty hull and small nut condemns it. I like thin-hulled nuts that come out clean. ”

“ It bears the nuts when six or eight years old, after which period it is never seen without them; they grow usually six or eight on one stalk, which diverges from the heart of the tree; they are the size of a man’s head, but more conical. The nut, it is well known, when divested of its husk, is exceedingly hard, and requires a hammer to break it, or to be sawed through the middle to procure the nourishment it affords; when young, this consists of a white liquid, which I can compare to nothing better than to milk and water mixed with sugar, and which is an exceedingly cool and agreeable beverage ”

“ Cajori's research has also shown the presence of growth-promoting vitamins in abundant quantity in the almond, English walnut, filbert, pine nut, hickory, chestnut and pecan.
That the nut is appreciated as a dainty is attested by the frequency with which it appears as a dessert and the extensive use of various nuts as confections. That nuts do not hold a more prominent place in the national bill of fare as food staples is due chiefly to two causes; first, the popular idea that nuts are highly indigestible, and second, the limited supply. ”

“ If walnuts and hickories can be grafted in tens of thousands like apples and peaches, all right, go ahead, but in the meantime raise all the seedlings you can. I am surprised that so far nothing has been said here about the king nut. There are only two places in New York State where the king nut grows. It grows in the Genesee Valley from Rochester up to Mt. Morris quite abundantly and it grows around Albany and Central New York. There are no other places in New York State where it grows. It is a larger nut than the common shell bark. It makes a magnificent tree. ”

“ In conclusion, I wish to state that selected varieties of filbert nuts can be grown in the Northeast. Hybrids between the American and European filbert are good growers and producers, although I find that the flavor of the nut isn't as good as that of the pure avellana. I would advise the planting of a dozen bushes by each of a great number of persons further to prove the possibilities of growing this specific nut in the New England area, also to promote the idea of growing both feed and food on trees and bushes. ”

“ It might be supposed that their indolence would lead them patiently to await the period when the ripened nuts, slowly parting from their stems, fall one by one to the ground. This certainly would be the case, were it not that the young fruit, encased in a soft green husk, with the incipient meat adhering in a jelly-like pellicle to its sides, and containing a bumper of the most delicious nectar, is what they chiefly prize. They have at least twenty different terms to express as many progressive stages in the growth of the nut. ”

“ In this region, also ground acorns are made into bread with cereal flours and in this form is a common food. The hazel or filbert nut is also seen in the form of flour on the shores of the Black Sea. Races living in the tropics have utilized the many varieties of nuts indigenous to tropical climes such as the coconut, Brazil nuts, Java almond, Paradise nut, candle nut and African cream nut. In the Orient, the lichi, ginko and water chestnut, and in Italy and India the varieties of the pine nut are used to considerable extent. ”

“ These grafted portions in the top of these trees under poor conditions—our soil is poor at Beltsville—set tremendously heavy crops, but the nuts are smaller in size than normal, and therefore the crop is not as desirable as it would be if it were grown under good conditions. The point is that those varieties bear even under poor conditions. Bearing is a variety characteristic, and wherever it grows it will bear though it may not produce a good-sized nut. ”

“ Tree is in a poor location on the edge of wild timber competing for soil space. The nut is a big step in the elimination of the central division, so pronounced in most heartnuts. This is the outstanding feature of this nut. Cracking and other features are still undetermined but promising. I have a number of others that are promising. One is the Flavo Heart, a heartnut and butternut cross. This is a seedling of Callender heart and butternut. The outstanding features are the shape of nut, flavor of kernel and ease of extraction. This is its first crop. ”

“ The causes that have made the use of certain nuts unprofitable commercially, should be studied with the view of correcting these stumbling blocks. For example, the freeing of the horse-chestnut from its poisonous saponins and enable us to use this starch rich nut as food is well within the range of possibility as indicated by experiments conducted in Austria during the war. Why do nut oils tend to become rancid easily and can this tendency be remedied? Is the freeing of the acorn and its tannin and other objectionable substances a practical consideration? ”

“ People have cultivated these nuts more or less intensively for generations, and many of the problems have been worked out, so far as Europe is concerned. Of course, when introduced in America, new problems confronted the growers here. The other type of nut industry is based upon indigenous nuts of which we know little, either from the orchard standpoint or as to the varieties concerned. Our native nuts, particularly the pecan, have forced themselves upon the attention of investigators of the department to much greater extent, perhaps, than any other nut with which we have to deal. ”

“ Professor Craig: I think that point is well taken.
President Morris: There is no doubt about that. In that same connection—I would choose nuts for seed purposes of a mean type, for the reason that nature is all the while establishing a mean. The big pecan is a freak. If you plant big or small nuts, you don't get big or small nuts in return. You get both big and little seeking a mean.
Mr. Roper: The large nut will give a better tree. ”