Hackberry

“ Our modern species lays its eggs upon the leaves of hackberry and in these geologic deposits of that far-gone era there have been found well-preserved leaves of old hackberry trees, upon which it is extremely probable that the caterpillars of these ancient Long-beaks fed. What an opportunity for a modern collector of butterflies to work his fancy, as he thinks of those old times when these fossil creatures were flying in the sunshine, depositing their eggs upon the [Pg 239] leaves of trees that made up landscape pictures probably very different from those of to-day! ”

“ The highways offer excellent opportunities for nut production and such trees as the black walnut and hickories may often be used to advantage. The presence of birds may be encouraged by planting hackberry and other trees or shrubs of which they are fond.
The Michigan Agricultural College was authorized by the Legislature to raise trees for roadside planting. The College is raising red oak, black walnut, oriental sycamore, sugar maple, elm, hackberry, snowdrop tree, Juneberry, hickory, European larch, Norway maple and box elder for this purpose. ”

“ However, few survive beyond the sapling stage. The red elm is never abundant in Kansas woodlands. It is intolerant of drought conditions, and is one of the first trees to die. This fact probably explains the scarcity of mature trees of this species on the Reservation.
Celtis occidentalis.—Hackberry is widely distributed on the area, but is not dominant anywhere. Its favorite site is along hilltop limestone outcrops, especially where there is south exposure. There are few on hilltops away from the outcrops. Hackberries are scattered in small numbers over the wooded slopes. ”

“ Trees with pith of branchlets chambered; flowers in Indiana species appear before the leaves, the leaves generally with 3 primary veins at the base; staminate flowers usually in clusters, the pistillate solitary or few together in the axils of the leaves, and near the end of the twigs; fruit a globose drupe, sometimes elongated, pulp thin and sweet, frequently remaining on the tree until late winter, relished by birds; stone bony, wrinkled.
Some of the American species of hackberry are very variable. The habitat of the species varies from deep swamps to arid rocky slopes. ”

“ The WOOD is light brown, coarse-grained and soft, very light in weight, and has a broad zone of nearly white sapwood. The wood has little economic value.
66 HACKBERRY
Celtis occidentalis L.
Hackberry is found over eastern Texas on various types of soil. It is usually a medium-sized to large tree, becoming 60 to 100 feet or more high and 10 to 20 inches in diameter. Its limbs are often crooked and angular and bear a head made of slender, pendant branches or short, bristly, stubby twigs. In the open, the crown is generally symmetrical. It makes an excellent shade tree. ”

“ Osage orange may have been distributed in the same manner. Seedlings of dogwood were moderately numerous on each one of the areas sampled, and those of red haw were somewhat less abundant on each area. Crab-apple was the most abundant species invading the hilltop pastures but was scarce or absent in the other situations. The remaining species of trees, including coffee-tree, hackberry, cottonwood, ash, plum, peach, cherry, cockspur thorn, sycamore, and redbud, each made up only a small percentage of the tree crop in the situations where they occurred. ”

“ Nova Scotia across to southern Manitoba, south to central Texas, east to south-central Florida.
Distinguishing Features: American Elm may be distinguished from the Winged Elm and the Rock Elm by its lack of corky wings on the branchlets. It differs from the Slippery Elm by its relatively smooth leaves and the lack of rusty-colored hairs on its buds. The Siberian Elm, which is also similar, does not have distinctly asymmetrical leaves. Hackberry leaves, which are also somewhat similar in appearance, have three main veins originating at the base of each leaf blade. ”

“ Shape round topped: to 120 ft. tall. Trunk slender. Branches spreading or pendulous. Bark light brown to silver gray, smooth until old age when broken into scales or warty knobs. Leaves lustrous and rough above, turning yellow in autumn; Fruit orange red to dark purple, with thin edible flesh and large stone. Range: N. C. to Kans. and n. to Que. and Man. This handsome tree has not much timber value; its leaves in the South are sometimes heavy and dark green. MISSISSIPPI HACKBERRY (Celtis laevigata) differs in its much narrower and longer leaves, the margins not toothed; fruits smaller. ”

“ The fruit has a sweetish and slightly astringent taste, and is largely eaten in the United States. The seeds contain an oil like that of almonds. The bark is tough and fibrous like hemp, and the wood is heavy, soft, fragile and coarse-grained, and is used for making fences and furniture. ”

“ Ceaseless are locusts; heavy is the air above the garden, where phlox and strawberry shrub tinge it Persian-sweet. Clustered blueberries are drooped upon the mountains, and in the swamps, sometimes over quicksands, shows the darkling sheen of the high-bush huckleberry. The odor of [42] the balsam fir is drawn out and spread far by the heat. Now the pursued brambles become the blackberry patch. The waste lands shine yellow with the blooms of the marching hardhack. It is the triumph of the sun, and his priest, the white day lily of the cloistral leaf, worships in fragrance. ”

“ The huckleberry is a sweet, dark blue berry, that grows on a very delicate low shrub, the blossoms are very pretty, pale pink or greenish white bells, the fruit is very wholesome; it grows on light dry ground, on those parts of the country that are called plains in Canada. The settlers' children go out in parties, and gather great quantities, either to eat or dry for winter use. These berries are a great blessing to every one, besides forming abundant food for the broods of young quails and partridges; squirrels, too, of every kind eat them. There are blackberries also, Lady Mary ”

“ Along this path you may have your choice of varieties as you go, from the pale blue ones that grow so very near the earth on their tiny bushes that they seem the salt of it, giving the day its zest, through the low-bush-blacks, crisp with seeds and aromatic in flavor as if smoked with the incense of the sweet-fern, to those other black ones that grow on the high bushes and rightfully take the name of huckleberry. The soil of these sandy hills may be thin and not worth farming, but it produces fruit whose quality puts to shame the product of well-cultivated gardens. ”

“ There is a species of huckleberry common to the piny lands from the commencement of the Columbian valley to the seacoast; it rises to the hight of 6 or 8 feet. is a simple branching some what defuse stem; the main body or trunk is cilindric and of a dark brown, while the colateral branches are green smooth, squar, and put forth a number of alternate branches of the same colour and form from the two horizontal sides only. the fruit is a small deep perple berry which the natives inform us is very good. the leaf is thin of a pale green and small being 3/4 of an inch in length and 3/8 in width ”

“ Its food, according to Abbot, consists of the Andromeda mariana, vulgarly called the male hackleberry, which grows round ponds and on the margins of running streams; it eats also several species of walnut and oak. One went into the ground on the 31st of July, and the moth came out the 23rd of August; another went in the 8th of June, and came forth the 3rd of July. They likewise sometimes go into the ground in autumn, and come out in the spring. The whole brood of caterpillars feed together in society. ”

“ How can I adequately sing the praises of the gentle, the neat, the comfortable huckleberry! No briers, no squash bugs, no back-breaking stoop or arm-rending stretch to [Pg 133] reach them. Just a big, bushy, green clump, full of glossy black or softly blue berries, and you can sit right down on the tussocks among them, put your pail underneath a bush, and begin. At first, the handfuls drop in with a high-keyed "plinking" sound ”

“ Fifty or sixty tropical and temperate-zone species of hackberries include two North American trees which have considerable value for shade and ornamental planting. One hardy Japanese species has been introduced; three exotic species are in cultivation in the South. ”

“ The popular name of the genus Gaylussacia, of which there are several species. The Dwarf huckleberry, the Blue huckleberry and the Black huckleberry are common throughout the United States, the latter being the huckleberry of the Northern States. In New England the name is commonly restricted to the black berry species in distinction from the blue berry. The shrubs range in height from about three feet to twelve feet high. In New England canning huckleberries is an extensive if not exceedingly profitable industry. The crop is first picked by hand and afterwards with a “blueberry rake.” ”

“ The fruits do not yield their true flavor to the purchaser of them, nor to him who raises them for the market. There is but one way to obtain it, yet few take that way. If you would know the flavor of huckleberries, ask the cow-boy or the partridge. It is a vulgar error to suppose that you have tasted huckleberries who never plucked them. A huckleberry never reaches Boston; they have not been known there since they grew on her three hills. The ambrosial and essential part of the fruit is lost with the bloom which is rubbed off in the market cart, and they become mere provender. ”

“ Early in summer we feasted on strawberries, [123] that grew in rich beds beneath the meadow grasses and sedges as well as in the dry sunny woods. And in different bogs and marshes, and around their borders on our own farm and along the Fox River, we found dewberries and cranberries, and a glorious profusion of huckleberries, the fountain-heads of pies of wondrous taste and size, colored in the heart like sunsets. Nor were we slow to discover the value of the hickory trees yielding both sugar and nuts. ”

“ Blackberries still very plenty, and sweet; they have not brought any to the village lately, people seem tired of them. Found also a few red raspberries, whortleberries, and the acid rose-berry. This is a land of berries; a large portion of our trees and plants yield their seed in this form. Among such are the several wild cherries, and plums, the amelanchiers and dog-woods, the mountain ash, the sumachs, and the thorns; all the large bramble tribe, with their pleasant fruits, roses, raspberries, the blackberry, and the gooseberry ”

“ Among our wild fruits we have plums, which, in some townships, are very fine and abundant; these make admirable preserves, especially when boiled in maple molasses, as is done by the American housewives. Wild cherries, also a sort called choke cherries, from their peculiar astringent qualities, high and low-bush cranberries, blackberries, which are brought by the Squaws in birch baskets,—all these are found on the plains and beaver meadows. The low-bush cranberries are brought in great quantities by the Indians to the towns and villages. ”

“ Fair are the sheathed berries of the prickly ash—but daggers to the taste. Often they grow among wild cherries, which, juiceless now, are sweet as dried fruits from Persia. And there are the black nannyberries with their watermelon flavor, and the first spicy wild grapes. ”

“ The red huckleberry bushes running miraculously along the ground among the trees everywhere, except where the land’s tilled, these keep her from that tiredness the earth’s touch lays up under the soles of feet. She runs beyond the wood follows the swiftest along the roads laughing among the birch clusters her face in the yellow leaves the curls before her eyes her mouth half open. ”

“ Barren as this country is, it abounds with a variety of unknown plants, and gave sufficient employment to Mr Forster and his party. The tree, which produceth the winter's bark; is found here in the woods, as is the holy- leaved barberry; and some other sorts, which I know not, but I believe are common in the straits of Magalhaens. We found plenty of a berry, which we called the cranberry, because they are nearly of the same colour, size, and shape. It grows on a bushy plant, has a bitterish taste, rather insipid; but may he eaten either raw or in tarts, and is used as food by the natives. ”

“ His curved bill, sharp claws and long tail, all serve a distinct purpose in helping him find his food. Hackberries or other rough-barked trees serve as his hunting grounds and there you will find him checking the cracks and crevices as he starts from the base and works upward, sometimes checking the larger limbs, but often dropping down to the base of the next tree after reaching the lower limbs. Insects, their eggs and larvae form the major portion of his diet but he will not spurn suet on your feeder. ”

“ There are doubtless many among the inhabitants of our towns and cities who have never gathered or seen the strawberry in its wild state; and many, very many more who are wholly unacquainted with the peculiar and interesting structure of this fruit and its allies—the raspberry, blackberry, dewberry, and their congeners. ”

“ The shagbark hickory has been extremely important in the economy of the United States during its period of early development. The handles of the axes which leveled extensive forested areas in Colonial days were frequently made from sturdy hickory wood. The nuts furnished food for man in the form of oil or nutmeats and often hogs were fattened on hickory nuts, beechnuts and chestnuts. ”

“ During the season he was always supplied with huckleberries, of which he was exceedingly fond. Any other bird would take his stand beside the dish, and eat till he was satisfied; but quite [Pg 211] otherwise did the clarin. He went deliberately to the floor where they were, took one berry daintily in the tip of his beak, returned with it to the upper perch, fixed his eyes upon me, and suddenly, without a movement, let it slip down his throat, his eyes still upon me, with the most comically solemn expression of "Who says I swallowed a berry?" ”