Nut shell

“ When the nut is fully ripe, a fibrous, spongy substance begins to form all round the germ, and this gradually extends, absorbing both the so-called milk and the hard kernel, till the whole shell is full of a soft, sweet, white growth, like a very light blanc-mange. If at this stage the nut escapes the gourmet of the South Seas, the young germ will soon force open one of the three eyes, and, working its way through the fibrous husk, begin its heavenward growth ”

“ Even so, however, we still have the actual woody inner nut-shell itself to deal with; and unless we have arrived at that highest stage of civilization where nut-crackers are specially manufactured for us, to aid us in the struggle, we must crack them as best we may with our own precious and too unstable molars. But the native enemies of the hickory-nut—squirrels and the like—can not proceed in any such crunching and radically destructive fashion. They must bore a hole through the shell somewhere, and then extract the kernel little by little with their long, sharp, curved front teeth ”

“ For this purpose the nut has slowly acquired by natural selection a number of protective defences against its numerous enemies, which serve to guard it admirably in the native state from almost all possible animal depredators. First of all, the actual nut or seed itself consists of a tiny embryo plant, placed just inside the softest of the three pores or pits at the end of the shell, and surrounded by a vast quantity of nutritious pulp, destined to feed and support it during its earliest unprotected days, if not otherwise diverted by man or monkey. ”

“ It is of a tough fleshy consistence, but when ripe splits open, and shows the dark-brown nut within, covered with the crimson mace, and is then a most beautiful object. Within the thin, hard shell of the nut is the seed, which is the nutmeg of commerce. ”

“ Nut′hatch, a genus of birds of the family Sittidæ, agile creepers—also Nut′jobber, Nut′pecker; Nut′-hook, a stick with a hook at the end for pulling down boughs that the nuts may be gathered: a bailiff, a thief who uses a hook; Nut′meal, meal made from the kernels of nuts; Nut′-oil, an oil obtained from walnuts; Nut′-pine, one of several pines with large edible seeds; Nut′shell, the hard substance that encloses the kernel of a nut: anything of little value; Nut′ter, one who gathers nuts ”

“ It seems to me that one trouble with our nut propaganda is that we go at it in such a way that the pupils regard us somewhat as "nuts," and why should the man who becomes a specialist on any subject, and airs it on all occasions, be called a nut? We shall have to admit that men are called such names. I think it is because we let our brains work somewhat like the oyster or clam, and secrete a hard shell of formal knowledge around the sweet meat of condensed human nature, for that is what all useful knowledge is. ”

“ The sun-dried husk of the ripe nut is used for fuel, and also, when cut across, for polishing furniture, scrubbing floors, etc. The shell of the nut is made into cups, goblets, ladles, etc., and these household articles are often finely polished and elaborately ornamented by carving. ”

“ The more persistent and the hungrier their foes become, the less will a small degree of bitterness or hardness serve to protect them. Hence, from generation to generation, the bitterness and the hardness will go on increasing, because only those nuts which are the nastiest and the most difficult to crack will escape destruction from the teeth or bills of the growing and pressing population of rodents and birds. The nut which best survives on the average is that which is least conspicuous in colour, has a rind of the most objectionable taste, and is enclosed in the most solid shell. ”

“ The nut must be of fair size, of good flavor, thin to medium thickness of shell, well filled, and of good cracking quality—that is, the conformation of the shell and kernel must be such that a large percentage of the kernels can be taken out as whole halves, and the convolutions of the kernels must be wide enough that the partitions do not adhere to them. When all of these qualities, both of the tree and nut, can be combined, we then have a desirable tree from which to propagate, and it is very surprising how few come up to the standard. ”

“ Moderator, I don't believe we are, provided that we maintain high standards in the varieties distributed and tested. I feel that when we select a variety we should select it because it is a good nut, not that it's a world beater, for big size and thick, rough, rugged shell that is not sealed, and which is of no value for human use or consumption, excepting for firewood or fuel. ”

“ It fixes the nut in a crack, on the top of a post, or in the bark of a tree, and, placing itself above it, head downwards, striking with great force and rapidity, with its strong, wedge-shaped bill on the edge of the shell, splits it open. When their food is plentiful, [122] they have a favourite crack for unshelling the kernels, as sometimes a peck of broken shells may be seen under this crack. ”

“ When old, the nut becomes more oleaginous. The only difference in the several varieties consists in the relative hardness or brittleness of the shell, it being thin or thick, full of compartments or smooth and uniform. This is the only fruit that Nature has enclosed in a covering formed of pieces soldered together; the shell, in fact, forming a couple of boats, while the kernel is divided into four separate compartments1954 by the intervention of a ligneous membrane. ”

“ Experience shows that no matter how nut shells or fruit pit shells are ground both under- and oversize particles will be produced. The hard, friable character of most of the nut shells makes their reduction to fine size particles less difficult than for tough materials, such as corncobs, or fibrous materials such as woods. ”

“ 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.) ”

“ The nut, inside its germ-proof shell, is solid nutriment of the purest sort, the very quintessence of nutrient value, sunlight in cold storage. The nut represents food energy in its most delectable and concentrated form.
From an economic standpoint, the nut leaves flesh foods so far behind that they are almost out of sight.
Experiments to determine the digestibility and nutritive value of nuts were conducted several years ago by the eminent Professor Jaffa of the University of California. ”

“ The nut is quite large, intermediate in size between the white and the thick shell-bark, of a yellowish color and a sweet kernel. The bark has not the scaling propensity, but the flowers and the leaves are quite similar. Its distribution is wider than the thick shell-bark, but it is still limited. One peculiarity is observed in all three species, and that is the great variability in the shape of the nuts, a feature that is much less marked in all the other sorts. ”

“ If one farm boy in every county would take an interest in growing the nuts that belong to his region, think how the value of the nut crop would increase. Every boy knows that the hickory nuts on one particular shell-bark are bigger and sweeter than on every other one he knows of. ”

“ But the Nuts that make the Oyl ought to be a long time gathered, so as that the Kernel may be turning soft and oily.
The Shell of this Nut is used in the East Indies for Cups, Dishes, Ladles, Spoons, and in a manner for all eating and drinking Vessels. Well shaped Nuts are often brought home to Europe, and much esteemed. The Husk of the Shell is of great use to make Cables; for the dry Husk is full of small Strings and Threads, which being beaten, become soft, and the other Substance which was mixt among it falls away like Saw-dust, leaving only the Strings. ”

“ If two comparatively thin shelled nuts will produce an offspring with a shell so much thicker than either parent, it does not seem more impossible for two thick shelled nuts to produce thin shelled offsprings. ”

“ A day or two more, and the shell and husk, which in the last and germinating stage of the nut are so hard that a knife will scarcely make any impression, spontaneously burst by some force within; and, henceforth, the hardy young plant thrives apace, and needing no culture, pruning, or attention of any sort, rapidly arrives at maturity. ”

“ The immature nuts are often used medicinally, forming the base of a valuable ointment for external use. The jelly which lines the shell of the more mature nut furnishes a food product of great delicacy and high nutritive value. ”

“ When the puncture into the nut is completed one or more eggs are inserted by means of an extensile, thread-like tube, or ovipositor, of the same length as the snout. The eggs hatch into the familiar worms found in ripe chestnuts, hickory-nuts and hazel nuts. The large hole in the shell of the nut is made by the full grown worm as it escapes to enter the ground, where it completes its transformation into a beetle. An interesting thing in con [Pg 102] nection with these weevils is that each species confine its attacks to one particular kind of nut. ”

“ Outside this solid coating it often spreads a softer covering with a nauseous, bitter taste, so familiar to us all in the walnut, which at once warns off the enemy from attacking the unsavory morsel. Not content with all these protective devices, of color, taste, and hardness, the nut in many cases contains poisonous juices, and is thickly clad in hooked and pointed mail, which wounds the hands or lips of the would-be robber. In brief, a nut is a seed which has survived in the struggle for life by means of multiplied protections against the attacks of enemies. ”

“ Then, again, even when its disguise is pierced, and the nut, with its outer husk entire, is spied upon the ground by some hungry animal, it is coated with a very nasty, bitter covering, which effectually repels one from tearing it open readily with the teeth. We hand-wearing human beings, however, may perhaps manage to peel off the outer husk with a knife or stone, or, by more popular practice, to put a lot of the nuts together in a wheat-sack and thrash them out by stamping on them with our feet. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Every man carried a punch, which he wanted to enlarge and make effective. If Corbett used apple sauce to oil his arm for a knock-out blow, every man with red blood wanted apples. Now we must work our nut campaign in some such popular way, if we expect to put a nut on the wheel of progress. ”

“ Most people are fond of nuts, but if the reader wants to enjoy the full flavour, to get out of a nut all that is in it, let him take the following recipe:—“First of all, let the nut be cracked, if possible, between your own molars, for these are, after all, the first and most natural and best of all nut-crackers, better quoad hoc than an instrument of the purest silver or steel; and there is besides, remember, something pleasant to the palate in the feel and flavour even of an uncracked nut. ”

“ The happiest result of this worm-killing substance is seen in the work it accomplishes on fruit and nut trees. There is triple the variety of nuts on Ploid, and they are used for food more generally than in our world. There is no such an animal as a hog and no lard is used. The substitute is found in four varieties of nut oil, the result of a sweet and clean vegetable growth. Nuts are raised in great abundance, for they also supply the base for a spread just as appetizing and more economical than butter. ”

“ They had followed their natural instinct of climbing when they got into the steel traps, and climbing wildly had broken off every single branch from those hazels which carried hybridized nuts. There wasn't one left, because the squirrels when caught had climbed into the trees and had so violently torn about with trap and chain that they had broken off every single branch with a nut on it. So many things happen in our experiments that appeal to one's sense of the ludicrous, if he has a sense of humor, that I assure you nut raising is a source of great delight to those who are fond of the drama. ”

“ I believe that women are just as competent as men to conduct any feature of nut culture, with the possible exception of specific manual labor. And I can think of no more delightful vocation for women who love the great and wonderful outdoors—and where is the woman who does not?—than nut culture, the cultivation of nut trees and bushes, beautiful things not only for the grace and beauty of trunk and limb, foliage and flower, but for their real substance, their fruit, nuts, one of the most nutritious foods for human beings. ”