ALMONDS.
Strangest of all the stone fruits is the almond, for its flesh dries away into a leathery husk that cracks open when ripe to free the pit. We do not throw away the pit of the almond as we do that of other stone fruits, for it is good to eat. Almonds are among our most wholesome and most delicious nuts.
Two kinds of almonds are grown, the sweet and the bitter. The first is the edible one; the second yields a flavoring extract used in cookery and in perfumes. The pits are ground and mixed with water. The oil that contains the peculiar flavor is then steam-distilled, and afterward freed of its poison, hydrocyanic acid.
The paper-shelled sweet almond is the one the market demands, so it is the principal kind raised. It has been produced by careful selection from the stubborn, hard-shelled kinds first derived from the wild almond of the Mediterranean countries. Sweet almond oil is an article obtainable in drug stores.
The flower of the almond trees is like that of the peach, and for this reason the tree has been planted as an ornamental wherever it is hardy. The trees
bear fruit only in warm climates. In this coun try the greatest areas devoted to the cultivation of the sweet almond are in the high coast valleys of central California. The bulk of the trade is still supplied from the old almond-growing coun tries of Europe: Spain, France, and Italy lead ing. Morocco ranks with them.
When the nuts are ripe, the husks split open. Then the branches are shaken or beaten, the fruit dropping on canvas spread under the tree. The almonds are hulled by machinery, and then dried, and bleached by sulphur fumes. This process is foolish in the extreme, as it may spoil the flavor of the nuts if any miscalculation is made. The shell easily discolors if it stays on the tree later than the time the husk breaks. Since shell dis coloration hurts the sale, bleaching is resorted to. The Public pays the price of this extra process, because it imagines that almonds are not first class unless they have bright yellow shells!