AMERICAN WALNUTS.
A dozen different kinds of valuable trees belong in the family of the walnuts and hickories. They are fruit trees, for most of them bear edible nuts — pecans, English walnuts, and shagbark hickory nuts, for examples. They are noble shade and valuable lumber trees. So they have been planted and highly esteemed from the time that men first began to use the fruit and the wood of trees.
The Black Walnut bears globular nuts, wrapped in spongy husks, smooth and green, like little oranges, clustered on the ends of twigs, and sur rounded by whorls of the long, compound leaves. In fall these fruits drop and the husks soften and break, but the hard sculptured nut shells defend the kernels from the enemies that may destroy them. Squirrels must gnaw, and small boys must hammer to get through that solid, wooden wall. The planter always cracks the shell, to help the seed to get out when it sprouts in spring.
The second American walnut, also an eastern species, is the White Walnut, commonly called, from its oily kernel, the Butternut. The fruit is a long, pointed nut, dark-colored, and deeply sculptured. The fuzzy, clammy, green husk leaks an aromatic juice that stains the hands of the nut-gatherer scandalously, if he doesn't take care. This fluid made the dye the housewife used in old times to color homespun woolens to the butternut browns, common in men's suits. The green nuts were rubbed free from their furry coverings, and pickled. They make a fine sauce with meats. The nuts are rich, but they soon become rancid. This takes them out of the list of commercial nuts, but they will always be a treat for country boys and girls to eat with roasted apples and cider, around the open fire.