The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1875-04-16
What Nuts are GOOH For.

To eat, of course.
Well, some are eaten, and some are
made into earrings; some are made into
hair oil, and some are used to sleep on;
some are grated up and put into pud-
dings, and some are carved into buttons
and boxes; some are ground to flour and
made into bread, and some are burnt in
candles; some form the body of soap,
and some are made into ink; some are
used for tooth-powder, and some for
tanning leather; some are made into
starch, and some are used for medicine.
There are several uses for nuts, YOU
see.
There's the chestnut, the beautiful,
glossy brown fellows that you have been
out with parties to gather many a time.
They are almost the staff of life with the
French and the Italian peasants. They
Will grow on a barren soil, that will pro-
duce nothing else, and the Italians dry
and grind them into flour, of which they
make bread. The French alone are said
to eat six million bushels of chestnuts
every year; and the Spaniards preserve
them III sand or straw, and depend on
them to eat in the winter, as much as we
do on potatoes.
And the pea nuts, or ground nuts, or
COOLERS, or earth nuts, or hawk nuts, OF
pig nuts, which ever name you may call
them, to be sure, we eat them-a half
million bushels of them come into New
York alone every year, it is said but in
Africa they are ground into meal, ana
made into custards, and p~orridge, and a
drink like chocolate.
The hazel nut, too, which we care
little for, is such a f~avorite in England
that, besides what grows there, three
hundred thousand bushels of them are
imported every year from Spain and
called Spanish nuts. And, besides this,
they are pressed for their oil, which is
used by perfumers.
Then there's the beech nut-the de-
licious little, golden-brown, three-cor-
nered things-which, being so delicate
to eat, are so pretty to look at. The
French make them into bread and brown
them for a sort of coffee, and the English
feed to them pigs and send abroad for
hazel nuts!
And these are the nuts that DO not
grow in our country. The p~istachio
nuts, used for cooking and confectionery
and to make soap and hair oil and the
English walnut, for oil to burn in lamps,
though you like them to eat, and their
shells to make into boats and goggles {;
and the coquilla nut Of Brazil, hard and
dark, and turned into various pretty
things and the betel nut, for tooth
powder and to chew.
The Brazil nut, or palm nut-large,
dark, and three-sided, 50 rich that you
cannot eat many, are extremely valuable.
Many are eaten, but many more are
made into oil. Did o ever see them
on the tree! They grow in a box. round
and about the size OF Il croquet ball
perhaps 4 little larger. The outside is a
hard, rough shell and perfectly tight,
but peep into the small round hole at
the top, where it is fastened to its
stem, and You will see that it is packed
full OF nuts, so tightly that they will
hardly rattle, even when old and dry.
There are about sixteen in a box, and it
wouldn't be a very nice thing to come
tumbllng down on ones head. There's
another kind, very much like them,
which grow Ill boxes also; but the boxes
have natural covers, and when they are
ripe the I'VE opens and the box falls
with a crash, scattering the nuts about.
The empty boxes are called Monkeys
Drinking Cups" These nuts are not SO
plenty as the common Brazil nut, for,
being so scattered, they are eaten by
wild animals; while the others stay
packed in their boxes and can easily be
gathered by men.