Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-01-25
Hickory Nuts.

"You have no idea," a Washington
street dealer said, "of the great differ
ences in hickory nuts, or how hard it is
to keen a regular line of them. Some
of our customers who have passed their
early days in the country are very good
Judges of hickory nuts, and they want
them Just so. If they don't get them'
down they come, and then there is war.
There are many individual kinds, al
though [ believe there are only four
general classes. The difficulty is that
two trees of the same class may not bear
equally good nuts. Take, for instance,
the shelibark nuts, which are by far the
best, bringing the highest price. The
shells in some instances are as thin as
paper, and in others as thick as some O.
the nuts belonging to the other classes,
and to a Judge there is a very percepti-
BILE difference in flavor"
..What are the different kinds of
nuts?"
1.-The shellbark, the mocker nut, the
PIG nut, and the bitter nut. The mock
er nut is a square nut with a very sweet
and delicious kernel. Unfortunately, it
is very small and hard to get at, and
for this reason probably was first called
'mocker.' The pig nut has a very thick
shell, and its small kernel has a disa-
greeable taste. Pig nuts are the most
numerous, The bitter nut nobody ever
thinks of eating, because its kernel is
well represented by it's name"
care there not other nuts which look
very much like shellbarks, but have
thicker shells?"
eyes. They are, however, a variety
of the shellbark. The kind of nut to
which you refer is most commonly sold
about town. The meat is fairly good,
and is sometimes very large; 1t bears
no comparison to the real shellbark."
What is the appearance of the
genine and u~nmistakable shellbark?"
cit is almost elliptical in shape, and
is pretty flat on the faces, which, how
ever, are not regular plains. The color
is almost white, with q tendency to a
very light buff. A light blow on the
side breaks it open, and the kernel
comes II in two pieces. 1t is of o
pretty brown, and looks rich and tempt
ing. AS to their flavor, [ can only say
that there is no foreign nut which can
surpass it,"
raised?"
because of the great difficulty in
grating them. Many nurserymen have
tried it both in this country and in
France, but without any very great uc-
cess. A very bad feature Of the nut
trade is that the farmers from whom we
buy often mix up the good and bad nuts
together, and we have not the time or
opportunity to sort them ont. II you
often eat hickory nuts you will notice
that every once in q whileyou will come
across one which has q sweet flavor and
yet seems rancid. That is q pig nut,
and is n of the results of the mixing.
Hickory nuts often get very dry, and
both the shells and kernels crumble
when they are cracked. In that case
we are accused of selling last YEARS
nuts. Not long ago | sold a bag of
nuts to a customer, and a few days af-
terward he said that they seemed to be
old nuts, because theywent all to pieces
when cracked. L asked him if they
acted that way when he first took them
home. He said they did not, and then
remembered that the nuts were kept in
. closet directly over the cellar furnace.
The heat had dried them.
"There is great science in cracking
hickory nuts, and there is some differ
ence OF opinion as to the best method of
doing it. l guess that there are more
crack hickory nutcrackers in Westches-
ter County than anywhere else. Thirty
or forty years ago the folks had nut
cracking matches up there. While sit
ting around a big fire in q farmhouse
kitchen they cracked the nuts, eating
the meat with apples and cider. They
threw the shells in the fire. The shells
burn very briskly, and when they are
charred glow like rubies. Lots of queer
stories are told about the old hickory
nut times. When I was Il boy my
mother who was born in Westchester
County, told me- about an old man who
lived in a little house in the woods, and
who during the whole winter sat- by the
fire and cracked and ate nuts. He
cracked so many nuts, they say, that he
required II % other fuel than the shells to
keep the fire going. l can't swear that
he did not use any other fuel but the
nutshells, but there is no doubt about
his having existed, for my mother often
saw his house."
"Now, about cracking them, please"
81 think that q hammer and a nice
round cobble stone can crack nuts bet
ter than anything else. Take hold of
the nut between the thumb and fore
finger Of the left hand, and rest the side
of the nut on the surface of the stone.
Hold the nut firmly, and then give a
sharp blow with the hammer. if YOU
hold the nut Fight and strike it right the
kernel will come out in two pieces.
Some persons prefer q block of hard
wood to a stone, and some use a flat
iron."-N. y. Sun.
-Comatbirr of +Io ,o,l:4- 80