The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-10-25
CHESTNUTS APLBNTY
The Jersey Nut the Best
Of All, But the
Crop Light.

Il is something uuusual to see chest
nuts by the Wagon load selling at ter
cents a quart In October; but for a week
or more the licensed vendors have been
handling the nuts In this manner 1t Is
surprising, In view OF the fact that the
New Jersey chestnut crop is put down as
a failure this year in the localities whers
chestnuts most DO thrive. A Jersey City
dealer was asked about chestnuts
came from New York chiefly, and
that the main shipping points were be-
tween Binghampton and Syracuse. W i til
some few nuts from Sullivan county.
He showed some unusually large chest
nuts from Virginia, and said that the
crop in that State was prodigious this
year, while 1t was poor in this state and
in eaafern Pennsylvania. He had jus!
one Dag of chestnuts from Sussex county.
and it was a little bag holding abouE
three pecks. The nuts were small, too,
but contrasted with the big ones from
Virginia they were as sugar Is to Indian
meal so far as flavor is concerned.
They were the smallest chestnuts in
the market, and the sweetest. The
New York State cnestnutS are sweet n
full favored, but those from Virginia
seem lacking In something which goes TO
make the chestnut a general favorite-
raw, boiled or roasted. The little nuts
from up in Jersey look ed as If they might
b ave all dropped from one tree. and re-
minded one of those the darkey picked
on a farm at Union, when be said that
they were $50 blame small you has TO
pick a bushel of 'em to get Il quart"
E verybooy who has incurred a backache
by picking chestnuts in the neighbor-
hood of Newark knows that the nuts
from several trees differ greatly in size,
and knows also that The smallest nuts
are sweetest.
BEST NUTS THE LITTLE ONES.
The best are the little on es. which
on the southern side of a grove, and next
to them. in the esteem of the chestnut
sharps, are small nuts, which grow apo
an isolated tree in au open field. but it is
not often that a Tree growing in such a
favored position yields the little nuts
with concentrated sweetness in them.
Such trees usually bear big fruit, which
is insipid In proportion to the size. Every
body who knows anything about chest
nuttiIg in Nsw Jersey knows that the
small, long and dark nuts are best to
eat raw, and that all chestnuts Improve
In sweetness by drying. In fact, a big
chestnut right off the tree IS unfit to eat
raw. 1t is as insipid as q raw lima bean,
and seems 60 have d standing G Judge
termination to have it out with the
pharynx and the larynx. That's why the
three year old complained to his mother
about the bones in his chestuuts sticking
in his throat.
NO CHESTNUT FAMINE ERE
That Jersey City is lot going to suffer
a chestnut famine this rear is evident
from rhQ irlfnAnsA cTnnlU on hand IN
spite of the quantity brought here this
year the price has not been seriously cut,
and the farmers are said to be getting
So so a bushel for them. Any
Jersey farmer will tell you that 1t
does not pay TO pick ohestnnts for less In
the best of years. Many people who
regard chestunt-picking as an autumnaI
diversion do not realize That many land
owners in the State look upoh the chest
nut crop as u material item in their
annual income account. It is a crop hard
to protect in the ~neiRhoorhoou of a pig
to wn, but farther out in the country it is
methodically h~nsbanded. Some farmer
nuts without the strain of picking
them up from under the leaves
which every healthy chestnut covers
itself with as soon as IL strikes
the ground. They watch the trees
and spread sheets upon the ground when
the DurrS DeQln 10 opon. The wind and
frost does tue rest. Sweeping aud ak
ing the ground clean under the trees is
another precantion often taken to facili-
tate picking, and occasionally the land
owners burn of the leaves after the nuts
have fallen, and then pick the chestnuts
up dried aud half roasted by the heat.
TO KEEP THEM FRESH.
When chestnuts are fresh great care
must be taken to prevent them heating
in masses and becoming musty or mil
dewing. The usual plan is to spread the
nuts out in the wind aud sun, or in a
warm loft for some days before packing
them in barrels or bags.
The amount OF heat which will geuer-
ate in a barrel of freshly picked nuts is
surprising TO astranGer who tnrusts hi 8
arm well into the mass. The heat is
scarcely sufficient to COOK the nuts, but
it sets up a lively growth OF fungus and
speedily rufus the sweet kernels.
The one thing which has been most
commented upon this year in regard to
chestnuts is tueir freedom from worm
holes and maRgoJs. 1t does seem as if
the worm had been lett this year. Oae
man who was peddling chestnuts from a
wagon on Newark avenue Saturday
night offered TO give away the load II a
prospective buyer OF q Quart could find a