The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1920-04-16
have had for himself. The par
ticlar advantage In planting


ness OF these trees for waste places, where little
else will grow and they need less attention per-
haps than other trees Of the nut-bearing group:
1t is probable, however that the extensive plant
ing Of pine trees for food purposes will have to
wait until have advanced to the point of put
ting other kinds of nut trees upon good ground
first. Pines will be employed for the more barren
hillsdes when the people Of 800 years from now
complain of the high cost Of living.
1t is not generally known that some OF the
smaller pine nuts. like those of the singleleaved
pine Of the sugar pine, are delicious when
cracked and eaten out of hand. The smaller pine
nuts are pounded up by the Indians with little
water and the thick, rich, creamy emulsion like
hickory milk can be kept for long time without
decomposition. In addition to the nuts Of the
sugar pine the Indians collect the sugar OF dried
juice which exudes at points where cuts have been
made in the tree for the purpose
In Europe and Asia pine nuts for the market are
cracked by machinery by cheap hand labor, and
it is probable that may eventually hull some
of the smaller buckwheat Is hulled.
With few exceptions nuts contain little carbohy-
drate (starch sugar.. They are, however, rich
in fat and protein. On account Of their high fat
content they are probably the most highly con-
centrated of all natural foods. A pound OF nuts
contains average of than 5000 calories,
double the amount supplied by grains, four times
his much us average meats and ten times much
as average fruits and vegetables.
The notion that nuts are difficult of digestion
has really no foundation, in fact The idea is
probably the natural outgrowth Of the custom of
eating nuts at the close of a meal when an
abundance Of highly nutritious food has already
been eaten and the equally injurious custom of
eating nuts between meals. Failure of thorough
mastication must also be mentioned as possible
cause of Indigestion. The fats of nuts are the
most dgestble of all forms Of fat.
Whole races of men, comprising many Millions
live without meats of any sort and when fed a
sufficient amount of 9th er foods are wonderfully
vigorous prolific enduring and intelligent.
The great economic Importance of the encour-
agement of nut culture in every civilized land is
best shown by comparing the amount of food
which may be annually produced by an acre Of
land planted to nut trees and the same area de-
two acres of land and two years are required to
produce a steer weighing 600 pounds The prod
uct of one for year would be onefourth
as much. The same land planted to walnut trees
would produce an average of at least 100 pounds
per tree per annum for the first twenty years.
Forty trees to the acre would aggregate 1000
pounds of nuts, or 1000 pounds of walnut meats
The highest food value which could be ascrbed
to the $50 pounds Of beef furnished by a steer
Weighing 600 pounds, would be 10000 calories
The food value of the nut meats would be 100000
calories, or twenty times much food from the
nut trees as from the fattened steer and food of
the same general character, protein and fat but
OF superior quality. The walnut is not the only
promising food tree. The hickory the pecan the
butfernut the ilbert and the pinon all capable
OF producing equal greater results.