ers should
again be opened as soon as the destination is reached and an examination
made as to the moisture condition of the kernels.

_Handling Other Nuts_

So far as harvesting and hulling hickory nuts is concerned, the matter
is not at all complicated. Good nuts drop with the first sharp frost.
Those with good kernels inside become automatically separated from the
hulls. Those which do not easily become separated from the hulls should
be discarded as they are rarely of any value and should not become mixed
with the good nuts. With a moderate amount of curing these nuts should
be ready for market. They usually bring better prices in the shell than
do walnuts; but on the other hand they are in less demand after being
shelled. Perhaps this is because the trade has not been built up but it
is a recognized fact that black walnut kernels are practically in a
class by themselves among the nuts of the world, in the extent to which
they retain an agreeable flavor in cooking. Hickory nut kernels should
be given a much greater place than they now occupy in the cooking and
baking for the farm table. A few finely chopped kernels mixed with
breads, cakes, or cereals will be found highly acceptable to most
palates.

Butternuts are generally too scarce to justify much attention. They
could probably be hulled by vegetable paring machines quite as
efficiently as are walnuts but, so far as known to the writer, this has
not been tried.

Beechnuts make excellent food for poultry and certain kinds of
livestock. To convert the crop into cash is largely a matter of using
the land under the trees for the right sort of grazing. In European
countries beechnuts are highly valued as a source of salad oil. Mr.
Bixby of this association is taking steps to procure trees bearing as
large sized nuts as possible with a view to subsequent breeding. So far
as known to the writer beechnuts in this country are not gathered in
quantity.

BEECHNUTS

_By Willard G. Bixby, Baldwin, N. Y._

Although the association has now been in existence 20 years there has so
far been little progress, we might almost say no progress, made in
getting an improved beechnut.

All have agreed that the flavor of the beechnut was excellent, that it
had a shell so thin that it could be opened with a pocket knife, that it
was an oily nut and would keep, like the thin shelled hickories,
walnuts, etc., and not a starchy one, which would dry out like chestnuts
and