thin the group
are the Japanese butternut _J. Sieboldiana_, its variety _cordiformis_,
the heartnut, and several less well known species including _J.
mandshurica_ and _J. cathayensis_, both native to central Asia. These
closely related species apparently hybridize with each other, but
accurate information as to the nature and extent of such hybridization
is not available.

The natural geographical range of the butternut covers a broad area of
Northeastern North America, extending from New Brunswick southward to
the mountains of Georgia and westward to Western Ontario, Dakota, and
Arkansas. In this range it is most frequent in calcareous soils,
reaching its best development in rich woodland, but persisting on poorer
upland soils also. It thus has the most northern range of our native nut
species, along with the Pignut, _Carya glabra_, and one species of
hazelnut, _Corylus rostrata_. The other related species are of variable
and uncertain hardiness and are not reliable in this northern range.

It is recognized that the butternut has little commercial value except
as it is used in the New England states, particularly in Vermont, where
it is combined with maple sugar in making maple-butternut candy. Anyone
who has travelled through the New England states is familiar with the
roadside advertising of this excellent product. On the general market,
butternut kernels are not sold in quantity comparable to those of the
black walnut, but are somewhat comparable to the kernels of the hickory
which also do not have a commercial outlet except locally.

The greatest use of the butternut is, and will continue to be, for the
home grounds and local consumption. I think it is highly probable that
if the easy cracking varieties already named were better known, they
would be much more widely planted. The common wild butternuts are really
difficult to handle. They crack only after considerable hammering with a
heavy hammer and then, when cracked, the kernels shatter to such an
extent that recovery is very unsatisfactory for the labor expended.
After butternuts have been gathered from the wild with some enthusiasm
during the fall months, they often remain in the cellar or attic without
ever being used. Even the squirrels and the rats will not go to the
bother of extracting the kernels if other nuts are available.

For best results the nuts are usually cracked with a heavy hammer, the
nut being held vertically against a solid vice or block