How We are Fed Part 12

The superintendent of the packing house said that nearly all of the raisins that we import come from Spain, and that they are exported chiefly from the city of Malaga.

The purple and other _wine grapes_ are taken to the wineries and sold by the ton, to be made into wine.

There are many other things that I should like to write about, but my letter is a pretty long one now, so I will close.

Your loving friend, FRANK.

NUTTING

Have you ever gone into the woods on a beautiful autumn day? The bright, warm suns.h.i.+ne floods the earth where the trees are far apart and sifts down through the branches. All nature seems to invite you to lie down under a tree and dream. It was on such a day that Rip Van Winkle fell into his long sleep.

How pretty the trees look in their fall suits of yellow, crimson, red, and brown! What a rustling is made as your feet tread the carpet of leaves!

The breezes pa.s.s among the branches and whisper a message to the bright-colored leaves. They understand and obey. Singly, in groups, and in showers, they silently float downward. By night and by day they fall, but soon this carpet will be changed for one of white.

Listen! The leaves are not the only things that are falling. You can hear the _thump_, _thump_ of nuts as they drop from their lofty perches in the walnut and hickory-nut trees.

Sit down quietly on that log and you will soon see the busy nut gatherers. With their tails curled over their backs, they race up and down the trees, or spring from branch to branch, carrying their precious burdens to their homes in the hollows of trunk or limb. Now one sits up straight, holding a nut between his paws, and turning it slowly as he cracks and eats it. If he sees you, he whisks out of sight, or scolds you from a safe place far above the ground.

When the winter winds are whistling through the leafless trees, and snows are drifting over the ground, these little nut gatherers feast to their hearts' content.

The squirrels do not gather all of the nuts. Children and grown people enjoy nutting. When there are not enough nuts on the ground, the men and boys climb the trees to shake them off. Then everybody hunts among the leaves for the treasures.

Some of the most important nuts are walnuts, hickory nuts, hazelnuts, almonds, chestnuts, Brazil nuts, pecans, and peanuts.

Many of the hickory nuts fall out of their coverings bright and clean.

Walnuts generally have to be _shucked_, and the juice stains the hands almost black.

As hazelnuts grow on bushes, they can be easily picked. They usually drop out of their burs after there have been a few frosts.

Many nuts are gathered in the woods, but in some places the trees are cultivated just as fruit trees are.

We usually eat nuts between meals, or as a dessert. They are not simply dainties, but are very valuable articles of food. In some countries the poor people depend upon them for food.

In almost any city of our country are to be found the nuts that I have mentioned, with perhaps several other kinds. These have come from different states, some from Canada, some from Brazil, and some from Spain.

I am sure you will enjoy gathering nuts of different kinds, so let us set out on a nutting expedition.

A WALNUT VACATION

How would you like to have your school close for two weeks, so that you could gather walnuts? Every year many of the boys and girls of Southern California are given a vacation just for this purpose. It is called the "walnut vacation," and occurs in the month of October.

These children do not take their baskets and go off to the woods where they can romp and play, watch the squirrels, and gather beautiful autumn leaves. They gather nuts from the trees which their parents own, for in Southern California there are many walnut ranches or groves. You see the vacation means a vacation for work instead of for play.

Walnut trees are set out in rows just as apple trees are, but their roots and branches extend to such a distance from the trunks that they need to be about twice as far apart.

The walnut harvest, which begins about the first of October, is a busy time. Men, women, boys, and girls may be seen in the groves, shaking the nuts from the trees, picking them up, and putting them into sacks.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 61.--A Walnut Grove.]

The men shake the trees, and there is a shower of nuts to the earth. Do not go under the branches now unless you want to be pelted. A single tree has been known to yield three hundred pounds of nuts in a season.

When the trees have been given a good shaking, there are still some nuts clinging to the branches. These are obtained by shaking the limbs separately, by means of long poles, to the ends of which wire hooks are fastened. As all of the nuts do not ripen at the same time, the trees are sometimes gone over two or three times.

Now the boys, girls, and women go to work filling pails and baskets and emptying them into sacks, for they can do this work as well as men.

Usually the nuts drop out of their covering or _shuck_ when they strike the ground; but if they do not, the _shuck_ must be removed. Sometimes the covering is cut off. If you handle the nuts with your bare hands, they will be stained almost black, and you will have to let the color wear off.

The days are bright and warm, and this sort of nutting becomes rather tiresome before sundown. The work must be done and the vacation is not a very long one, so each does his part cheerfully.

When the nuts have been gathered, they are taken to the shed or place where they are to be washed. Here they are poured into a large wire cylinder which revolves in a tank filled with water. The machine is turned by a horse walking round and round, and it both washes and grades the nuts. The smaller ones pa.s.s through the meshes in the wire and are called _second grade_. The larger ones are known as _first grade_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 62.--Was.h.i.+ng, Drying, and Sacking Walnuts.]

When the walnuts come out of the washer, they are spread out on shallow, wooden trays to dry. Sometimes several thousand trays may be seen on one ranch. They are loaded on to a small car and pushed to the part of the field where they are wanted.

If there is no foggy or cloudy weather, they will dry in about five days, but if there is, it may take ten.

After the nuts are thoroughly dried, the trays are placed on the car and pushed to the _bleacher_. This is a large box made of tarred paper. It is placed over the trays, and a quant.i.ty of sulphur is burned in it.

This is simply to whiten the sh.e.l.ls, for they sell for a higher price when they are bleached. Sometimes the nuts are whitened by dipping them into a liquid preparation.

The nuts are now sacked and marked, ready to s.h.i.+p. Soon after the boys and girls have finished their "walnut vacation," the nuts are on their way to the eastern part of the United States.

Most of the walnuts raised in California have soft sh.e.l.ls. Some have such thin sh.e.l.ls that they are called "paper sh.e.l.ls." The walnuts that grow in the woods of Indiana, Illinois, and other states have hard sh.e.l.ls. They are dark in color and are called _black walnuts_. The trees are quite valuable, as the wood is used in making furniture.

CHESTNUTS

Let us go on a chestnutting expedition to the southern part of France.

We can gather the nuts in many of the states of our own country, but the trip to a strange land will be enjoyed by all.

The chestnut trees, many of which are very old, spread their branches to great distances. The nuts, as you see, are inclosed in a _bur_ or coat which covers the sh.e.l.l. There are generally two nuts in each bur.

When _you_ eat chestnuts, you eat them as a sort of dainty, not as a regular article of food. This is not the case in the home of Jean, the boy who is helping his father fill those sacks. In his home, as in many homes in southern Europe, the nuts form one of the chief articles of daily food.

In the winter Jean sells the freshly roasted nuts on a street corner in the city of Lyons. He gets a good many pennies each noon from workmen and poor people generally, who use them for their midday meal. He sells ten nuts for a penny.

This is not the only way in which they are eaten. Jean's mother boils them with celery and mashes them as we do potatoes. The nuts are also ground into a flour from which bread is made. They are often used in the dressing for fowls.