Boulogne, and raised in it upwards of 30,000 walnut trees, for transplantation, which, at the time he wrote, were from 20 ft. to 30 ft. high. In England, formerly, Evelyn informs us, "there were considerable plantations of this tree, particularly on the chalk hills of Surrey." He instances those of Sir Richard Stidolph, near Leatherhead; Sir Robert Clayton, at Morden, near Godstone, once belonging to Sir John Evelyn; and the country about Carshalton. During the late war, great numbers of walnut trees, in different parts of England, were cut down for the purpose of supplying gun-stocks; till the price of walnut timber rose so high (6007, having been given for one large tree), as to induce its importation from the Continent, and the substitution of the wood of the black walnut of America. In the present day, when mahogany and other tropical woods are substituted for walnut wood by the cabinet-makers, and when wood for gunstocks is imported from the Black Sea, and also from North America, the profits attending the culture of the common walnut tree are greatly diminished; and it is, accordingly much less generally planted as a timber tree. As a fruit tree, its planting is, perhaps, on the increase; the improved varieties becoming better known. In North America, the European walnut has been planted for its fruit; and Michaux recommends it to be budded on the black walnut; but, as the wood of the former is considered as being far inferior to that of the latter, he does not recommend its introduction into the United States as a forest tree. Walnuts for the table are now annually imported from France and Spain; and pay a duty of 28. per bushel. The quantity imported in 1831 was 23,578 bushels, of which 160 bushels were exported, and the remainder retained for home use. In 1832, only about two thirds of the quantity were imported; but 551 bushels were exported. (M'Culloch's Comm. Dict., p. 1218.) This variation, in respect to the importation and exportation of the walnuts, is owing to the variations in the crop on the Continent and in Britain. Properties and Uses. The wood of the walnut weighs 58 lb. 8 oz. in a green state; and when dried, 46 lb. 8 oz. It is white in young trees, and in that state is subject to be wormeaten; but, as the tree grows old, the wood becomes solid, compact, easy to work, and acquires a brown colour, veined, and agreeably shaded with light brown and black. In this state, it is considered the most beautiful wood produced in Europe; and, being neither subject to crack nor twist; it was employed in preference to every other for the best kinds of furniture, before the discovery, in America, of other kinds of wood still more beautiful. In France and Germany, it is still much sought after by turners, cabinet-makers, joiners, coachmakers, and millwrights, for screws to presses; by the makers of sabots, or wooden shoes, or clogs, musical instrument makers, and, above all, by the manufacturers of arms. For solidity and beauty, the wood of those trees is preferred which have grown on hilly and poor soils; that grown on plains, and in rich soils, being of a much coarser grain, and being less beautifully veined, and less durable. The smallest size of trunk that can be employed in making furniture with advantage, in point of beauty, is 1 ft. in diameter. The white, or soft, wood may be rendered fit for use by immersing it in boiling walnut oil. The most beautiful veinings are in the roots of the tree; which are much sought after by cabinet-makers, and, when they can be found of large size, bear a high price. The younger timber, Evelyn says, is held to make the better-coloured work; but the older, and especially the firm and close timber about the root, is best adapted for “flaked and cambleted works." Those trees, he says, which have small and thickshelied fruit produce better timber than the large-fruited or thin-shelled kinds. Evelyn strongly recommends walnut timber for household furniture, utensils, and wainscoting walls," instead of the more vulgar beech, subject to be weak and unsightly; but which, to counterfeit and deceive the unwary, they wash over with a decoction of the green husks of walnuts, &c." In France, he says, it may be seen in every room, both of poor and of rich; but he is in raptures with the cabinet-works which he has seen made of the walnut wood of Grenoble," of all others the most beautiful and esteemed." To render the wood better coloured, Evelyn continues, "joiners put the boards into an oven after the batch is forth, or lay them in a warm stable; and, when they work it, polish it over with its own oil, very hot, which makes it look black and sleek; and the older it is, the more estimable: but then it should not be put in work till thoroughly seasoned; because it will shrink beyond expectation. It is only not good to confide in it much for beams or joists, because of its brittleness; of which, however, it has been observed to give timely notice, like that of the chestnut, before it breaks." (Hunt. Evel., p. 172.) For fuel, according to Baudrillart, the wood, when dry, is of nearly the same value as that of the common sycamore, burning with a mild flame; but, as charcoal, it is not productive. In Britain, the chief uses of the timber are for gunstocks (it being found lighter in proportion to its strength and elasticity than any other), and for musical instruments, turnery, and toy-making. The most valuable part of the walnut is its fruit, which is much in demand, throughout Europe and other parts of the world, for the table, and for various other purposes. In a young and green state, it is pickled and preserved; and, when mature, it is used as food for the poorer classes in the countries where it abounds, and at the dessert of the richer classes. In the north of Italy, in Switzerland, and in the south of France, the roads are lined for many miles together with walnut trees; and, during August and September, when the fruit is ripe, or nearly so, and the weather so warm that the shelter of a house is not required to protect the traveller from cold, he may walk under the shade of the tree, and eat its fruit during the day, and sleep under it during night. We have even known the case of a person who travelled by a public conveyance from Florence to Geneva, eating scarcely anything by the way but walnuts and heads of maize, which he gathered by the road side. About the end of June, walnuts are preserved, either with or without their husks: in the latter state they are most agreeable, but in the former most strengthening to the stomach. Gerard says, "The green and tender nuts, boyled in sugar, and eaten as suckarde, are a most pleasant and delectable meate, comfort the stomache, and expell poyson." A fine stomachic liqueur is made from the young nuts about the middle of June; and about this time, also, they are pickled. In August, before the shells become hard, they are eaten in what the French call en cerneaux, that is, with the kernel, while green, scooped out with a short, broad, brass knife, and seasoned with vinegar, salt, pepper, and shallots. The nuts, for this purpose, should be taken at least a fortnight before they are ripe; they should be thrown into water as soon as they are separated from the husk, and allowed to remain there till the moment when they are wanted to be seasoned and set upon the table. The seasoning may be that already mentioned; or the juice of green grapes and salt, without anything else. Towards the end of September, or beginning of October, walnuts are eaten raw, and they are good as long as they continue fresh; that is, as long as it is easy to detach the skin from them; but when this cannot be removed, the nuts become indigestible, and their acridity attacks the gums and the palate. In order to preserve them fresh, they ought to be buried, with their green shells on, in sand or in dry soil, beyond the reach of frost or surface heat, in which state they will continue fresh for six months. Of the dried kernels, a conserve brûlée is formed; which, in France, is called nougat, and is considered very agreeable. In Spain, Evelyn tells us, they strew the gratings of old and hard nuts over their tarts and sweetmeats. In London, young walnuts are much used for pickles, and in making catchups, or adulterating soy, and other sauces. The nut of the large-fruited walnut (jauge, Fr.; the variety No. 1. above) is, in France, made into cases by jewellers, and furnished with trinkets, for the amusement of children. In Limerick, it is customary to put a pair of fine Limerick gloves into a walnut shell, and a dish of walnuts with this kind of kernel is sometimes presented at table. Thus furnished, they are often sent as presents to England; and gloves are sent in the same manner from France. The most general use of the walnut on a large scale, in the south of Europe, is to express an oil from it, which is employed by artists in mixing white, or any delicate colours; and which serves as a substitute for olive oil in the kitchen and at table, for oil of almonds in medicine, and for burning in lamps. Half the people in France, Bosc observes, consume no other oil than that of the walnut. The marc, or mass of husks which remains after the oil is extracted, is used to feed swine or sheep, or is formed into cakes, and serves for the nourishment of poultry; and the inhabitants of the Mirbalais make a kind of candles of it, which burn with a very clear flame. In Tartary, Dr. Clarke informs us, an incision is made in the tree in spring, when the sap is rising, and a spigot inserted for some time; after which, on withdrawing it, a clear sweet liquor flows out, which, when coagulated by evaporation, is used as sugar. In other parts of Europe and Asia, a wine is made of the sap, or a spirit distilled from it. The roots of the walnut, before the rising of the sap, yield, by boiling, a dark brown dye, which becomes fixed, in wood, hair, or wool, without the aid of alum. This dye is used by gipsies, and also by theatrical performers, to stain the skin of a deep brown. The husk of the nut produces nearly the same colour as the root, and also the bark of the young shoots, and even the leaves. For this purpose, the bark should be taken off when the sap is in movement in spring; the leaves should be gathered when the nuts are half formed; and the husks of the nuts when the fruit is nearly ripe, or after its maturity, when they begin to scale off. The husk of the nuts is used by cabinet-makers and joiners, to stain white wood and yellow wood of a dark brown or black colour, like that of the walnut. When the fingers are stained with walnut juice, or the skin has been dyed with it, it is exceedingly difficult to remove; but this may be partially effected by the application of moistened salt. To obtain a dark-brown or black Dye from the Walnut, the husks must be left to rot, or to macerate, in a heap in the shade, taking care to keep them always moist. When they are sufficiently rotted and black, they are then boiled, adding to them fresh water, and supplying them with a sufficient quantity of it. This gives a most beautiful nut colour to any kind of wood, which may, be made lighter or darker, as may be wished, by employing a greater or less quantity of husks to the same quantity of water; or the wood may veined by applying the colour with a pencil to particular parts; after which it is varnished. When it is wished to colour the boarded floor of an apartment, the husks are boiled, and no more water added than is sufficient to keep the bottom of the vessel from being injured by the fire. When the whole is reduced to one mass, it is laid on the boards, and left to dry; it is then swept off, and the wood rubbed with hard, short-bristled brushes, till it becomes perfectly bright. To extract the Oil of Walnuts. When the fruit is gathered, and the nuts are separated from the husks, they should be kept dry, and occasionally moved till they are used. The most proper time for the operation is at the close of winter; as, at this season, the change by which the mucilage of the fruit is converted into oil has been completely effected; and by longer delay the kernel grows rancid, and the oil becomes of a vitiated quality. The nut is cracked by striking it on the end with a small mallet; and pains are taken not to bruise the kernel. The slight ligneous partition is detached, and such kernels as are partially spoiled are picked out and thrown aside. The sound kernels, thus cleared from every particle of the shell, should be sent immediately to the mill, as they soon become rancid by exposure to the air. They are crushed by a vertical stone, which turns in a circular trough, and is moved by a horse, or by water. The paste is next enclosed in bags of strong linen, and submitted to the press. The oil which flows from this first pressure, without the application of heat, is of the best quality. It is very clear, and is proper for food; but it sensibly retains the taste of the nut, which, in general, is not agreeable to persons unaccustomed to it; so that the consumption is limited to the departments where it is made. To be kept sweet for the table, it should be drawn off several times during the first months, carefully corked, and kept in the cellar, as it is more easily affected than any other oil by the action of air and heat. After the first expression, the paste is emptied from the sacks, moistened with warm water, and moderately heated in coppers. It is then replaced in the sacks, and returned to the press. The oil of the second discharge is highly coloured, and very speedily becomes rancid; it is therefore employed only in the preparation of colours. The cakes which remain after the expression is finished are used, as already stated, for fattening swine, sheep, or fowls, or making candles. The principal use of this oil is in the preparation of fine colours: it is preferred for this purpose, on account of the complete and rapid manner in which it dries, and of the facility with which it is obtained in a perfectly limpid state, which is done by diffusing it upon water in large shallow vases. In copperplate printing, walnut oil is considered, in Paris, indispensably necessary for a fine impression, whether in black or in colours. But there are peculiar modes of preparing it for the several colours with which it is to be mixed. Thus, for white, blue, light, and the intermediate shades, it is reduced by boiling to two thirds of its bulk; but for dark green and black, to one fifth, which leaves it a thick semifluid substance. To facilitate the process, one tenth part of linseed oil is added to it: it is then placed, in an iron or copper vessel over a strong clear fire. When it begins to boil rapidly, the vessel is removed, and the oil takes fire by contact with the flame, and burns till it is reduced to the proper consistency. Sometimes it is not allowed to kindle, but, when the ebullition commences, crusts of bread are thrown into it, which remain till the necessary evaporation is effected, and are then taken out, charged with mucilaginous particles. The principal advantage of this oil, in the preparation of white lead for painting the interior of houses, as well as of the colours employed in' copperplate printing, is the longer and more perfect preservation of the tints. The back of prints done with it, also, does not turn yellow like others. (Michx. N. Amer. Syiva, 147, 148.) One bushel of nuts will yield 15 lb. of peeled and clear kernels, and these half as many pounds of oil The small thick-shelled fruit, other círcumstances being the same, always yields more oil in proportion to their bulk, than the large, or thin-shelled, fruit. A very interesting account of the mode of preparing the walnuts for being crushed for oil, and of the various uses to which the fruit is applied in Piedmont will be found in Bakewell's Travels in the Tarentaise. Alkaline Ashes. A full-sized walnut tree, Bosc, in 1822, states, will produce two sacks of nuts, worth 12 francs; and, if the leaves which fall, or are knocked down from the tree, are burned, they will give a third part of their weight in pot-ashes, which are valued at 6 francs; thus giving a total increase per annum which, at 6 per cent, represents a capital of 300 francs. The tree, the same author states, is particularly valuable for a cultivator without much floating capital; for he has known repeatedly a product in fruit and ashes of 400 francs, procured at a total expense of not more than 36 francs; and that this sum was expended almost entirely in manual labour, with scarcely any aid from building or machinery. Medicinally, the use of the walnut is of the greatest antiquity. It is said to have been one of the antidotes used by Mithridates. Pliny recommends it "for driving worms out of the stomach ;" and adds that, " eaten after onions, they keep them from rising." (Book xxiii. c. 18.) An extract of the unripe fruit is used by rustic practitioners for the destruction of worms: the fruit itself is stomachic; and the bark, either green, or dried and powdered, is a powerful emetic. The root is said to be purgative and diuretic; and a decoction of the wood, sudorific. The sap of the leaves, mixed with milk, is considered a remedy for horses having the fistula. Evelyn tells us that the husks and leaves, being macerated in warm water, and that liquor poured on grass walks and bowling-greens, infallibly kills the worms, without endangering the grass. Not, says Dr. Hunter, that there is anything peculiarly noxious in this decoction, but worms cannot bear the application of anything bitter to their bodies; which is the reason that bitters, such as gentian, are the best destroyers of worms lodged in the bowels of animals. Worms are seldom observed in the intestines of the human body, except in cases where the bile is either weak or deficient. (Hunter's Evel., p. 178. note.) Philips states that anglers water the ground with a decoction of walnut leaves, to cause the worms to come to the surface of the ground, when they pick them up for bait. The leaves, dried and mixed with those of tobacco, are said to have similar virtues to those of that plant. An extract of the unripe fruit, and also a rob prepared from its juice, are laxative; and the vinegar in which walnuts have been pickled is a very useful gargle. Poetical and legendary Allusions. The walnut tree was dedicated to Diana, and the festivals of that goddess were held beneath its shade. The Greeks and Romans, as before observed, strewed walnuts at their weddings. Horace, Virgil, Catullus, and many of the other Latin poets, allude to this custom, which probably had reference to the bride's deserting the ranks of Diana (to whom, as we have seen above, the walnut was dedicated,) for those of Hymen (see p. 1426.); and there is an allusion to it in Herrick's Epithalamium on Sir Thomas Southwell and his lady: — "Now bar the door - the bridegroom puts The eager boys to gather nuts.' Spenser mentions walnuts as employed in Christmas games; and many other British poets mention it for different qualities. Cowley, however, has enumerated so many of the properties, which the walnut was believed to possess in his day, that we give the passage entire : "The walnut then approached, more large and tall, In a green coat, her pericranium. Lastly, that no objection may remain, To thwart her near alliance with the brain, She nourishes the hair, remembering how Herself deform'd, without her leaves docs show, On barren scalps she makes fresh honours grow. The carver she supplies with useful wood. A table she affords us, and repast; E'en while we feast, her oil our lamp supplies; The mad dog's foam, and taint of raging skies, Yet envious fates, that still with merit strive, By neighbouring clowns, and passing rabble torn, COWLEY'S Plants, book iv. Collinson, in his History of Somersetshire, speaking of the Glastonbury thorn, mentions that there grew also, in the Abbey-church yard, on the north side of St. Joseph's Chapel, a miraculous walnut tree, which never budded forth before the feast of St. Barnabas (that is the 11th of June), and on that very day shot forth its leaves, and flourished like other trees of the same species. He adds that this tree was much sought after by the credulous; and that "Queen Anne, King James, and many of the nobility of the realm, even when the times of monkish superstition had ceased, gave large sums of money for small cuttings from the original." (Hist. of Som., vol. ii. p. 265.) This tree was, no doubt, of the late variety called by the French Noyer de la St. Jean. Propagation, &c. The species is propagated by the nut; which, when the tree is to be grown chiefly for its timber, is best sown where it is finally to remain, on account of the taproot, which will thus have its full influence on the vigour and prosperity of the tree. Where the tree is to be grown for fruit on dry soils, or in rocky situations, it ought also to be sown where it is finally to remain, for the same reasons. In soils on moist or otherwise unfavourable subsoils, if sown where it is finally to remain, a tile, slate, or flat stone should be placed under the nut at the depth of 3 in. or 4 in., in order to give the taproot a horizontal direction; or, if this precaution has been neglected, after the plants have come up, the taproot may be cut through with a spade 6 in. or 8 in. below the nut, as is sometimes practised in nurseries with young plants of the horsechestnut, sweet chestnut, walnut, and oak. On the other hand, when the walnut is planted in soil which has a dry or rocky subsoil, or among rocks, no precaution of this sort is necessary: on the contrary, it would be injurious, by preventing the taproot from descending, and deriving that nourishment from the subsoil which, from the nature of the surface soil, it could not there obtain. The varieties may be propagated by budding, grafting, inarching, or layering, and, possibly, by cuttings of the root. 9.3 Budding and Grafting the Walnut. Much has been written on this subject by French authors; from which it appears that, in the north of France, and in cold countries generally, the walnut does not bud or graft easily by any mode; but that, in the south of France, and north of Italy, it may be budded or grafted by different modes, with success. At Metz, the Baron de Tschoudy found the flute method (fig. 1258.) almost the only one which he could practise with success. By this mode, an entire ring of bark, containing one or more buds, is put on the upper extremity of the stock; either exactly fitted to it, as at fig. 1258. a; or made to fit it by slitting up the ring of bark, if too small for the stock, as at b; or, if too large, by slitting it up, and cutting out a small portion, so 1258 as that, when placed on the stock, it may fit it as closely as in the entire ring a. When this mode of budding is practised without heading down the stock, as in fig. a 1259., it is called ring budding, greffe en anneau. Both flute budding and ring budding are generally practised in spring, when the sap is in motion; |
