Thoreau Manuscript, Berg Collection, "Notes on Fruits" folder, Accession Number 262-263

Thoreau Manuscript, Berg Collection, “Notes on Fruits” folder, Accession Number 262-263

[XX]     Chestnuts Oct—6 1

[XX]     Nuts

[XX]     Nov. 22—50 I get nothing to eat in my

[XX]     walk now but wild apples—some-

[XX]     times some cranberries & some wal-

[XX]     nuts. The squirrels have got the

[XX]     hazel-nuts & chestnuts—

[XX]     July 16-51 Hazel nuts are formed, & you may get

[XX]     the berry stains out of your hands with their

[XX]     husks, if you have any.

[XX]     Aug 17-51 See where a squirrel has been eating hazel

[XX]     nuts on a stump.

[XX]     May 7-52 The ground under the walnuts (on the XXX)

[XX]     is ~~rich~~ ~~strichly~~ richly strewn with the nuts shells broken

[XX]     & gnawed by squirrels like an unswept dining

[XX]     hall in early times.

[XX]     July 27-52 Hazel nut husks full formed—richly

[XX]     autumnally significant.

[XX]     Aug 18-52 Methinks it is time to gather hazel-nuts— If you

[XX]     would anticipate the squirrels—

[XX]     Perceived today—and some weeks since (Aug. 3d)

[XX]     the strong invigorating aroma of green walnuts

[XX]     astringent & bracing to the spirits the fancy &

[XX]     imagination—suggesting a tree that has

[XX]     its roots well in amid the bowels of nature.

[XX]     Their shells are invigorating to smell—suggesting

[XX]     a strong nutty native vigor— A fruit which

[XX]     I am glad that our zone produces, looking

[XX]     like the nutmeg of the east. I acquire some

[XX]     of the hardness & elasticity of the hickory when I

[XX]     smell them. They are among our spices. High-

[XX]     scented aromatic as you bruise one against another

[XX]     in your hand almost like nutmegs, only more bracing

[XX]     & northern, fragrant stones which the trees

[XX]     bear.

[XX]     Oct 11-52 Now, the chestnuts are rattling out. The burrs are

[XX]     gaping & showing the plump nuts. They fill the

[XX]     ruts in the road; & are abundant amid the fallen

[XX]     st

[XX]     leaves in the middle of the wood. The jays scream {"middle" reformed to "midst"}

[XX]     & the red squirrels scold while you are clubbing &

[XX]     shaking the trees

[XX]     Oct—15 The rain of the night & morning together with the

[XX]     wind has strewn the ground with chestnuts. The burrs

[XX]     generally empty come down with a loud sound while I

[XX]     am picking the nuts in the woods. I have come out

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[XX]     Nuts

[XX]     before the rain is fairly over—before there are

[XX]     any fresh tracks on the Lincoln road by

[XX]     Britton’s shanty, & I find the nuts abundant

[XX]     in the road itself— It is a pleasure to de-

[XX]     tect them in the woods, amid the firm crispy

[XX]     crackling chestnut leaves. There is somewhat

[XX]     singularly refreshing in the color of this nut

[XX]     —the chestnut color. No wonder it gives a name

[XX]     to a color, One man tells me he has bought

[XX]     a wood-lot in Hollis to cut, & has let out

[XX]     the picking of the chestnuts to women at the

[XX]     halves—as the trees will prob. be cut for them

[XX]     they will make rapid work of it.

[XX]     Oct 23-52 Chestnuts have mostly fallen.

[XX]     Dec 9-52 The chestnuts are about as plenty as

[XX]     ever—, both in the fallen burrs & out of them.

[XX]     There are more this year than the squir-

[XX]     rels can consume. I picked 3 pints this pm,

[XX]     & though some bought at a store the other

[XX]     day were more than half mouldy, I did not

[XX]     find one mouldy one among these which I picked

[XX]     from under the wet & mouldy leaves, where

[XX]     they have been snowed on once. Prob. they do

[XX]     not heat though wet. These are also still

[XX]     plump & tender. I love to gather them, if

[XX]     only for the sense of the bountifulness of

[XX]     nature they give me.

[XX]     Dec 27— XXX observed quite plants today

[XX]     Dec 31-52 I was this pm gathering chestnuts at Saw

[XX]     Mill Br. I have within a few weeks spent some

[XX]     hours thus scraping away the leaves with my hands

[XX]     & feet over some square rods—& have at least

[XX]     learned how chestnuts are planted & new forests

[XX]     raised. First fall the chestnuts with the severe

[XX]     frosts, the greater part of them at least, & then

[XX]     at length the rains & winds bring down the leaves

[XX]     which cover them with a thick coat. I have won-

[XX]     dered sometimes how the nuts got planted which

[XX]     merely fell on the surface of the earth, but al-

[XX]     ready I find the nuts of the present year partially

[XX]     mixed with the mould as it were under the de-

[XX]     caying & mouldy leaves, where is all the moisture

[XX]     & manure they want. A large proportion of this

[XX]     year’s nuts are now covered loosely an inch deep under

[XX]     mouldy leaves, though they are themselves sound &

[XX]     are moreover concealed from squirrels thus.