Thoreau Manuscript, Berg Collection, "Notes on Fruits" folder, Accession Number 267-268

Thoreau Manuscript, Berg Collection, “Notes on Fruits” folder, Accession Number 267-268

1st RECTO
TRANSCRIPT

1st VERSO
TRANSCRIPT

1st RECTO
NOTES

1st VERSO
NOTES

[RECTO TRANSCRIPT]

Notes this page

Top of file

[XX] 9

[XX]     Nuts

[XX]     Oct 18--56 The chestnuts are not so ready to fall

[XX]     as I expected. Perhaps the burrs require to be

[XX]     dried now after the rain. In a day or 2 they

[XX]     will nearly all come down. They are a pretty

[XX]     fruit thus compactly stowed away in this bristly

[XX]     chest, 3 is the regular number & there is no

[XX]     room to spare. The two outside nuts having each

[XX]     one convex side & a flat side within; the

[XX]     middle nut has 2 flat sides. Some times there

[XX]     are several more nuts in a burr. But

[XX]     this year the burs are small & there are not

[XX]     commonly more than 2 good nuts—very often

[XX]     only one, the middle one—both sides of which

[XX]     will then be convex—bulging out each way

[XX]     into a thin abortive mere reminiscence of a

[XX]     nut, all shell—beyond it. It is a rich sight

[XX]     that of a large chestnut tree, with a

[XX]     dome-shaped top—where the yellowing leaves

[XX]     have became thin (for most now strew the

[XX]     ground evenly as a carpet throughout the

[XX]     ~~whole~~ chestnut woods—& so save some seed—)

[XX]     all richly rough with great brown burrs—which

[XX]     have opened into several segments so as to shew

[XX]     the wholesome colored nuts peeping forth,

[XX]     ready to fall on the slightest jar

[XX]     The individual nuts are very interesting & of various

[XX]     forms ac. to the season & the no’ in a burr

[XX]     The base of each where it was joined to the

[XX]     burr—is marked with an irregular dark figure

[01]     XXX

[02]     XXX

[03]     XXX

[04]     XXX

[05]     XXX

[06]     XXX

[07]     XXX

[08]     XXX

[09]     XXX

[10]     XXX

[11]     XXX

[12]     XXX

[13]     XXX

[14]     XXX

[15]     XXX

[16]     XXX

[17]     XXX

[18]     XXX

[19]     XXX

[20]     XXX

[21]     XXX

[22]     XXX

[23]     XXX

[24]     XXX

[25]     XXX

[26]     XXX

[27]     XXX

[28]     XXX

[29]     XXX

[30]     XXX

[31]     XXX

[32]     XXX

[33]     XXX

[34]     XXX

[35]     XXX

[36]     XXX

[37]     XXX

[38]     XXX

[39]     XXX

[40]     XXX

[41]     XXX

[42]     XXX

[43]     XXX

[44]     XXX

[45]     XXX

[46]     XXX

[47]     XXX

[48]     XXX

[49]     XXX

[50]     XXX

Notes this page

Top of file

[VERSO TRANSCRIPT]

Notes this page

Top of file

[XX]     Nuts

[XX]     on a light ground--oblong crescent shaped,

[XX]     much like a spider or other insect with a dozen legs

[XX]     while the upper or small end tapers into a little white

[XX]     woolly spire crowned with a star—, & the whole upper

[XX]     slopes of the nuts are covered with the same hoary

[XX]     wool, which reminds you of the frosts on whose

[XX]     advent they peep forth, (Each nut stretches forth

[XX]     a little starry hand at the end of a slender arm,

[XX]     & by this, when mature, you may pull it out without

[XX]     fear of prickles) Within this thick prickly burr

[XX]     the nuts are about as safe until they are quite

[XX]     mature as a porcupine behind its spines.

[XX]     Yet I see where the squirrels have gnawed

[XX]     through many closed burrs & left the pieces

[XX]     on the stumps.

[XX]     I forgot to say that there are sometimes

[XX]     two meats within one chestnut shell—divided

[XX]     transversely—& each covered by its separate

[XX]     brown-ribbed skin. {DRAWING} As if Nature meant

[XX]     to smuggle the seed of an additional tree

[XX]     into this chest & multiply chances.

[XX]     I see where the chestnut treest have been

[XX]     sadly bruised by the large stones cast against

[XX]     them in previous years & which still lie around.

[XX]     Nov 28 Unexpectedly find many chestnuts in the

[XX]     burrs which have fallen (at Smith’s Grove) some

[XX]     time ago. Many are spoiled, but the rest being

[XX]     thus moistened are softer & sweeter than a

[XX]     month ago, very agreeable to my pallet— The

[XX]     burrs, from some cause, having fallen without

[XX]     dropping their nuts.

[XX]     Dec 1. I have seen more chestnuts in the streets of N. Y. than anywhere else

[XX]     this year—large & plump ones roasting in the street, & popping on the

[XX]     steps of banks & exchanges. Was surprised to see that the citizens made as

[XX]     much of the nuts of the wild wood as the squirrels. Not only the country boys

[XX]     All N. Y. goes a nutting—chestnuts for cabmen & newsboys—for not squirrels alone to be