Thoreau Manuscript, Berg Collection, "Notes on Fruits" folder, Accession Number 269-272

Thoreau Manuscript, Berg Collection, “Notes on Fruits” folder, Accession Number 269-272

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[XX] 11

[XX]     Nuts

[XX]     Dec. 5-56 There are a great many walnuts on the

[XX]     trees, seen black against the sky—& the

[XX]     wind has scattered many over the snow crust.

[XX]     It would be easier gathering then now than

[XX]     ever.

[XX]     Dec 10-56 Gathered this Pm quite a parcel of walnuts

[XX]     on the hill. It has not been better picking there

[XX]     this season. They lie on the snow, or rather sink

[XX]     & some times XXX quite XXX

[XX]     an inch or 2 into it. (So too the shagbarks hang on

[XX]     the trees on the Souhegan, where they have XXX

[XX]     gathered.) See squirrel tracks heading straight

[XX]     from tree to tree.

[XX]     Dec 12— Dry chestnut burrs XXX of the snow (as the squirrels

[XX]     have done) & though many of these nuts are softened

[XX]     & discolored they have a peculiarly sweet & agreeable

[XX]     taste—

[XX]     Dec 14 XXX XXX very properly call eating nuts "a mouse-like

[XX]     employment." It is quite too absorbing. You can-

[XX]     not read at the same time, as unless you are eating

[XX]     an apple. It is a social employment.

[XX]     Dec 18 Am told they get a dozen bushels of shelled nuts some times

[XX]     from one shag bark tree—(200 some on the trees still)

[XX]     Ac to Loudon Butternuts are ripe a fortnight earlier

[XX]     than other nuts—or mid. of Sep.

[XX]     Loudon quotes Pliny as saying that "Chestnuts are

[XX]     manner

[XX]     better roasted than cooked in any other ~~matter~~." in

[XX]     which I agree with him.

[XX]     Evelyn says, referring to the chestnut, "We give that fruit

[XX]     to our XXX in England, which is amongst the

[XX]     delicacies of princes in other countries; &, being

[XX]     of the larger nut, is a lusty & masculine food

[XX]     for rustics at all times, & of better nourish-

[XX]     cale

[XX]     ment for husbandmen than cale & rusty bacon;

[XX]     yea, or beans to boot."

[XX]     Facsimile Information Journal Sources Citations

Drafts Contiguous Text Physical Description

[XX]     Published Version Annotations Comments [XX]     In France, ac. to Loudon, "The husks of the chestnuts beaten

[XX]     of the trees being generally attached to the nuts, ~~are~~

[XX]     they are trodden off by peasants—furnished with heavy

[XX]     sabots, when the nuts are wanted for immediate use;"—

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[1st VERSO TRANSCRIPT]

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[XX]     12

[XX]     Nuts

[XX]     June 12—57 Michaux says that mockernuts are of

[XX]     various sizes & forms some round, some

[XX]     oblong—so I have found them

[XX]     Sep 24 Squirrel buries pignuts

[XX]     them

[XX]     " Minott tells of finding near a bushel of chestnuts in a

[XX]     rock—when floating for the wall brook XXX near

[XX]     Flint Pond. He said it was the gray-squirrels’ work.

[XX]     Oct 5-57 see a red squirrel cast down a chestnut bur—

[XX]     Oct 6— See one or 2 chestnut burrs open in the woods,— The

[XX]     squirrels—red & gray are on all sides throwing them

[XX]     down. You cannot stand long in the woods without

[XX]     hearing one fall.

[XX]     Oct 20 I meet the hunter with his game bag full of

[XX]     nuts & barberries.

[XX]     Oct 22— Now is just the time for chestnuts.

[XX]     What a perfect chest the chestnut is packed in!

[XX]     now hold a green burr in my hand—which,

[XX]     round, must have been 2 1/4 inches in diameter—

[XX]     —from which 3 plump nuts have been extracted.

[XX]     It has a straight stout stem 3/16 inch in di-

[XX]     ameter, set on strongly & abruptly. It has

[XX]     gaped (open) in 4 segments or quarters revealing

[XX]     the thickness of its walls (from 5/8 to 3/4 inch); with

[XX]     such wonderful care nature has secluded

[XX]     & defended these nuts as if they were her

[XX]     most precious fruits while diamonds are

[XX]     left to take care of themselves. First

[XX]     it bristles all over with sharp green prickles—

[XX]     some nearly half an inch long—like a hedge

[XX]     prickles

[XX]     hog rolled into a hall— These rest on a

[XX]     —(1/16 to 1/8’)

[XX]     thick stiff bark-like rind—which again

[XX]     is most daintily lined with a kind of sil-

[XX]     very fur or velvet plush (1/16 of an inch thick)

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[XX]     13

[XX]     Nuts

[XX]     even rising in a ridge between the mts,

[XX]     like the lining of a casket in which the

[XX]     most precious commodities are kept. I

[XX]     see the brown-spotted white cavities where the

[XX]     bases of the nuts have rested & sucked up nour-

[XX]     ishment from the stem. The little stars on the

[XX]     top of the nuts are but shorter & feebler ~~spires~~

[XX]     spines which mingle with the rest. They stand

[XX]     up close together, 3 or more, erecting their

[XX]     feeble weapons, as an infant in the (brawny) arms

[XX]     of its nurse might put out its own tiny hands

[XX]     to fend off the aggressor. There is no

[XX]     waste room, the chest~~nut~~ is packed quite

[XX]     full— Half developed nuts are the waste-

[XX]     paper used in the packing to fill the vacan-

[XX]     cies. Such is th cradle, thus daintily line,

[XX]     in which they have been rocked in their infancy. With

[XX]     what steadiness. With what steadiness the nuts

[XX]     must be held within these stout arms! There

[XX]     can be no motion on their bases—& yet how

[XX]     tenderly—by a firm hold—that relaxes only as

[XX]     they grow:— The walls that confine them,

[XX]     superfluously strong as they seem, expanding as

[XX]     they grow.

[XX]     The chestnut with its tough shell looks as

[XX]     if it were able to protect itself, but see how

[XX]     tenderly it has been reared in its cradle, before

[XX]     its green & tender skin hardened into a shell.

[XX]     At last frost comes to unlock this chest.

[XX]     It alone holds the true key. Its lids straightway

[XX]     gape open & the Oct. air rushes in, dries the ripe

[XX]     nuts & then, with a rudder gust, shakes them all out

[XX]     in a rattling shower down upon the withered leaves.

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[XX]     14

[XX]     Nuts

[XX]     The October air comes in, as I have said,

[XX]     --& the light too, & proceed to paint

[XX]     the nuts that clear handsome reddish (?)

[XX]     brown which we call chestnut. Now a

[XX]     days the brush that paints chestnuts is

[XX]     very active. It is entering into every open burr

[XX]     over the stretching forests' tops for hundreds

[XX]     of miles, without horse or ladder & rapidly

[XX]     putting on coats of this wholesome color. Otherwise

[XX]     the boys would not think they had got perfect

[XX]     nuts. And that this may be further pro-

[XX]     tected perchance both within the burr &

[XX]     afterward, the nuts themselves are partly covered

[XX]     toward the top, where they are first exposed,

[XX]     with that same soft velvety down— And then

[XX]     nature drops it on the rustling leaves a done

[XX]     nut—prepared to begin a chestnut's course again.

[XX]     Within itself each individual nut is lined

[XX]     with a reddish velvet as if to preserve the seed

[XX]     from jar & injury in falling & perchance

[XX]     from sudden damp & cold, & within

[XX]     that a thin white skin enwraps the meat

[XX]     (with its germ)

[XX]     Thus, it is lining within lining & unwearied

[XX]     care. Not to count closely, 6 coverings

[XX]     at least—before you reach the contents!

[XX]     Is it not a barbarous way to jar the

[XX]     tree? I trust I do repent of it. Gently shake

[XX]     it only, or, better, let the wind shake it for

[XX]     you.

[XX]     You are gratified to find a nut that

[XX]     has in it no bitterness—altogether palatable.