Thoreau Manuscript, Berg Collection, "Notes on Fruits" folder, Accession Number 310, 313-314

Thoreau Manuscript, Berg Collection, “Notes on Fruits” folder, Accession Number 310, 313-314

1st RECTO TRANSCRIPT	1st VERSO TRANSCRIPT	1st RECTO NOTES	1st VERSO NOTES
2nd RECTO TRANSCRIPT	2nd VERSO TRANSCRIPT	2nd RECTO NOTES	2nd VERSO NOTES

[1st RECTO TRANSCRIPT]

Notes this page

Top of file

[XX]     Walnuts Oct 15

[XX]     May 7-52 The ground under the walnuts

[XX]     (on the hill) is richly strewn with nut

[XX]     shells broken & gnawed by squirrels, like

[XX]     an unswept dining hall in early times.

[XX]     Aug 18-52 Perceived today, & some

[XX]     weeks since (Aug 3d) the strong invig-

[XX]     orating aroma of green walnuts, astrin-

[XX]     gent & bracing to the spirits, the fancy

[XX]     & imagination, suggesting a tree that

[XX]     has its roots well in amid the bowels

[XX]     of nature. Their shells are invigorating

[XX]     to smell—suggesting a strong nutty native

[XX]     vigor. A fruit which I am glad

[XX]     that our zone produces, looking like

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

[XX]     of the hardness & elasticity of the hickory

[XX]     when I smell them. They are among

[XX]     our species: high scented—aromatic as

[XX]     you bruise one against another

[XX]     in your hand almost like nutmegs

[XX]     only more bracing & northern.—fragment

[XX]     stones which the trees bear.

[XX]     XXX

[XX]     Oct 23-52 See where boys have

[XX]     gathered the mockernut—(though it has

[XX]     not fallen out of its ~~shells~~ husks

[XX]     Oct 24-52 See boys far off on the

[XX]     hill side gathering walnuts & on the 28"

[XX]     October is the month for barberries & wal-

[XX]     nuts.

Notes this page

Top of file

[1st VERSO TRANSCRIPT]

[2nd RECTO TRANSCRIPT]

Notes this page

Top of file

[XX]     tree—whose fruit is stones—fit to

[XX]     have been the food of man in

[XX]     the iron age. I should like to see a

[XX]     man whose diet was berries & nuts

[XX]     alone. Yet I would not rob the

[XX]     squirrels who, before any man, are

[XX]     the true owners.

[XX]     ~~Oct 20-54 For wha~~ Sep. 26-55

[XX]     The squirrls have already begun on the

[XX]     mockernuts—though the trees are still

[XX]     covered with yellow & brown leaves & the

[XX]     nuts do not fall.

[XX]     Dec 5’ 56 There are a great many

[XX]     walnuts on the trees, seen black against

[XX]     the sky, & the wind has scattered many

[XX]     over the snow-crust— It would be

[XX]     easier gathering them now than ever—

[XX]     Dec 10-56 Gathered this Pm quite

[XX]     a parcel of walnuts on the hill. It has

[XX]     not been better picking there this season. They

[XX]     lie on the snow, or rather sunk an inch or

[XX]     2 into it—& sometimes the trees hang quite full.

[XX]     I see squirrel tracks leading straight from

[XX]     tree to tree.

[XX]     Dec. 14-56 Mrs. Woody very properly

[XX]     calls eating nuts "a mouse-like employment."

[XX]     It is quite too absorbing. You cannot read

[XX]     at the same time as when you are eating an

[XX]     apple. It is a social employment.

[XX]     June 12-57 Michaux says that

[XX]     mockernuts are of various sizes & forms

Notes this page

Top of file

[2nd VERSO TRANSCRIPT]

Notes this page

Top of file

[XX]     some round—some oblong—& so I have

[XX]     found them.

[XX]     Sep 24-57 squirrel buries pig-nuts.

[XX]     Oct 20-57 I meet the hunter with his

[XX]     game bag full of nuts & barberries.