ALMONDS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1694, 24 October 1887, Page 3

ALMONDS.

The rival of the walnut among nuts is the almond, says the " tan Francisco Call " This is a nul which has been known from the very commencement of Listory. It ia mentioned m Genesis, and allusions to it are frequent throughout the Old Testament. Aazon's rod, which swallowed up the rods of the Egyptians and magicians, is said by. commentator* to have been an almond switch. The tree was groivn all over Palestine. Fine groves of it are still m existence. Yet the almond is a dangerous fruit. Both the kernel and the leaves of the bitter almond contain hydrocyanic acid, which ia rank poison A small dose will kill a dog ; a large dose of the distilled water of the bitter almond produces instantaneous death m the tuman species. Even the sweet a mond, which is bo agreeable to the palate, is extremely difficult of digestion.

The importation of a 1 mond a into the United iStates amounts to about 3,500,000 lbs yearly. California imports none. Whe raieeß, on© year with another, about 2,000,000 lba, the great bulk of which goes east for consumption. Tho European almond* is mainly grown at Malaga and Valencia, m Spain It is from there that Boston and New York get tneir supply If we devoted a little more attention to the cultivation of that valuable fruit, we might take this market from Spain. There m no reason to fear that the market will ever be over utocked.

It is curious that the Hebrew word for almond should be sliaked, which a'so means hasten. Commentators explain that, when the almond blossoms the fruit hastens to appear and lo mature. Those who are satisfied with this explanation are welcome to it. It is born out by a passage m Jeremiah, where the Lord appears to the prophet and asks. " What seest thou ?" Jeremiah answers, " The rod of an almond tre 1 ." Whereupon the Lord replies, " Thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it" It is rot to be supposed that the inspired writer wonld have condescended to make a pun.

Another popolar nut which we eat, bat do not grow In this Statu, is the hazel nut. Perhaps round no nut bo many boyish delightful naeuinriea cluster as round the h°zl nut. Id »Ibo is of high antiquity. Kesiaarchea into the retn»ii>s of tao iake dwi-lleß m Switzerland prove that they ato the hazel nut and dropped the shells into the lakeß. The Romans, evtr famons for the eocentncity of theii haoits of reeding, roaated the haz'l nut. The biz 1 uut of commerce Is really the Icatiau filbert, bo called from its fall beard or elongated husk. Tbe filbert is grown m the Eas'ern States, bat not successfully. B'iya go hunting fur them and eat them ; but as a table fruit they riave no rank, and cannot compare with the f reign fruit which c mea mainly from Italy, France, and Spam.

1» their own couotry «rie Italians h-*ve subsisted to a larye extent on cheetnuts, from the time of Vrpil. They ate them mw — m which st&te they are sweet, but iudlgeatible — roaated, boiled, and ground Into fliorand made Into cakes. There are villages m the Apennines where the chestnut thkea the same phce that the o m patch dot-s in oar Southern States. They are likewise largely consumed m Southern Franca, Spaio, and Switzerland. Tn our Eistern States a much smaller nut; ia grown, and It 1b a favorite with the boys and girle. It la sweet, but will not ketp. Jefferson, who introduced the cheßtnat of Proveoca into Virginia, believed that he was Bupplylng hia State with a new resource Bot the b ; z> of the fruit deolined almost from the very first, and the tree is now chi«fly valuable for its wood. Tbe life- of a oheatnut tree at the East Id 30 years — that is to say when it is 30 yearß old it 1b fit to out down for firewood. Experience h&a proved that, when a pine grove ia cut down, nature supplies it with a successor m the shape of a giove of oak or chestnut, and, when theso *re out down, the pine grove succeeds it m tarn. Thus a longlived man harvests two oropa In hia lifetime,

Finally, to bring tbe Mat of edible nutß to a close; the peanut 1b raised m various parts of tbla Ptate, though most of theae outa come from the Southern States on tbe Atlantic seaboard. Tbe natural home of the peanut is In Africa and m Virginia and the Oarolinas. An onormouß trade is carried on m psauuts between Marseilles and the North African ports, for the Frenchman, like tne American^ is a lover of the crisp not.