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commercial importance. Oil made from the kernels of the nuts was used by the Indians , 1 who alsopressed a milky substance from them ; 2 the bitter astringent inner bark has been employed successfullyin the treatment of dyspepsia and intermittent fever , 3 and in homoeopathic practice ; 4 and a yellow dyeis obtained from the inner bark. No other trees give greater dignity and character to the forests ofeastern North America or surpass the Hickories in vigor and beauty of appearance . 5 Numerous insects 6
and whereas our Gunnes that are stocked with English Walnut,are soone broken and cracked in frost, being a brittle wood; weeare driven to stocke them new with the Country Walnut, whichwill indure all blowes, and weather; lasting time out of minde.These trees beare a very good Nut, something smaller, but nothinginferiour in sweetnesse and goodnesse to the English Nut , havingno bitter pill.”
Their Hickory-wood handles have made American axes knownall over the world, and it is to the light American carriages, onlymade possible by the use of Hickory wood in their construction,that the American trotting horse, one of the greatest triumphs ofthe breeder’s art, owes his superiority. Hickory wood is the bestfuel yielded by the American forests; and for hoops no otherAmerican wood equals it.
1 “ The third sort is, as this last, exceeding hard shelled, and hatha passing sweet kamell; this last kind the Indians beat into pieceswith stones, and putting them, shells and all, into morters, minglingwater with them, with long woodden pestells pound them so longtogither untill they make a kind of mylke, or oylie liquor, whichthey call powcohicora.” (Strachey , The Histone of Travaile intoVirginia Britannia, ed. Major, 129.)
“ The Wild Wallnut, or Hiquery-Tree, gives the Indians, byboyling its Kernel , a wholesome Oyl, from whom the English fre-quently supply themselves for their Kitchen uses : It’s commendedfor a good Remedy in Dolors, and Gripes of the Belly; whilst newit has a pleasant Taste ; but after six Moneths, it decays and growsacid; I believe it might make a good Oyl, and of as general an useas that of the Olive, if it were better purified and rectified.”(Thomas Ash, Carolina, or a Description of the Present State of thatCountry, 12.)
“ Hiccory Nuts have very hard Shells, but excellent sweet Ker-nels, with which, in a plentiful Year, the old Hogs , that can crackthem, fatten themselves, and make excellent Pork. These Nuts are gotten, in great Quantities, by the Savages, and laid up forStores, of which they make several Dishes and Banquets. One ofthese I cannot forbear mentioning; it is this: They take theseNuts , and break them very small betwixt two Stones, till the Shellsand Kernels are indifferent small; And this Powder you are pre-sented withal in their Cabins, in little wooden Dishes; the Kernel dissolves in your Mouth, and the Shell is spit out. This tastes aswell as any Almond. Another Dish is the Soup which they makeof these Nuts , beaten, and put into Venison-Broth, which dissolvesthe Nut , and thickens, whilst the Shell precipitates, and remains atthe bottom. This Broth tastes very rich.” (Lawson, History ofCarolina, 98.)
3 “ The fruit is in great estimation with the present generationof Indians, particularly Juglans exaltata, commonly called shell-barked hiccory. The Creeks store up the last in their towns. Ihave seen above an hundred bushels of these nuts belonging to onefamily. They pound them to pieces, and then cast them into boil-ing water, which, after passing through fine strainers, preservesthe most oily part of the liquid: this they call by a name whichsignifies hiccory milk; it is as sweet and rich as fresh cream, and isan ingredient in most of their cookery, especially homony and comcakes.” (William Bartram , Travels in North America , 38.)
3 U. S. Dispens. ed. 16, 1744.
1 Millspaugh, Am. Med. PI. in Homoeopathic Remedies, ii. 157.
6 Porcher, Resources of Southern Fields and Forests, 322.
6 In the Fifth Annual Report of the United States Entomologi-cal Commission, published in 1890, one hundred and sixty-ninespecies of insects are recorded as living upon Hicoria, and verylittle is known of those which attack these trees in the southernstates. Many insects that injure the Hickories feed also on otherplants, although a large number seem to confine themselves to thisgenus. More than fifty species are known to affect the bark andwood of the trunk and branches, both when they are green andafter they have become dry. A large portion of these wood-borersare the larvse of beetles belonging to the family Cerambycidae .Cyllene pictus, Drury, which resembles the common Locust-borer,often does serious injury to the Hickories. Goes tigrinus, De Geer,and several other species of this genus, are often common on thesetrees, in the larval state boring first into the bark and sapwood andlater into the solid wood. Chion cinctus, Drury, is often destructiveto drying hickory timber. (See Garden and Forest, i. 148.) Saperdadiscoidea, Fabricius, and Stenosphenus notatus, Olivier, are also saidto affect the Hickories, and several species of Dicerca and Chryso-bothris, are common on them. Larvae of such minute beetles asSinoxylon basilare, Say, and Apate basilaris, Say, often make deepslender tunnels in the dry wood. A twig-girdler, Oncideres cingu-latus, Say, and Elaphidion viUosum, Fabricius, sometimes cut off thesmall branches. Some species of Agrilus, Acanthoderes quadrigib-bus, Say, Liopus cinereus, Leconte, and the larvae of several otherbeetles bore into the branches and twigs, although frequently notuntil the wood is dead. The Hymenopterous, Tremex Columba,Linnaeus , is reputed to be a destructive borer of the Hickory insome localities. Chramesus Icorice, Le Conte, and Scolytus 4 -spino-sus, Say, and several other species of Scolytidae ; and Magdalis,and other Curculionidae , live in the bark of dead or living trees.A scale insect, Lecanium Caryce, Fitch, and large masses of aphids,like Eriosoma Cargos, Fitch, Lachnus Caryce, Harris, are found onthe surface of the bark of young branches.
The Hickories are favorite food-plants of several species of thelarge Silk-spinners and other Bombycidse which also feed upon thefoliage of Juglans, and of numerous species of Catocala. HalesidotaCaryce, Harris, is often common, and the Fall Web-worm and thelarvae of Datana ministra, Drury, frequently defoliate the branches.The larvse of Phycis rubrifasciella, Packard, live in the buds andleaf-stalks in spring and early summer, and some other Pyralidseand some species of TortricidsB and Tineids live either in thefolded leaves or in curiously constructed csises which protect theirbodies. Gelechia carycevorella, Packard, lives within the youngleaves, which it rolls up, and larvse of Coleophora caryasfoliella,Chambers, live in cylindrical cases on the under surface of theleaves. Among leaf-miners which attack the Hickories are Litho-colletis carycefoliella, Clemens, Lithocolletis carycealbella, Chambers,and Nepticula carycefoliella, Clemens. The leaves of Hickories arefrequently affected by numerous species of gall-making insects,which often twist and disfigure them. Between fifteen and twentydistinct kinds of galls have been described as formed by differentspecies of Phylloxera on these trees, Phylloxera carycecaulis , Fitch,