THE BEECHNUT.
Fagus, _Linn._ The Beech. The Latin name of the genus (_Fagus_)
supposed to be an equivalent of the Greek phegos, an oak, or it may
be derived from _phago_, to eat; the nuts of this tree having been
used as food by man in all ages and countries where it is a native.
The modern English name, beech, was probably derived from the
Anglo-Saxon _bece_ or _boc_; in Dutch it is _beuk_; French, _hetre_;
Icelandic, _beyk_; Danish, _bog_; Swedish, _bok_; German, _buche_ or
_buoche_; Russian, _buk_; Italian, _faggio_; Armenian, _fao_; and in
Welsh _ffawydd_.
The beech belongs to the order _Cupuliferae_, or oak family. The
genus contains about fifteen species of handsome deciduous and
evergreen trees, or shrubs, very widely distributed throughout the
temperate and colder regions of both the northern and southern
hemispheres. Male flowers are bell-shaped, in long-stalked drooping
heads; calyx five to seven cleft, containing numerous stamens.
Female flowers two to four in a cluster on the summit of the
scaly-bracted peduncle; the inside scales uniting, forming a
four-lobed involucre of imbricated bracts, the whole becoming at
maturity a somewhat prickly, scaly bur, within which are found a
pair of sharp-edged triangular nuts, containing a tender and
sweet-flavored kernel.
=History of the Beech.=--The common beeches of both Europe and North
America are so closely related that the two species may be
considered as one for all practical purposes, such as propagation,
cultivation, and value of the wood and nuts. It is true, however,
that our native beech is not environed with ancient myths and
stories of love and war, neither is it celebrated in poetry and
song, yet it has, doubtless, played just as noble a part in human
affairs among the pre-historic races of America as those recorded of
its European contemporary. As the beech in Europe is found in the
forests of Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, and
southward to Constantinople, Palestine, Asia Minor and Armenia, it
was well known and highly appreciated by all the early inhabitants
of these countries, and is frequently referred to by the earlier
writers of Greece and Rome who touch upon the rural affairs of their
times. It is supposed that Theophrastus refers to the beech under
the name of _Oxua_, and Dioscorides as _Phegos_, and the latter
author places it among the oaks, in which he was not far out of the
way, because the beech is a member of the oak family in our modern
classification. Virgil and Pliny speak highly of the little
triangular nuts, and the people of their times set considerable
value upon beech-nuts as an article of food. Pliny also assures us
that at the siege of Chios, the besieged inhabitants lived for some
time entirely on these nuts. We are inclined to think, however, that
both Virgil and Pliny are in error when they tell us that the beech
was propagated by being grafted on the chestnut. They were probably
led astray in this by some romancing gardener of their time, for we
even have some of the same ilk with us at this day. Pliny refers to
the beech several times in his writings, and places a much higher
value upon this nut than he does upon the chestnut; in fact, speaks
rather contemptuously of the latter, and seems to be surprised that
nature should have taken such care of the nuts, which he calls
"_vilissima_," as to enclose them with a prickly involucre or bur.
But my limited space will not allow of tracing the history of the
beech from ancient to modern times, although it has always been
esteemed as food for man, as well as for wild and domesticated
animals. Swine fattened on beech and oak mast have for ages been
noted for their excellent flesh, and the value of many an old estate
in Great Britain was determined more upon the mast the forest
produced, than the area or number of square miles they contained.
As a monumental tree the beech has no rival, for its smooth gray
bark, perennial and almost unchangeable, has ever been a convenient
place to register challenges to enemies, epitaphs, epithets, and
probably more frequently than all, the initials of the name of some
loved one, who might possibly pass that way and find her name
engraved on the beechen tree. I doubt much if there is a beech grove
in all Europe or in America, within a convenient distance of a city,
country village or schoolhouse, on which the bark of the trees is
not scarified by the knives of boys in recording the initials of
their own names, and those of their favorites of the opposite sex.
These living registers were long ago recognized by the poets, and
more than eighteen centuries ago Virgil admits it in these lines:
"Or shall I rather the sad verse repeat,
Which on the beech's bark I lately writ."
In more modern times Tasso hints of the same habit, in _Jerusalem
Delivered_, to wit:
"On the smooth beechen rind, the pensive dame
Carves in a thousand forms her Tancred's name."
That the Spanish youths were not oblivious to their opportunities
for recording the names of their favorites we must assume to be
true, from the lines of Don Luis de Gongora, who tells us that:
"Not a beech but bears some cipher,
Tender word, or amorous text.
If one vale sounds Angelina,
Angelina sounds the next."
=Propagation of the Beech.=--The beech, in all its species and
varieties, may be propagated by the usual modes, viz.: By seed,
layers, budding and grafting. The seeds, when gathered, should be
mixed with clean, sharp, moist sand, placed in boxes, and then
stored in a cool or cold place and carefully protected from mice,
until the time arrives for sowing in spring. They may also be sown
in the fall and lightly covered with leaf mold or other light soil,
but unless coated with tar or some offensive poisonous substance,
vermin of some form will be very likely to find them and leave few
to grow. Seedlings are used for stocks upon which to work the many
varieties in cultivation; but as I am not writing this for the
encouragement of propagators of purely ornamental trees, I will omit
giving any very extended description of the different modes of
propagating the beech, further than to say that should remarkably
fine varieties with extra-sized nuts be discovered or produced, they
can be perpetuated and multiplied by the same processes adopted for
other kinds of nut trees.
=Soil and Location.=--The beeches of Northern countries, in their
many varieties, thrive best in a cool, moist soil, for their roots
rarely penetrate very deeply, but spread out widely and near the
surface, forming an intricate network, which will try the patience
of the woodman who attempts to clear away a forest of beech and
break up the ground. In this country, as well as in Europe, the
beech thrives in calcareous soils, or what is usually termed
limestone regions; consequently, when transplanted or raised in
sandy soils, or on the red sandstone formation, light applications
of lime are usually found very beneficial; but more than all, the
beech requires moisture, and if not planted in a moist soil the
surface over the roots should be kept constantly covered with some
kind of mulch.
=Species and Varieties of the Beech.=--In the Dictionary of
Gardening, edited by George Nicholson, of the Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew, England, the following species of Fagus are briefly described,
viz:
_F. antarctica._--Leaves ovate, blunt, glabrous, attenuated at the
base, doubly dentate, alternate, petiolate, one and a half inches
long. A small deciduous tree or shrub, with rugged, tortuous
branches. Native of Tierra del Fuego, S. A.
_F. betuloides_ (birch-like). Evergreen beech.--Leaves ovate,
elliptic, obtuse crenulate, leathery, shining glabrous, round at the
base or short footstalks. An evergreen tree, native of Tierra del
Fuego, S. A.
_F. ferruginea_ (rusty). American beech.--Leaves ovate, acuminate,
thickly toothed, downy beneath, ciliate on the margin. A large
deciduous tree, very closely resembling the common European species,
from which it is distinguished by its longer, thinner and less
shining leaves.
_F. obliqua_ (oblique). Chile beech.--Leaves ovate, oblong, oblique,
somewhat rhomboid, blunt, doubly serrated, entire at the base,
attenuated into the petiole, and somewhat downy. A hardy deciduous
tree, native of the cooler elevated regions of Chile, S. A.
_F. sylvatica_ (sylvan). European beech.--Leaves oblong, ovate,
obscurely toothed; margin ciliate. A well-known large deciduous
tree, widely distributed in Europe from Norway southward to Asia
Minor. From this species a large number of ornamental varieties have
been produced, many of them merely accidental variations of the wild
forms of the forests, while others have originated in the seedbeds
of nurserymen. But so far as I am aware, no variety has ever been
introduced bearing superior or improved forms of nuts.
Our American beech (_F. ferruginea_) is a widely distributed tree,
extending from Nova Scotia in the north, south to Florida, and
westward to Wisconsin and Missouri. Formerly it was exceedingly
abundant, but like many other of our most valuable forest trees, it
is disappearing before the axe of the woodman, who has always found
a ready sale for beech timber. It is used in the manufacture of
plane stocks, shoe lasts, handles for paring chisels, and hundreds
of similar articles. Beech wood is hard, firm, and takes a good
polish, but is not very flexible. It makes excellent fuel, and ranks
next in value to hard maple and hickory for this purpose. In the
more northern States and where the beech grows to its largest size,
the heartwood is usually of a reddish color; but here in New Jersey
and farther south, the wood is usually white almost to the center of
the tree, no matter how large it may be. The color of the wood,
however, does not in any way detract from its value, for fuel and
many other purposes, although some European dendrologists have been
deceived into supposing that the white beech was almost or quite
worthless. Loudon, in _Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum_, Vol.
III, in referring to our beech, says: "The wood of the white beech
is little valued in America, even for fuel; and the bark is used for
tanning, but is little esteemed," etc. But if any one, in these
later years, has had occasion to purchase beech timber for any
purpose, he has probably learned, from the price charged, that it is
esteemed, even for such base purposes as firewood.
I am not, however, attempting to extol the American beech as a
timber tree, but ask that it be given a place among the select
ornamental nut-bearing kinds. And I think every farmer who has a
pasture lot could afford a place for at least one beech tree, and if
there is a low, moist spot in the field, or a stony corner, this
will be a suitable place for such a tree; and the horses, cattle or
sheep out in pasture during hot days in summer will be very grateful
for the shade which a wide-spreading specimen will give them. It may
be that the owner of said pasture may recall the lines of Garcilaso:
"But in calm idlesse laid,
Supine in the cool shade
Of oak or ilex, beech or pendant pine,
Sees his flocks feeding stray,
Whitening a length of way,
Or numbers up his homeward-tending kine."
He may be sure of one thing, and that is, the beech-nuts produced by
one or many trees will always be acceptable to the children, and of
these hungry mortals there is likely to be a few, at least, roaming
about in ages to come, as in times past.
The beech is not really a desirable tree to plant on a lawn or near
one's dwelling, because of its persistent foliage, which clings to
the twigs very late in winter, and the rustling of the wind through
the dry leaves is not soothing to one's nerves, although not quite
as dismal as the moaning pines. In summer, and until late in autumn,
the American beech is a noble and graceful tree,--and if I may be
allowed the expression, one of the cleanest of trees; its large,
thin, bright-green and glossy leaves retain none of the dust and
cast-off material of other trees which may be floating through the
air, but are ever bright and pure. The tree has naturally
wide-spreading and somewhat drooping branches, and should be given
plenty of room for development when planted for the nuts or as an
ornamental tree. Its leaves and the small slender branchlets (Fig.
9) are eaten with avidity by all kinds of farm animals;
consequently, protection may be required until the trees have
reached a hight to be safe from such depredators.
Beech seedlings do not usually come into bearing in less than twenty
to thirty years, but as no one in this country has ever attempted to
cultivate this tree for its nuts, or search our forests for
precocious and superior varieties, we have to admit that the field
remains unexplored, and as barren of results as it was when our
ancestors first discovered America. Every hunter, woodman, farmer
and botanist who has roamed through forests where the beech trees
grow, is well aware of the fact that distinct varieties are not at
all rare, some having nuts twice the size of others in the same
woods or groves, and it is possible and probable that some nut
culturist in the near future will find time to select these choice
wild varieties for cultivation and propagation. It would not, in my
opinion, be beneath the dignity of our national department of
agriculture, or some of its numerous costly annexes, to occasionally
take into consideration the natural products of this great country,
and determine, by a series of experiments, whether or no they were
not worthy of attention.
[Illustration: FIG. 9. BEECHNUT LEAF, BUR AND NUT.]
=Insects Injurious to the Beech.=--No disease has, as yet, been
known to seriously affect the beech, and as for insect enemies, it
probably has a less number than any other denizen of our forests. It
is true that transplanted trees, and those left exposed by cutting
away protecting neighbors, are sometimes attacked by borers in the
stem, branches and twigs, but these enemies naturally follow in the
train of debility, it being one of the immutable economic laws of
nature to hasten the demise and decomposition of the half-starved or
otherwise enfeebled members of both the animal and vegetable
kingdom.
Isolated beech trees growing by the roadsides in parks and fields
are occasionally attacked by a large grayish, long-horn beetle, the
_Goes pulverulenta_. It is about one inch long, and a rather sturdy
beetle of a light grayish color, and usually infests the branches,
but may occasionally attack the main stem. It is not abundant, and
has seldom been found infesting the beech. There are also two or
three borers of the Buprestis family of beetles which occasionally
attack beech trees. They are distinguished by the broad heads and
flattened bodies of the grubs, and they work just beneath the bark
in the sapwood, causing dead patches, mainly on the south side of
the stem and larger branches. If the dead bark is removed and the
wounds painted they will soon heal over, unless the tree is
suffering for moisture and nutrients at the roots. A few twig
borers, with an occasional colony of caterpillars on the leaves,
embody about all the insect enemies of the beech calling for any
special attention, but there are a host of different species and
kinds ever ready to pounce upon a sickly or dead tree, whether found
in the field or forest.
=Properties and Uses.=--The beechnut has been so long and favorably
known that very little need be said here in regard to its properties
and uses. In the forests it affords food for many kinds of birds,
such as the wild turkey, partridge or grouse, and especially the
pigeon, and immense flocks of these collect in the beech forests in
autumn to feed upon the nuts. Deer are very fond of these nuts, and
so are all of the squirrel family, and the little ground squirrel or
chipmunk, _Tamias striatus_, of our Northern States, gives us a good
practical lesson in the way of preserving the nuts over winter.
These little rodents pack away the nuts in small pockets in their
burrows and from two to three feet below the surface, where they are
protected from excessive moisture and any considerable change of
temperature. The chipmunk always stores the nuts in the ground, and
not in hollow logs, as is sometimes asserted. The deer-mouse
(_Hesperomys leucopus_), however, does select such places for
putting away his winter's supply, but more frequently he chooses a
hollow in the stem of some old tree, and several feet from the
ground. Unlike the chipmunk, this mouse cleans the shells from the
kernels, storing only the latter, and I have often found a quart or
more when cutting down trees in winter. These kernels are usually so
clean, bright, and free from odor, that it is to be feared the
finder always confiscates them for his own use.
As the beechnut contains considerable oil, many schemes have been
set on foot, in European countries, for its extraction and use as a
salad oil. Early in the last century (1721) Aaron Hill, an English
poet, proposed to pay off the national debt from the profits to be
derived from the manufacture of beechnut oil; but his scheme fell
through, like many others of its kind. It is also stated that Henry
Fielding, so well known by his delightful stories of English
society, once speculated rather largely on the manufacture of
beechnut oil. In France, however, beechnut oil was formerly made in
considerable quantities, and used in cooking fish and as a salad
oil. In Silesia it is used by the country people instead of butter,
and the cakes which remain from the pressure are given to fatten
swine, oxen and poultry. The forests of Eu and of Crecy, in the
department of the Oise, it is stated by Duhamel du Monceau, have
yielded, in a single season, more than 2,000,000 bushels of mast,
but probably this referred to all kinds of nuts, and not beech-nuts
alone. Years later, or in 1779, Michaux states that the forests of
Compiegne, near the Verberie department of the Somme, afforded oil
enough to supply the wants of the district for more than half a
century. In some parts of France beech-nuts are roasted and served
as a substitute for coffee. Many of these old forests have
disappeared, but other kinds of nut trees are still being planted in
France, and the product is simply enormous, and a source of wealth
to the peasant, as well as the owners of extensive forests and
orchards.
The beechnut has never been an article of commerce in this country,
and it is rarely seen on sale in either country villages or our
larger cities, not because of its scarcity or want of demand, but
all that the country boys and girls find time to gather are wanted
for their own pleasure and use. Picking up beech-nuts among the
leaves in a forest, or even after raking off the leaves and then
whipping the trees, is, at best, slow and rather tedious work, as I
know full well from experience, and only once do I remember of
having secured a rounded half bushel as the sum total of many raids
on the beech trees in the neighborhood. But as the beechnut is the
diamond among the larger and less precious gems of our forests, we
should set a higher value upon it because small and rather difficult
to obtain.