BITTERNUT HICKORY
(Hicoria Minima)

The tannin in the thin shelled nuts which grow abundantly on this tree gives the name bitternut. The name is truly descriptive. Gall itself scarcely exceeds the intense bitterness of the kernel, when crushed between the teeth. The sense of taste does not immediately detect the bitterness in its full intensity. A little time seems to be necessary to dissolve the astringent principal and distribute it to the nerves of taste. When this has been accomplished, the bitterness remains a long time, seeming to persist after the last vestige of the cause has been removed. In that respect it may be likened to the resin of the incense cedar of California which is among tastes what musk is among odors, nearly everlasting. The bitterness of this hickory nut has much to do with the perpetuation of the species. No wild or tame animal will eat the fruit unless forced by famine. Consequently, the nuts are left to grow, provided they can get themselves planted. That is not always easy, for small quadrupeds which bury edible nuts for food, and then occasionally forget them, show no interest whatever in the unpalatable bitternut. It is left where it falls, unless running water, or some other method of locomotion, transports it to another locality. This happens with sufficient frequency to plant the nuts as widely as those of any other hickory. It is believed that this is the most abundant of the hickories.

The tree bears names other than bitternut. It is called swamp hickory, though that name is more applicable to a different species, the water hickory. Pig hickory or pignut are names used in several states, but without good reason. Hogs may sometimes eat the nuts, but never when anything better can be found. Besides, pignut is the accepted name of another species (Hicoria glabra). In Louisiana they call it the bitter pecan tree. Bitter hickory is a common name in many localities. In New Hampshire it is known as pig walnut, in Vermont as bitter walnut, and in Texas as white hickory. The names are so many, and so often apply as well to other hickories as to this, that the name alone is seldom a safe guide to identification. It has two or three characters which will help to pick it out from among others. Its leaves and bark bear considerable resemblance to ash. The leaves are the smallest among the hickories, and the bark is never shaggy. The small branches always carry yellow buds, no matter what the season of the year. The compound leaves are from six to ten inches long, and consist of from five to nine leaflets, always an odd number.

Bitternut hickory’s range covers pretty generally the eastern part of the United States. It is one of the largest and commonest hickories of New England, and is likewise the common hickory of Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. It grows from Maine through southern Canada to Minnesota, follows down the western side of the Mississippi valley to Texas, and extends into western Florida.

Hickory is often lumbered in ways not common with other hardwoods. It is not generally found in ordinary lumber yards, and is not cut into lumber as most other woods are. It is in a class by itself. The person who would consult statistics of lumber cut in the United States to ascertain the quantity of hickory going to market, would utterly fail to obtain the desired information. The statistics of lumber cut in the United States for the year 1910 listed the total for hickory at 272,252,000 feet, distributed among 33 states, and cut by 6,349 mills. Reports by users of this wood in a number of states show that probably twice as much goes to factories to be manufactured into finished commodities, as all the sawmills cut. This means that much hickory goes to factories without having passed through sawmills to be first converted into lumber. It goes as bolts and billets, and as logs of various lengths. Some sawmills in the hickory region cut dimension stock and sell it to factories to be further worked up; but that is a comparatively small part of the hickory that finds its way to factories of various kinds. Many sawmills refuse to cut hickory, claiming that it does not pay them to specialize on a scarce wood. Scattered trees occur among other timber, but these are left when the other logging is done. Special operators go after the hickory, and distribute it among various industries which are in the market for it. That method often results in much waste, because the man who is specializing in one commodity, such as wagon poles, ax handles, sucker-rods, wheel stock, or the like, is apt to cut out only what meets his requirements, and abandon the rest. Some of the hickory camps where such stock is roughed out are spectacles of carelessness and waste, with heaps of rejected hickory which, though not meeting requirements for the special articles in view, are valuable for many other things. Few woods contribute to the trash heap more in proportion to the total cut than hickory; but the waste nearly all occurs before the factories which finally work up the products are reached. These factories are often hundreds of miles from the forests where the hickory grows.

Hickory was not a useful farm timber in early times, as oak and chestnut were. It decayed quickly when exposed to weather, and was not suitable for fence rails, posts, house logs, or general lumber. It was sometimes used for barn floors, but when seasoned it was so hard to nail that it was not well liked. The pioneers were not able to use this wood to advantage, because it is a manufacturer’s material, not a farmer’s or a villager’s standby. It can be said to the credit of the pioneers, however, that they knew its value for certain purposes, and employed as much of it as they needed.

Fuel was the most important place for hickory on the farm. All things considered, it is probably the best firewood of the American forest. The yawning fireplaces called for cords of wood every month of winter in the northern states. Enough to make a modern buggy would go up the chimney in a rich red blaze in an hour, and no one thought that it was waste; and it was not waste then, because farms had to be cleared, and firewood was the best use possible for the hickory at that time. Every cord burned in the chimney was that much less to be rolled into logheaps and consumed in the clearing for the new cornfield.

Hickory has always been considered the best material for smoking meat. More than 30,000 cords a year are now used that way. It was so used in early times, when every farmer smoked and packed his own meat. Hickory smoke was supposed to give bacon a flavor equalled by no other wood; and in addition to that it was believed to keep the skippers out.

The nuts were made into oil which was thought to be efficacious as a liniment employed as a remedy against rheumatism to which pioneers were susceptible because their moccasins were porous and their feet were often wet. The oil was used also for illuminating purposes. It fed the flame of a crude lamp.

No other wood equalled hickory for “split brooms,” the kind that swept the cabins before broom corn was known or carpet sweepers and vacuum cleaners were invented. The toughness, smoothness, and strength of hickory made it the best oxbow wood, and the same property fitted it for barrel hoops. Thousands of fish casks in New England and tobacco hogsheads in Maryland and Virginia were hooped with hickory before George Washington was born. The wood’s value for ax handles was learned early. The Indians used it for the long, slender handles of their stone hammers with which they barked trees in their clearings, and broke the skulls of enemies in war.

Bitternut hickory has about ninety-two per cent of the strength of shagbark, and seventy-three per cent of its stiffness. It yields considerably more ash when burned, and is rated a little lower in fuel value.