Nuts are different from most other food items. When planted, the nut contains substances, such as fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals within the nut kernel to survive and nourish the embryonic nut tree until the roots, stems, and the leaves are developed enough to independently maintain the developmental aspects, such as intake of water and minerals by the roots, and the formation of chlorophyll within the leaves and stems—thus developing into a living organism, that can survive as a perennial tree and reproduce more of its kind. The remarkable, internal, compressed potential within a shelled nut seed offers to the health of mankind a perfect food, containing all the necessary elements to successfully survive for short periods of time. The nuts contain protein, fats, and carbohydrates, being themselves capable of sustaining life for short periods, but the high concentrations of these products can make them somewhat difficult to digest if eaten exclusively in a diet. The nutritional value of nuts is obvious when compared to the completeness of survival capability of nut trees, compared with the nutritional composition and content of such vegetative foods as cabbage, apples, tomatoes, or other leafy annuals.

The first commercial nursery in the U.S. was established by Robert Prince in 1737 in Flushing, N.Y. George Washington visited this nursery by river barge in the spring of 1789, just after being elected the nation’s first President. During the Revolutionary War, General Washington sent armed guards to surround and protect this valuable nursery that contained American pecan trees, ‘Carya illinoinensis,’ planted from seeds. When Lewis and Clark conducted their exploration of the Northwest during the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson, they returned with collected specimen plants to be used as nursery stock at Prince Nursery for future propagation, research, and sale from the New York location.

In 1793 William Bartram reported in his botanical book, Travels, page 38, that identified American plants and animal names and Indian encounters that was located just west of Augusta, Georgia he recorded a nut tree, ‘Juglans exalata.'

Bartram went further to describe, Juglans exaltata, “is in great estimation with the present generation of Indians, particularly, Juglans exaltata, commonly called the shell-barked hickory.” Bartram went further to explain that the Creek Indians collected hundreds of bushels of the nuts, crushed them into oily masses and strained out the woody, floating nut material, leaving the oily liquid named, (hickoy) “hiccory” milk as fresh, sweet and rich as cream”. This “hiccory” (hickory) cream was used in preparing their cooking specialties “especially hominy and corn cakes.

In his book, Travels, Page 318, William Bartram found various nut and fruit trees growing near Wrightsville, Ga. In 1773 he found “Juglans hickory;” and the American filbert, (Hazlenut), “Corylus,” and Fruit Trees; Red Mulberry “Morus rubra” American persimmon, “Diospyros;” Wild Cherry, “Prunus padus,” and the Wild Plum, “Prunus indica.”

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