Those nuts may have been any of the various kinds distributed throughout
the United States, such as the butternut, black walnut, beechnut,
chestnut, hickory, hazel or pecan. I know that I can recall very well,
when I was a child and visited my grandparents in New Ulm and St. Peter,
in southern Minnesota, the abundance of butternuts, black walnuts and
hazels to be found along the roads and especially along the Minnesota
and Cottonwood river bottoms. Since such nut trees were not to be found
near Springfield, where my parents lived, which was just a little too
far west, I still associate my first and immature interest in this kind
of horticulture with those youthful trips east.
The only way we children could distinguish between butternut and black
walnut trees was by the fruit itself, either on the tree or shaken down.
This is not surprising, however, since these trees are closely related,
both belonging to the family _Juglans_. The black walnut is known as
_Juglans nigra_ and the butternut or white walnut as _Juglans cinera_.
The similarity between the trees is so pronounced that the most
experienced horticulturist may confuse them if he has only the trees in
foliage as his guide.
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