THE COMING NUT

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 104, 30 October 1923, Page 4

THE COMING NUT

AUSTRALIA'S FINE PRODUCT

THIN SHELL AT LAST.

CMOK OS* OWH COmmMNDIBT.J

SYDNEY, 24th October. «. ,V *t 6 raort t«it"U«ng problems that have beset gardeners in Australia for years past has been the delightful but baffling bush nut. Although it is known to most Australians as the bush nut, m different localities one may hear it spoken of as the Australian, or the Queensland; or even the Polar nut, but I no bushman from .end to end of the continent would have the remotest idea of what was. meant if by chance it were given^ its. proper name-the Macadamia lermfoha. However, even such a name as that could have been tolerated had i the nut itself been more tractable On the. contrary, it is the most obstinate and exasperating nut that ever was known. Certainly of all the members of the nut family put together it has ongendered the most bruised fingers arid thumbs and the most epithets of varying intensity, in accordance with tha well-known capacities of Australian Dushmen. In a word, it is the hardest nut to-crack in creation. As big as a small pigeon's egg, brown and shimon^ may. jump on it and hammer it with one s heel without leaving the faintest impression, gftV e on the h«el. One may put it in the crevice of a door hinge", and it will be a fulcrum to break down the strongest door without itself yielding a microscopic fraction to the squeezing process. Yet the milky white kernal ig the most delightful of all nuts. Its good qualities, combined with the difficulties of access, indeed, have won. it yet. another name—"the Scotsman Ts heart. Naturally, however, a nut which requires something in the nature of a blacksmith's hammer and anvil instead of nut-crackers has had a strictly limited popularity as a table delicacy, but its rare and mellow flavour has excited the interest of nut culturists ever since its discovery at Moreton Bay, near Brisbane, in 1869, by the famous botanist, the late Baron Yon Mueller. Though the nut was-known, to the early settlers on the Tweed, Richmond, and Brisbane Bivers and elsewhere, its edible qualities appear -not to have been known, as there is an .amusing and authentic case of, a, lad. who ate the nuts in Brisbane and was expected to die, but. astonished his companions by not even displaying any ill-effects. Since Mueller s time experiments have been constantly in progress somewhere or other to develop a thin-shelled variety of the nut, and these have' been extended to America, China, Chile, and a number of the Pacific Islands- . Large quantities have been exported ,to chocolate manufacturers, who state that it is the only, nut that will preserve for an indefinite period. For. experimental purposes Mr. H. J. Rumsey, of Dundas, N.S.W., a well-known experimentalist, has sent to America alone 10,000 seed nuti. .Years of disappointment in all these parts of the world have at length been crowned with success on the North Coast of New South Wales, where Mr. J. S. Waldroi\ has prpduced several generations of-a thin-shelled variety, which, with the aid of science applied ■to an unusually thin.shelled nut which he found growing in ifie district, he has now succeeded in growing plentifully on his'farm. The Queensland Government Botanist and the Director of Fruit Culture hoth inspected the trees, and purchased 600 nut* at 6d each for ,the Bribie Island Botanic Gardens. Other experts who have inspected the'farm are loud in their praise of Mr. Waldron's product, and at the request of the New South Wales Agriculture Department he has supplied a parcel for planting and a display for the Empire Exhibition.