Emily Randolph, age 13, of Henderson, Nev., for her question:
ARE NUTS RICH IN FOOD VALUE?
Nuts are definitely rich in food value since they give humans an important source of protein. Kernels taken from most edible nuts form highly concentrated food. With the exception of chestnuts and a few others, most nuts are also rich in fats.
In parts of Europe, nuts form a large part of the regional diet. Bread is sometimes baked from the flour made from chestnuts.
Persian or English walnut, pecan, almond, cashew, pistachio, hickory, black walnut, Brazil nut, filbert or hazelnut, macadamia and chestnut are the most popular nuts in the United States and Canada.
The term "nut" may mean the shell as well as the meat inside, or it may refer only to the seed of the fruit, as with the almond. The nut may be one of a large number of seeds lying inside a cone, like the pine nut or Indian nut.
In the markets of the United States, whole nuts are called in shell, or unshelled nuts. Those with their shells removed are called shelled nuts, kernels or nut meats.
The 10 leading nut growing states in the U.S., listed in order of importance, are Georgia, California, Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Oklahoma, Florida, South Carolina and New Mexico.
The Persian walnut is usually called the English walnut, although it probably was grown originally in Asia. It is one of the most popular nuts available, and it is also one of the most nutritious. Many walnuts are now grown in California.
There are many pecan orchards in the Southern and Southwestern states. Almonds are also grown extensively, with most of the American crop coming from California trees.
Peanuts belong in a separate class of food. They are not nuts. They are related to peas and beans.
Several types of nuts come from the tropics. Most popular, perhaps, is the coconut, which is commercially important in a number of different areas of the world.
The macadamia nut, sometimes called the Queensland nut or Australian nut, has a thin, extremely hard shell. The kernel is delicious and nutritious. The macadamia is the fruit of an evergreen tree that comes from Australia and it is now grown in Hawaii and parts of the American tropics.
Some macadamia trees are also producing now in California and Florida.
Water chestnut, sometimes called water caltrop or Jesuit nut, is the seed of a water plant that grows in Europe. A closely related plant called the Singhara nut, or horn nut, comes from southern Asia.
Nut trees are pollinated by wind or insects. Varieties of species of nut trees are often crossed. Parts of one variety are often grafted or joined to the rootstock of another variety.
Those nut trees that come from Europe grow better in the Western part of the U.S. than in the East. Those transplanted from east Asia seem to do better in the Eastern states.