fresh ground, tending to clay, possibly irrigated when not endowed with natural freshness. A position not exposed to cold winds is to be preferred.

The land selected for the culture of filberts may be broken up partially or entirely, according to the means at disposal. After having laid out the ground and marked off the places where the bushes are to stand, the groups 16 to 25 feet apart (when too close together, they are deprived of air and light, and the production is minimum), a circle of about 4 feet is marked around the stake and dug out to the depth of 16 inches around the circumference, gradually inclining toward the center, where the hard ground is reached. About 8 inches apart, within this periphery, eight to ten slips of some 32 inches in length are planted, so as to leave about two or three buds above the earth. The hole is now refilled with fine earth, stratified with fermented stable manure. A number of suckers will sprout from some slips; others will yield none.

The proper season for November to December. from the mother bushes.

planting is, after the first rainfall, from The sprigs for reproduction are derived Filberts can be produced from the seeds, but this is never done, because the plant produced from seed not only would require much more time to bear fruit, but would naturally grow wild and afterwards would have to be grafted, and therefore the suckers (shoots or sprouts) are preferred.

Cereals-barley, rye, or wheat-are sown in the filbert plantations during the first years; afterwards vegetables are cultivated therein.

The first manuring is done (as already stated) when the sprigs are planted; afterwards every three years.

The annual cultivation consists of a thorough digging in January, well around the roots, and a second superficial one in July. The purpose of the superficial digging is essentially to clean the soil. of the weeds, which when chopped down work into the soil and help to retain the moisture. During this operation, care should be taken not to destroy the cavities.

During the first two years the plant does not bear fruit, but commences the third year. Any blossoms appearing before this time should be removed, otherwise the young bush would suffer. According to the seasons, the roots should be bared and recovered.

The pruning is done when the leaves are falling, and consists of cutting the offshoots, sprigs which are too long, and the old and dried branches; the latter are replaced by young sprouts, and in this manner the plantations can be revived indefinitely; in fact, there are plantations fifty to one hundred years old.

Irrigation takes place from June to August, once a week. GathNo. 219-5.

ering time is from the end of August to the middle of September, according to the season.

The filberts are not subject to serious diseases, but hail storms and cold winds cause the greatest damage.

CATANIA, December 4, 1897.

KOREA.

LOUIS H. BRÜHL,

Consul.

Having been asked by certain persons in the United States for information as to the use of nuts for food, I have the honor to send a report on the subject.

Nuts are used quite extensively as food in this country. By far the most common food nut is the chestnut, which almost takes the place with Koreans which the potato occupies with us. The chestnut is used raw, boiled, roasted, cooked with meat, made into confections, powdered and mixed with candy, and dried whole, in which latter condition it becomes quite sweet, but is apt to be affected by worms. The chestnut grown in Korea is the large, coarse variety common in Italy. It is raised in large quantities, in spite of the ravages of the borer, and is so common that during the winter venders of boiled or roasted chestnuts are numerous along the streets. Boys roast the nuts in little excavations in the street and sell the hot nuts to the passers-by.

The English walnut is also grown to a large extent, and is used for food as a delicacy, as it is with us, except that it is used much more generally and forms more of a regular article of diet.

The pine nut, or piñon, is also used in very large quantities, being for sale in most of the shops. As a rule, it is used in its raw state or combined with a candy made from rice. It is mixed with other food to impart a delicate flavor, and always forms a part of the summer drink of sweetened water, to which a little wine and this nut are added. The pine nut is very rich in oil and is supposed to be strengthening, for which reason it, as well as the chestnut, is given to children of weakly condition. It seems to be difficult of digestion, however, and probably does more harm than good when taken in quantities by persons of weak digestive powers.

Peanuts are grown and are very much liked, but the native peanut is so poor and small that it is hardly worth raising. Considerable quantities of good-sized peanuts are imported of late by the Chinese, and are much in demand. No proper method of roasting this nut is at hand, and, as the Koreans use no stoves, cooking their food in kettles over a fireplace so arranged in an outer room that the

smoke and heat pass through flues under the stone floors and thus warm the living rooms, this absence of a suitable appliance for roasting or baking prevents the proper preparation of the peanut for food.

The nut next common is one that resembles in appearance our beechnut, having a white shell. It is called "uhn hang," which is translated in the dictionaries as Salisburia adiantifolia, or gingko This is roasted and used for food, and is also used very largely in its raw condition as a remedy for coughs.

nut.

HORACE N. Allen,

SEOUL, February 9, 1898.

Consul-General.

SYRIA.

There are seven kinds of nuts grown in this country, but each is mainly confined to its special district, viz: (1) Common filberts, grown at Anatolia and Armenia; (2) chestnuts, in Asia Minor and Armenia; (3) pine nuts, all over the pine regions; (4) pistachio nuts, northern Syria; (5) Damascus pistachio nuts, southern Syria; (6) walnuts, of the variety known in America as English walnuts; (7) gallnuts, all over the pine regions.

Filberts and chestnuts are grown mostly on the Black Sea shore, somewhat to southward. I regret I can not give an estimate of the quantity raised there annually. The chief export port is Smyrna, where they have a market value of about 4 piasters (14 cents) per oke (234 pounds).

Pistachios grow, as stated, in Syria, the common variety being mainly confined to the Aleppo Vilayet, and the Damascus pistachio to the province of that name. They are shipped to all parts of the country and exported from Alexandretta and Beirut,

The walnut is a common fruit all over the land.

Gallnuts are not used for food, but are exported for use in tanning hides.

The people do not regard nuts as a regular diet, but the orthodox Armenians, during their fasts, mostly in spring, prepare a dish with boiled wheat (boolghoor) and crushed walnuts. Nuts also enter in small quantities into the composition of several native dishes that are in common use. They are also much used by foreigners residing in the country in the form of pilaff (the national dish), in which nuts are mixed with rice, and in a mixture of meat and vegetables with walnuts or pistachios.

The pistachios and Damascus nuts are roasted and salted and hawked about the streets of practically every town of the Empire, and they enter largely into native candies.

Therefore, nuts in this country may be classed generally as a luxury, for use as a dessert, and for consumption by the natives at night, just before going to bed.

During the fasting time referred to, the poorer classes crush the walnuts, and mix them with boolghoor (grain boiled, dried, and ground to a coarse powder). By this method cooking is not necessary. They also work up the boolghoor by hand, with a very small quantity of water, until the particles adhere and form masses as large as a tennis ball. The centers of these are scooped out and filled with walnuts or pistachios, which are then covered over and the whole placed in boiling water for a few minutes. This produces a sustaining food.

Pistachios are raised in this consular district. They are shipped to the other parts of the country and also exported. The demand is not great, the average export from the port of Alexandretta being only about 130,000 kilograms (286,489 pounds). The kilogram (2.2046 pounds) is worth from 44 to 57 cents gold.

The exportation of gallnuts during the past year amounted to $201,907, of which the greater portion (about $155,000) went to France; $2,700 worth went to the United States.

HORACE LEE WASHINGTON,

ALEXANDRETTA, December 15, 1897.

Consul.

DECORTICATION OF PEPPER.

In reply to the inquiry of a Baltimore correspondent, a Department instruction was sent under date of July 5, 1898, to the consular officers of London, Amsterdam, Batavia, and Singapore, requesting information as to the hulling of pepper. The replies (Advance Sheets of which have been sent the correspondent) are given below. ENGLAND.

Consul-General Osborne writes from London, July 21, 1898:

I have made inquiries through Messrs. W. H. Cole & Co., a large and well-known firm of colonial brokers in this city, and append herewith the information given by them on the subject:

Pepper shells and their attending dust, etc., are the so-called “refuse" arising from the turning of the natural black-pepper berry into white pepper, and this is effected by various methods, such as soaking, liming, and by machinery, both in the Eastern markets of production and after shipment thence.

The so-called "Singapore" white, as shipped from that port, is made from the fully ripened black berries as cultivated in the neighboring islands, and the hull is removed in Singapore by hand and friction before the berries are fully dried. Socalled "Penang" white, as shipped from there, is made from black berries really grown in Sumatra, but imported into the Island of Penang in a dried condition.

There the berries are soaked in lime and water for some weeks, until the hull is soft, when it is removed by rubbing and washing, by both feet and hands, and is finally slightly coated with lime before shipment.

Siam white is manufactured on much the same lines as Singapore, and from black berries grown in Siam.

From this it will be seen a large quantity of hulls and broken berries may and do accumulate, and they are shipped from the East in considerable quantities to the consuming markets during each season, and are used for making ground black pepper, which, though darker in color, is not necessarily impure.

In Europe, a certain quantity of the finest grade of white pepper has for years been made by hulling the Singapore and Penang black peppers, shipped in a perfectly dried state, by soaking and with the aid of decorticating machinery.

It may also be desirable to point out that pepper berries left on the vines till overripe lose their hull entirely by a natural course of decay (or decortication) and become actually white pepper, which, after all, is simply the kernel of the black berry.

NETHERLANDS.

Consul Corey, of Amsterdam, under date of July 25, 1898, says: The following information as to pepper was kindly given me by a broker:

There exist in England and in America a couple of factories where, more or less successfully, black pepper is transformed into white pepper. The process is unknown to me. Hulling, however, will be required and will take place at the port of importation, At the place of production (the Dutch colonies), the pepper shrub produces both black and white pepper. After gathering, the less ripe fruits are sold as black pepper; whereas the riper ones, after being soaked and washed, are exported separately as white pepper.

DUTCH INDIA.

The following, bearing date of Batavia, August 29, 1898, has been received from Consul Everett:

Pepper here is hulled shortly after it is picked, at the place of production; but there is absolutely no reason why it should be so. It could be done just as well in America, and probably better.

The pepper is soaked for about ten days in water; it is then taken out and trodden with bare feet until the hull separates from the seed, which it does very easily, as by that time it is soft and pulpy. American ingenuity could easily invent some less primitive way of pressing out the seed than by treading with the feet.

The pepper, when freshly picked, is red, and when hulled the seed is quite white. If kept some time, the pepper becomes black and tends to shrivel, and when hulled the seed is gray. Sometimes this gray seed is artificially polished and treated with a solution of lime, in order to make it look white, as though hulled from fresh pepper.