BOY, THERE SURE ARE A LOT OF NUTS OUT THERE!

There's a lot of nuts out there:* Walnuts.* Hickory nuts.* Pecans.* Beechnuts.* Chestnuts.* Butternuts.* Pistachios.

The nut business is a billion-dollar industry in the United States, and chunk of that change goes to Missouri, and the Southeast Missouri area in particular.

Nut production may be down as much as 25 to 30 percent for the 1998-99 season, but United States Department of Agriculture statistics still reveal a $1.4 billion economic boost to the nation's economy.

That figure is down from the $2 billion boom during the 1997-98 nut season.

Hazelnut and pecan production is expected to be down by 30 percent, but black walnuts are expected to be plentiful, which translates into good news for the Show Me State.

With a couple of weeks left in the black walnut harvesting season, more than 30 million pounds of black walnuts have already been purchased by one Missouri company, Hammons Products Co., of Stockton, which uses them from everything ranging from edibles to cosmetics.

Hammons, one of the largest walnuts product companies in the nation, has more than 250 walnut huller locations in a 12-state area, including buyers and hullers at Gordonville in Cape Girardeau County, Marble Hill in Bollinger County and Fredericktown in Madison county. Hammons also has hulling operations in Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas, Indiana, and seven other states.

This fall's Eastern Black Walnut crop is proving to be a bountiful one, say Hammons officials."It could rank as the most productive of the 1990s and one of the best overall during the past two decades," said Brian Hammons, president of Hammons Co. "May people in particular our employees and huller operations have worked hard to make this year's crop so successful."Excellent weather this year has allowed thousands of people to participate in the walnut harvesting process this year, including Boy Scout and church groups, which have used weekend projects to provide funds for projects.

Hammons will continue to purchase this year's crop over the next couple of weeks, at most hulling locations.

As many as a quarter-million pounds of black walnuts have been collected in Cape Girardeau counties, with selling a prices ranging from 5-to-11- cents a pound. The walnuts are hulled, bagged and weighed, and the hullers pay the picker immediately.

Hammons, a family operations for five decades, was founded in 1948, and make full use of the black walnuts.

In addition to the fruit of the walnut, the shells are used to produce an abrasive for polish, a filler for dynamite, for use in cosmetics , soaps, dental cleansers and I n the manufacture of paper bags and boxes. Major ice-cream makers say black walnut is one of their most popular flavors. The natural robust flavor of eastern black walnuts also combines with other flavors, especially chocolate, caramel, and cinnamon. The walnut shell is a hard natural abrasive, chemically inert, nontoxic, and biodegradable. It is processed from cleaned and dust-free walnut shells. In the oil industry, black walnut shell is used as lost-circulation material in the oil wall drilling industry. It is the key ingredient in making and maintaining seals in fracture zones and formations. Also, black walnut shell is an excellent filtration medium for separating crude oil from water. The dynamite industry was one of the first markets to utilize ground black walnut shell. It is used as filler in dynamite. Ground black walnut shell is the perfect abrasive in soaps, cosmetics, and dental cleansers. It is the gritty agent used to remove rough surfaces on skin and to polish teeth. Over 10,000 metric tons of black walnuts are harvested annually in the United States. Sixty percent of commercially processed black walnut kernels are packaged for the retail trade, 30 percent are used in themanufacture of ice cream while the remaining 10% are used in commercial baking and candy making. Pecan production is also big in the United States, with more than 340 million pounds harvested last year. With the development of commercial shelling equipment -- used for cracking, sizing, packaging, -- pecan operations have been on the grow since the late 1920s.

Since 1948 more than 80 percent of the pecans sold have been shelled before being marketed. Some shelling plants operate year round, while others are seasonal (fall months). Many pecan plants have a capacity of one to 30 tons per day. Large plants can have as many as 14 cracking machines with a capacity of 150,000 pounds a day and 30 million pounds seasonally. Not surprisingly, most shelling plants are located in the southeastern and southwestern United States where the majority of pecans are grown. The leading production states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas.