Laura Doyle, age 10, of Trumball, Conn., for her question:
WHY IS CONNECTICUT CALLED THE NUTMEG STATE?
Connecticut is the third smallest state in the United States. But the state's size doesn't prevent it from being one of the nation's leading producers of helicopters, jet aircraft engines, propellers and submarines. It also rates high in the processing of copper and the production of roller and ball bearings, clocks and watches, cutlery and optical instruments.
During Colonial days, Connecticut picked up a number of nicknames.
Delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were deadlocked over how many men each state should elect to the U.S. Congress. Connecticut delegates worked out what came to be known as the Connecticut Compromise. For solving the difficult government problem, Connecticut earned its first nickname: Constitution State.
The people of Connecticut also provided large quantities of food, clothing and other supplies to the Colonial Army during the Revolutionary War. Because of this contribution to the emerging nation, Gen. George Washington honored the state with still another nickname: Provisions State.
Most of the earliest Connecticut colonists were farmers, although manufacturing started during the early 1700s. Two brothers, William and Edward Pattison, made the first tinware in North America in the 1740s. The Pattison boys were also the first of Connecticut's famous Yankee peddlers when they became house to house salesmen. Traveling in small carts, they sold a variety of Connecticut products across the state.
The Pattison brothers were such shrewd businessmen that stories soon circulated accusing them of selling wooden nutmegs. The rumors gave Connecticut still another nickname: Nutmeg State.
A nutmeg is the kernel of a tropical fruit which is widely used as a spice. Nutmeg trees, which grow to be 70 feet tall, are evergreens. Each tree produces about 2,000 nuts every year. The trees originally grew only in the Molucca Islands, which are called the Spice Islands. Now they have been raised successfully in all of the East Indies, the West Indies, Brazil, India and Sri Lanka. The trees are not commercially grown in Connecticut.
As the nutmeg tree's fruit ripens, the fleshy part becomes rather hard and finally splits open at the top, showing a bright scarlet membrane which partly covers the nut. The spice called mace comes from this membrane, while the kernels give the familiar household nutmeg.
If you ever find a carved, wooden nutmeg in a gift store, you'll probably discover that it was manufactured in Connecticut.