Chapter XVI: Section X: Amendments to By-Laws (9)

MR. WEBER: And that has a tendency to keep the scion worked down, whereas if you started at the bottom you might push it up.

MR. BERNATH: You have quite a pressure right around there--watch it, because it will tear, and if it tears with you, why, it's so hard to get straightened out--and then press together.

MR. WEBER: And you don't wax either the top, or anything?

MR. BERNATH: No. Now, the reason for leaving this under stock that long: if you are not careful, fungus growth will set in. If you cut right here, then the whole thing is affected with it, see. Wrap it firmly and that is there on both sides, and when the union forms and the growth begins here, when you take them out of the case, for instance, now, you take a sharp pair of shears and cut as close as you can. (Removes top of understock.) Never mind if you cut the cloth, it doesn't make any difference. Just cut it right there. Snip it right off. But that is when you take them out of the grafting case.

A MEMBER: Wouldn't it also be all right to leave that stub on to tie your sprout to so it won't want to break?

MR. BERNATH: No, you might be better off if you had a stake. Put a stake on the side of it. When everything is right that surface will callus over right quickly. It may not seem so. It does make a perfect union unlike a graft of some other types.

MR. WEBER: When you make that cut of the excess understock, you don't even wax?

MR. BERNATH: No. You can if you want to, but I don't wax. Just leave it like that.

Now the next operation. Here is this miniature greenhouse. It's moist peat. That's just about the right substance. Would anybody like to look at this? Don't get it too wet. Just walk right up here.

MR. WEBER: It feels as if it's ground up.

MR. BERNATH: It is.

MR. CORSAN: Mr. Bernath, would that be the right stuff to put sweet chestnuts in in the fall?

MR. BERNATH: You mean for sprouting?

MR. CORSAN: Yes.

MR. BERNATH: That would be all right.

MR. CORSAN: That's not too damp?

MR. BERNATH: No.

MR. CORSAN: I have put it in that and had the greatest success.

MR. CHASE: Now, folks, let's everybody sit down, and please keep quiet and try to absorb what's going on here. We can't have 10 or 15 individual conversations going on.

MR. BERNATH: Now here we have two pots grafted. Now, of course, the bench in the greenhouse is wider and longer. Here is what you do. You start the first row, just move the peat back like that, and you lay them in like that, one after the other, the pots on the side.

MR. WEBER: With the bud side up?

MR. BERNATH: That's right. Now, you go right along. When you come to the next row, here is what you do (piling up peat) like that. If you want to cover the scion, all right; if you don't, perfectly all right. You can put electric heating coils under it.

MR. RICK: Is there any advantage in sloping the top? Would it matter if it was flat?

MR. BERNATH: No, no, doesn't matter. This just happened to be an old melon box. I had started melons early in the spring.

Now, while the grafts are in the process of forming the unions, that is, when the cambium begins to form, you do not water until you take these out of the case. Add no more water, but make sure your pots are moist enough. For instance, in this one, there is plenty of moisture for the period of incubation.

MR. KINTZEL: How long? Couple of weeks?

MR. BERNATH: No. Sometimes they start to grow in three weeks, but generally four weeks, maybe a little over. Sometimes less; depends on everything.

MR. SHERMAN: What temperature in the greenhouse?

MR. BERNATH: Well, if you note in the springtime when the trees are beginning to grow, you know the night temperature goes down, while daytime may go up to 75, 80 in the spring. All right, you follow nature, and you'll never go wrong.

Now, the temperature, at night, if it does go down around the fifties, or even less, doesn't do any harm. That's the house temperature. But under the benches where you have your heat coils, that's of course, at least 60, maybe a little better, and, of course, in daytime it may--well, it's all right if it goes up to 70, 75. Then, of course, you have to ventilate through the house, and as a matter of fact, under the benches. Take a lot of bags and nail them along the walk to keep the heat under the benches. That gives you the bottom heat.

Now, as I understand, some of our members have tried this method, but they applied too much heat. They burned them. If they didn't burn them, fungus growth set in, because there's high humidity in that box. You will see the moisture condensation on the glass. Drops of water accumulate, and that's a thing you will have to guard against. So every morning give it at first about a 5-minute period when you take a dry cloth and wipe the surface moisture off the glass, the under side, to prevent the water from dripping on the unions here, to keep it dry. Then as you go along you can increase that period, but not over 15 minutes, until around the fourth week, you can generally put a stick under the glass to give more ventilation. When you see that the union is formed and everything is all right, take the glass off, take your grafts out and stand them up straight, and from there on you can water them, but not before.

And then you cut these stocks off right there as close as you can get it, sort of an upward movement, like that (demonstrating with knife).

MR. WEBER: It doesn't make any difference if you cut the rubber band that's on it or not?

MR. BERNATH: No, not too much, if it's callused up good, if the union is hard enough. And then, of course, you put the glass on, and then you keep these grafts in the greenhouse. But don't forget now, something that is important, when you graft these. Here we have a greenhouse over us. This little box represents the batch of grafts. Don't forget you have to shade them. If you didn't shade these, they would burn to a crisp. I have lost several hundred blue spruce grafts by going away on a day when it was cloudy and I forgot to tell Mrs. Bernath, "If the sun comes out, raise the sash." When I came home, this part of the greenhouse was shaded; now, in this corner here I think it was around 250 beautiful grafts but the next day I was going to take them out. They were burnt to a crisp. I saved a few trees right where it was shady.

MR. CALDWELL: The blue spruce are grafted by the same method?

MR. BERNATH: Yes, I use this method for inside grafting for everything.

MR. CALDWELL: Use this method for shagbarks the same way?

MR. BERNATH: Yes, same way with hickories and oaks.

MR. WEBER: What sort of shading element do you use? Anything real tight, or how?

MR. BERNATH: Yes, air tight. The grafting case has got to be air tight.

MR. WEBER: The shade?

MR. BERNATH: Oh, any kind of cloth, cheesecloth, muslin. I know that will do it.

MR. CHASE: Whitewash?

MR. BERNATH: That's all right, too. If you use whitewash, I would recommend using white lead with gasoline and just spray it on. That will help a lot, but I generally use a cloth for shade.

MR. O'ROURKE: Why do you place the scions so that the bud is on the inside?

MR. BERNATH: It makes a straighter tree. The other way it's inclined to grow out this way (indicating). It grows toward the stock, makes a straighter tree.

MR. STOKE: I think there is one more advantage there. On the edge next to the stock you get a better contact than you do on that lip on the outside, and it leads more directly into the bud.

DR. CRANE: Less danger, too, that that bud will rub off.

MR. BERNATH: Keep them shaded, but only 50 per cent shade. And then in about two weeks you take the shade off, let the sun shine on it. It doesn't hurt--over the glass. And then you take these pots when danger of frost is over, plant them out, in nursery rows, or, if you want to put them in permanent places, it's perfectly all right. Take this, put your finger under like that (demonstrating), give her a tap, and the ball comes out of the pot in your hand. And if it's permanent, plant it down to here; cover the union.

MR. WEBER: And the scion eventually forms its own root?

MR. BERNATH: It will. You will find that pot will be filled up with fibrous root.

MR. SZEGO: When do you take the tape off?

MR. BERNATH: Don't take it off at all. It will decay.

MR. MILLER: But the same graft can't be used outside without grafting wax, can it?

MR. BERNATH: Yes, you have to wax outside. That's right, you have to use wax. Otherwise the grafting method is the same for top-working.

MR. MILLER: Because in there you have it air tight. Outside you have to wax.

MR. BERNATH: You can't do it without wax, not outside. But budding you can do without wax outside.

This is a whole plant right here. That's a whole plant root, and this is right in this four-inch pot. That tap root is cut away and all the lateral roots, finer roots, put right in there and put in soil like any transplanted plant.

DR. ROHBACHER: When do you put that stock in the house?

MR. BERNATH: If you want to start work in January, towards the end of December after the understock has had the rest period. You can store them, unless you are in a place where you don't get much frost in your ground.

DR. ROHBACHER: You have to dig those up in the fall?

MR. BERNATH: You have to dig these up about three weeks before you want to graft. There is another point I should have been wide awake enough to tell you in the beginning: when you put these in the bench put them in peat moss like that, because otherwise it would be next to impossible to keep those plants moist enough.

MR. WEBER: That's standing upright.

MR. BERNATH: Upright until you graft. That's only the understock. Watch them closely, say about two weeks, and you may test it. In other words, knock these out and examine the root system. When you see those little white rootlets beginning to grow like thin macaroni, white, most of them, that's a sign that you had better get busy grafting.

MR. WEBER: But not until you see the edges of those roots poking through.

MR. RICK: And the stock isn't in the case until you are ready to graft?

MR. BERNATH: They are in the benches, but not in the case. No outside cover except just the glass of the house.

That's about all there is to it. It isn't much.

MR. RICK: It's been a wonderful demonstration.

MR. SZEGO: When do you cut your scion wood?

MR. BERNATH: Oh, I get scion wood from December on, late December, January and February.

MR. RICK: It would be all right just to go out to the tree and cut your scions and bring them in and the next day graft?

MR. BERNATH: Yes. Well, no. I like to store them a little bit, for the reason that the starches will form. It's amazing how wood will act after you cut it, provided it doesn't dry out. All those cells, you know, in that they form what we call a certain type of starch. You can do it all right with apple trees and pear trees. You can put it right on the tree right from the tree, but I wouldn't advise it on the nut trees.

MR. RICK: Do you keep your scions cool until you are ready to use them?

A MEMBER: My way of keeping it is in fresh sawdust. That's the best means.

MR. WEBER: Do you dampen it any?

MR. BERNATH: Yes. And I have nothing but an earth cellar where I store my scion wood, and they keep well until June.

MR. RICK: To prevent fungus would it be a good idea to dip them in a weak solution of Bordeaux?

MR. BERNATH: I never tried it. I couldn't say. That's one reason why sometimes some of our members here wonder why I write and say, "Please do not wax." I do not want a waxed scion. As far as I am concerned, I would throw them right out. I wouldn't bother to graft them.

MR. CORSAN: You just put them in damp sawdust?

MR. BERNATH: Yes, put them in damp peat or even damp newspaper, wrap it and ship it.

(Newspaper is very good for this purpose.--J. C. McD.)

MR. CORSAN: And no waxing.

MR. BERNATH: No.

MR. STOKE: I agree with you. I got some scions that were waxed, and the scion was beautifully green and every bud was dead.

MR. BERNATH: That's it again. The reason for that is that you have to heat the wax to make it thin enough, and the reaction of the heat is bad for the scion wood.

MR. STOKE: I don't believe it's that alone. I believe a bud can't go without air for a great length of time. It is a living organism and needs the air. Those scions had come from Europe, and every one was dead.

MR. BERNATH: Mr. Silvis will tell you how he keeps his scions good.

MR. SILVIS: Through Goodrich Chemical Company I was interested in what Dr. Shelton, another Ohio member who is a chemist, had available, an emulsion called "Goodrite Latex VL-600." That's the agricultural and horticultural designation for its use. Otherwise, industrially it's known as Geon 31 XX, and some other names.

MR. CORSAN: That is the latex that congeals quickly?

MR. SILVIS: Yes. It's water soluble and makes a very stiff; impervious water barrier on everything it becomes attached to. Therefore, if you dipped the entire scion--usually I go out and cut scion wood and maybe even as late as the next day dip it in the latex. Then after it's dried for five minutes, I can take and throw it in the garage and leave it there until June, July and August, and I can take it to the refrigerator, the same thing. I think the refrigerator is the best place.

MR. SHERMAN: You know last March, at the Ohio meeting there was some wood dipped there, and the latter part of May I came through and picked up a piece and brought it in to Harrisburg in the back of my car in the window where it was cooked in transportation, and it made two inches of growth in the Harrisburg office just lying on my desk.

MR. SILVIS: I have seen it happen, and it doesn't restrict the growth. I have had it on filberts, Persian walnut, and hickory. Then when I cut my stock by using a simple splice graft, in grafting it I use a rubber band, same rubber band they used here, tie it and just forget about it. You don't need the additional shading, and you don't need additional waxing.

DR. MacDANIELS: Can you use that material as a wax? Do you put on additional wax?

MR. SILVIS: It isn't necessary in a splice graft, because you have got a good union.

DR. MacDANIELS: Suppose you haven't got a good union?

MR. SILVIS: I wouldn't use it anyway, because you are covering the cut portion pretty well anyhow.

MR. RICK: Is this outside or inside?

MR. SILVIS: I would say outside. You dip the wax at 70 degrees temperature. Any colder than that would allow it to congeal. It's thick. I am not sure about this, but I think you can dilute it with about eight parts water, if you wish, six or eight parts water to one part latex. It still will make a complete coverage.

That's for scion storage, and it does eliminate making boxes in some places where they have storage problems. It eliminates the storage problem and eliminates waxing immediately after grafting.

MR. WEBER: Your method completely shuts off the air from the bud the same as waxing would do.

MR. SILVIS: And any water going in.

MR. STOKE: I was wondering how long you kept it. You said it was soluble in water. You mean before it sets up?

MR. SILVIS: Before it sets up.

MR. LOWERRE: That's if it's a suspension. It is some time before the water sets up.

MR. STOKE: Retaining moisture and yet being soluble, and that's the thing I wanted to clarify.

MR. SILVIS: If you leave it out, it is a dispersal, let's call it, but it appears like shellac after it is dry.

(Editor's Note: See fuller discussion in 1949 Report, pp. 30-37.)

MR. CHASE: I think we all owe Mr. Bernath a vote of thanks for showing us this. (Applause.) We will visit his place tomorrow, and if you have additional questions, I am sure he will be glad to answer them for you. He has left the grafting case over here for anyone to see.

MR. SHERMAN: In case of heavy rain tomorrow, what are the plans?

MR. SALZER: Wear rubbers.

MR. CHASE: We are not going to have any rain tomorrow.

(He was right.--Ed.)

We have a short paper here that I have asked Dr. Anthony to summarize for us, "Experiences in Nut Growing Near Lake Erie," by Ross P. Wright, Erie, Pennsylvania.

DR. ANTHONY: Mr. Wright is a very interesting man and has a very interesting plantation. He is a manufacturer and fortunately has a son who is mature and married and as interested in the work as he, so there is a continuity that we are pretty sure of.

Experiences in Nut Growing Near Lake Erie

ROSS PIER WRIGHT, Erie, Pennsylvania

This report should be made by my son Richard Wright. He is in charge of the farm but is on a trip to Europe with his family and will not return in time for your meeting.

The farm is located in the Chautauqua Grape Belt; due to the proximity of Lake Erie, which acts as a heat reservoir, it is not as a rule bothered by the late frosts in the Spring or early frosts in the Fall, this making it a very satisfactory climate for Concord grapes. Peaches are also grown commercially.

The village of Westfield is located on the main road between Erie and Buffalo, and the Wright family has lived there for the past 136 years. We have several hundred acres and really started the endeavor more with the idea of seeing if nuts might be profitably grown, without any idea of going into the nut business.

In 1915, 35 years ago, we planted a three acre plot with several varieties of nut trees obtained from nurseries. They were black walnuts, hickories, hazel nuts, pecans, English walnuts, and Japanese heartnuts.

The black walnuts are native of Westfield and the trees we planted have done well. The only hickories that survived were two Siers hickories. We did not think much of them until recently as they did not fill out any too well, but the last three or four years they have for some reason decided to fill better. Due to the extremely thin shell they are very easily cracked and at the moment we think quite highly of these Siers hickories.

We have a nut cracker made by the Dazey Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri, which costs $5.00 or $6.00. It is very effective with the Siers but does not crack thick shelled hickories very well. On the other hand it is ideal for pecans and English walnuts.

The filberts in this field are not very satisfactory, with the exception of the Winkler hazel. These usually bear very well. The trouble with the filberts is that the catkins are quite prone to winter kill but the Winkler hazel seems to be more hardy. There again we think more of them since we have used the Dazey Nut Cracker. The Winkler nuts are rather small and have quite a hard shell and if a hammer is used it is quite likely to crush the kernel.

The English walnuts we planted at that time were not of a hardy type and were prone to winterkill. There are really only two stunted trees left.

The pecans do not winterkill but the nuts do not fill.

The Japanese heartnuts we planted were successful. One of them we consider very satisfactory and is worthy of propagation. We call it the Lobular heartnut.

In the Spring of 1923, 27 years ago, we obtained a half bushel of heartnuts from our representative in Japan and planted them. Three years later we interplanted some of the trees in a four acre field in which we were planting as permanent trees some Snyder and Thomas black walnuts. Reporting on that field as it is today we will say that these walnuts and heartnuts, up to five years ago, bore very well indeed and the nuts filled properly, but the last few years the nuts have not filled properly although they have received nitrate of soda. We are somewhat in a quandry as to the reason for it.

Adjoining the field is a black walnut tree, probably 150 years old, which always bore nuts and they have always filled up to the last few years. In this field where the majority of the seedling heartnuts have been planted there was the usual interesting difference in the nuts. Some were of the true heartnut variety, some had the rough shaggy shell and shape of a butternut and others were round and looked like English walnuts. Some of the heartnut trees have developed a disease called witches'-broom or bunch disease. There does not, to date, seem to be any cure for it. We used some heavy applications of zinc sulphate and thought the trouble had improved but the improvement seems to have been only temporary.

In this field also are the trees which Clarence Reed designated as the Wright heartnut and the Westfield heartnut.

In 1933 to 1935, 15 to 17 years ago, we grafted about 35 hickories with various varieties. They were grafted in a grove of hickories which were on our farm and which were perhaps eight inches in diameter. This endeavor did not prove to be much of a success. Some of the grafts died after a year or two and the others which have continued to live do not appear to bear to any extent. We would have to mark that particular endeavor down as very close to a failure.

Perhaps if we had given the grafting endeavor more attention we might have had different results but we are in the manufacturing business in Erie, Pennsylvania, and really look upon the Westfield, New York, farm as a type of relaxation. In those years 1933 to 1935 industry was experiencing a major distress and I am afraid most of our attention was given to our factory rather than our farm. In fact, that situation applies very largely to all of our nut endeavors. There is an old Scotch saying "The eye of the master fattens the kine," and during the last 15 or 20 years when we in industry have experienced a tremendous depression followed by a war it has meant that those interested have had to watch their manufacturing plants to the detriment of their other interests regardless of how much they regretted it.

In 1934, 16 years ago, we became interested in chestnuts as a possible commercial crop. We purchased a quantity from J. Russell Smith, interplanting them in a vineyard we expected to pull out as it was getting too old. Two years later, through the cooperation of Clarence Reed, Dr. Gravatt, also others at Beltsville, Maryland, we got some 2,000 seedlings of various types, some being hybrids. As some of these bore we planted what we thought were the best nuts in a nursery and at present have about 3000 chestnut trees ranging from three years old up to 16 years. There is some blight occasionally showing which appears to be on the hybrids. About 35 acres of the chestnuts were interplanted in vineyards which we were planning to pull out. During the war, however, the price of grapes was quite high and we left the grapes, pulling the last of them out this Spring. Due to cultivation of the grapes an appreciable number of the nut trees were cut out accidentally, and have later been filled in with seedlings, with the result that the orchard has a rather peculiar appearance. The mature trees, this year, have been doing, we think, very well, and a great majority of them are bearing from a light crop to a rather heavy crop.

Up to date we have had no trouble with worm in our chestnuts. In fact we have not found a single wormy chestnut. This interests us appreciably, as when the old American chestnuts were common on our farm it would seem as if hardly a chestnut escaped a worm hole if you kept them long enough. If you ate the chestnuts immediately it wasn't so bad--the worms were probably too small to be observed.

We understand that in some sections Chinese chestnuts are attacked by worms but I repeat we haven't had one to date.

Our chestnuts are planted largely in Volusia clay loam on fields where chestnuts formerly flourished. This soil is not fertile, as soils go, and the trees will probably not grow as large nor will they grow as fast as if planted in a more fertile soil. At first we used a spacing of 36 feet but we now use 24 feet, which we think will be satisfactory for our farm.

Since the chestnuts have come into bearing and the project has become to some extent a commercial one, we are more interested in doing what we can for the trees. We are convinced that the mulching process is to be recommended. There is some sawdust to be obtained in this section and as far as it goes we have covered the ground under the branches of the trees with a mulch of sawdust about five or six inches deep. We will not know how successful that is for a few years.

We have planted the fields with a cover crop of rye grass and orchard grass, and this month are cutting it and throwing it under the trees. We have some adjoining fields which were in hay but which had rather run out. We are cutting these likewise and throwing the hay under the trees. We believe if we keep this practice up for a few years we will have a reasonable mulch under the trees. We have become interested in Reed canary grass. We have had a few sample patches of it and are going to plant a couple of outside fields with it to be used for mulch. It grows stronger than any other northern grass with which we are conversant, and therefore would produce more mulch. We are also giving the land two rather heavy applications of mixed fertilizer each year.

We think the chief thing we have learned about chestnuts is that the first few years the trees should be cultivated, fertilized, watered, and mulched. You cannot handle them the way you could, for instance, Christmas trees by simply sticking them in a field of grass. The first year they should be watered every ten days if they require it, and watered the second year if there is a real drought.

In closing we would say that as far as our immediate section is concerned, it is our guess that chestnuts are the only nuts which might appear to have commercial possibilities. Of course, at present, the nuts sell at quite a high price and I fear beyond their value. What will happen when the numerous orchards which have been planted in the last few years come into bearing is any man's guess.

We do not believe that the black walnuts would ever prove a commercial success here, although they normally do well. Of course the trouble is the competition of the wild nuts from other sections. On the other hand, if some one had the time to give to working up a market for the improved black walnuts, he might get some profit out of it.

If I were younger, I might want to try growing a number of Winkler hazel nuts. I think hazel nuts covered with chocolate make a very attractive candy, and here, in this section, the Winkler seems to be immune to blight and other troubles. This year, for the first time in our recollection, the frost got them and the crop is very light.

I do not know just what to say about the heartnuts. They might not have enough flavor to suit some people, but when eaten with salt I think they are delicious. They are very free cracking. We have one, the Lobular, which as soon as they are cracked can be shaken out of the shell. I am disturbed however over the bunch disease to which some of them are subject.

Please note that our remarks in regard to the commercial possibilities of these various nuts has reference to our farm at Westfield and to no other place.

I regret I am not going to be at your meeting to endeavor to answer any question which might be asked.

Discussion of Mulches

DR. ANTHONY: Mr. Sherman and I were there a few years ago, and he has very definitely given up the heartnut and black walnut. Many trees in this area are affected with this bunch disease, which caused failure to set, and he has very definitely decided that he is out of those two nuts.

MR. FRYE: That sawdust, how old must it be, and how green have you used?

DR. ANTHONY: We have used sawdust in our fruit tree work. There is a period when I don't like it. When it's raw and going down, it uses a good deal of nitrogen. Also, if it gets dry, it will blow. Also when it gets dry it will run off with the water, and I would like to use it pretty well rotted down when I get it, and usually you can find old rotted piles. If you do use it on trees where nitrogen is a factor, you probably will have to use additional nitrogen.

Now, with the chestnut where you want to mature them fairly early in the fall, it might work all right, because it will withhold the nitrogen in the breakdown of your sawdust. But apparently, it works pretty well. I think it was Mr. Sam Hemming who suggested using it in the rows. Most of our State Forests and Waters nurseries in their seedling beds, plant their seedlings, including chestnuts, make a mixture of sawdust and sand, about one of sawdust and two of sand, and then broadcast that right over their seeds. The seeds are broadcast on the firm soil, then this mixture of sawdust and sand is broadcast over the seeds. That gives a uniform planting of your seeds and gives a very nice protection. There is one place that I think sawdust works very nicely.

Straw mulch, any material of that kind, in breaking down takes nitrogen from the soil. They are all good if you balance that loss of nitrogen that is lost during the period of breakdown. Now, there comes a time, if you put a mulch on the soil and let it stay there for six or eight years and keep building it up, when you pass imperceptibly from straw into soil, and when you reach that time, your breakdown of your straw is usually done without taking nitrogen from your soil itself, and from that time on you may release nitrogen. But until you get that imperceptible transformation from straw to soil, there is a time when the breakdown of the straw uses your nitrogen, which is all right, if it's late in the season, but not early. I'd want to watch my trees and get my nitrogen on early, then let the straw use it later on.

A MEMBER: The migration of nitrogen--is there some such migration, and is it just in the case of the sawdust?

DR. ANTHONY: You put it right on top, it's much worse. You can put it right on top and it will take a year or two to pass through that period where the utilization in the breaking down of the straw is greater than the release of nitrogen. If it's mixed in the soil, the tree gets more of it.

MR. STOKE: How deep is that effect on the soil?

DR. ANTHONY: We have used straw, hay, weeds, sawdust, chips, anything of the kind, putting on a 5 to 6-inch layer. As I say, it takes from one to three years to get through that period.

Now, Massachusetts has the longest continuous use--all of New England has--of mulch, and they are reaching a point now where some of the mulches are ten years old where the release of nitrogen is too much and they get poor color on McIntosh. I think with the Chinese chestnut this is one thing we have got to watch to get good maturity. Going farther and farther south, you have more trouble. As you go to the north, our trees color more easily, and there you wouldn't want to force them, as our New England people find. They are releasing too much nitrogen late in the season. So I would not want to use long, continued mulch in the chestnut, I'd watch my maturity, and the minute they get a little slow in maturing, I'd quit.

MR. BERST: How about corn cobs?

MR. JAY SMITH: How about anything in the street, leaves?

DR. ANTHONY: Anything like that, whether it's oak or maple. One goes down as quickly as the other.

MR. CORSAN: On the way down here I called in to see Rodale, and we found him in a mass of brewer's hops and ground up corn cobs. He had them in the chicken house, and you know how a chicken house smells. He had no smell in the chicken house. We looked all through his place, and we saw another big pile of furs, mink, and such trimming off of them, a big pile about that high (indicating), and that will go down. He had everything under the sun in the way of mulch, but corn cobs ground up fine was the chief one in sight.

Personally, I like to grow the mulch on the land right there. We can grow it--up to 10 ton of green mulch to the acre. I have done it many, many times. You have something there that goes down quickly. The very growing of that through the latter part of the summer also uses the nitrogen and hardens up your trees. Then we turn it down and within two to three weeks we have it reseeded, and so we are growing a constant supply in the soil-itself. You get the same effect as hauling in your mulch. It's cheaper, usually, and you get, I think, a little bit better control. Your mulches are not dry, they are turned under when--well, it's crimson clover in the red, right in the blossom. They go down very quickly. We leave as much as possible on the surface. I think it's a little cheaper and a little more satisfactory control. I put them on quite green. I find they rot much quicker.

MR. CHASE: I will now turn the gavel back to Dr. MacDaniels, who will take over.

DR. MacDANIELS: Thank you, very much, Mr. Chase.

Perhaps we had better take a 10-minute recess.

(Whereupon, a short recess was taken.)

Nominating Committee Elected

DR. MacDANIELS: We will proceed with the election of a nominating committee. That committee is elected. It is a committee of three, and the nominations come from the floor. The present nominating committee is Mr. Stoke, Mr. Sylvester Shessler, and Mr. Sterling Smith. Now, I guess it is a good plan to change the nominating committee, and I think we ought to have regional representation. I think that is important. Does anybody have a nomination? Say we start in the Middle West.

A MEMBER: Mr. Silvis.

DR. MacDANIELS: He will take it. That's middle. Another nomination from the farther west.

MR. CHASE: Mr. Chairman, I nominate Dr. Crane.

DR. MacDANIELS: That would be South Atlantic.

MR. WEBER: I nominate Mr. Chase.

DR. MacDANIELS: Do you wish to nominate more than three and have a ballot?

MR. FRYE: I move nominations be closed.

DR. MacDANIELS: Nominations closed. Do you move to have the secretary cast a unanimous ballot?

DR. McKAY: So move, Mr. Chairman.

MR. WEBER: Proceed with the election.

DR. MacDANIELS: The motion is that nominations be closed and the secretary be instructed to cast a ballot for the slate as nominated. Any further discussion? If not, all in favor say "aye."

(A vote was taken on the motion, and it was carried unanimously.)

DR. MacDANIELS: Carried.

Resolutions

DR. MacDANIELS: Is the Resolutions Committee here? Mr. Allaman, I believe you are president of the Pennsylvania group, are you not?

MR. ALLAMAN: Yes.

"In the passing of Clarence A. Reed, who was a nut culturist of the United States Department of Agriculture, we not only lost a friend in the experimental field, but also a dear personal friend. Mr. Reed was keenly interested in all phases of nut culture, devoting practically his entire life to this work. We are more deeply indebted to him than can be expressed. Paraphrasing what Lincoln said of the dead soldiers at Gettysburg, it remains for us to continue the effort and build upon the foundation to which he so largely contributed.

"Therefore, be it resolved that the secretary of this Association spread upon the record this resolution and send a copy to Mrs. Reed."

DR. MacDANIELS: You have heard this resolution. I think it would be appropriate we move to accept and adopt this by a rising vote.

(Whereupon, a rising vote was taken.)

DR. MacDANIELS: There are two other resolutions Mr. Allaman will read.

MR. ALLAMAN: "The Northern Nut Growers Association in its forty-first meeting expresses its appreciation for the fine accomodations for its meeting place supplied by Post No. 739 of the American Legion. The Association also desires to compliment the Post on its foresight in providing this community with such a satisfactory meeting place.

"May it therefore be resolved that the secretary spread this upon the minutes and send a copy to the Legion."

Another resolution: "We, the members of the Northern Nut Growers Association, express our keen appreciation of the very efficient services of Mrs. Stephen Bernath and Gilbert L. Smith and others for their splendid accommodations at this convention."

DR. MacDANIELS: These two resolutions, do you wish to accept them or adopt them together?

DR. CRANE: Move that they be adopted as a whole.

DR. MacDANIELS: Moved that they be adopted together. Any discussion? If not, all in favor say "aye."

(Whereupon, a vote was taken on the motion, and it was carried unanimously.)

DR. MacDANIELS: Passed without dissent.

Are there other resolutions anyone has from the floor?

(No response.)

Report of Auditing Committee

DR. MacDANIELS: The auditing committee's report.

MR. WEBER: I have it. "We have found from our examination of the treasurer's records that his accounts are in proper balance and that the statement of his bank account, issued by his bank as of August 11, 1950, shows he had on deposit in the Erie County United Bank of Vermilion, Ohio, the sum of $2280.37. We feel our treasurer, Mr. Sterling A. Smith, has faithfully discharged his duties during the current year and recommend his continuance in that office, nomination for which has already, of course, taken place. Royal Oakes, Chairman, Auditing Committee." (Applause.)

DR. MacDANIELS: It all sounds very legal. I think it's all right. I take it that applause indicates the acceptance of the report. Unless I hear dissent, we will take that to be so.

DR. CRANE: Move the report of the Auditing Committee be accepted.

DR. MacDANIELS: O.K., we will make it legal. Who will second the motion?

MR. STOKE: Second.

DR. MacDANIELS: Moved and seconded that the Auditing Committee report be accepted.

(A vote was taken on the motion, and it was carried unanimously.)

Election of 1950-51 Officers

DR. MacDANIELS: Next will be the election of officers, and we will ask the chairman of the Nominating Committee to give his report. Inasmuch as I am apparently concerned, I will hand the gavel to Mr. Chase for the election.

MR. CHASE: We'd like to hear the report from the chairman of the Nominating Committee, Mr. Stoke.

MR. STOKE: Most of you no doubt heard the report of the Nominating Committee at our first session, but we nominated Dr. William Rohrbacher of Iowa City, Iowa, for president, and for vice-president our perennial candidate here, who has disappeared from the scene, renominating Dr. L. H. MacDaniels. We hope to make him president next time. If he doesn't make it next time, I think we will have to throw him out. And for the secretary, our friend, Joe McDaniel. They are not relatives. And the treasurer, repeating officer, Sterling Smith. The secretaryship and treasurership shouldn't change any more often than necessary.

MR. STERLING SMITH: I object.

Before you move on that, I'd like to say that it isn't really legal, I think, that I should have been on the nominating committee, and being one of the officers, it would be very well taken on my part if there were any nominations from the floor.

MR. CHASE: We are coming to that.

Any objections that we have nominations from the floor? Are there any nominations for president?

MR. WELLMAN: Move nominations be closed.

MR. CHASE: Are there any other nominations for vice-president? (No response.) I am sure we must have one for the treasurer. (No response.) Do we have any for secretary?

MR. CORSAN: Why not have the former Miss Jones president again?

MR. STOKE: She becomes a member of the Board of Directors, and I think it would be out of order to elect her to another office.

MR. CORSAN: I withdraw it.

MR. CHASE: Now I will entertain your motion, Mr. Wellman.

MR. WELLMAN: I move it.

MR. CHASE: It has been moved that the slate by the nominating committee be accepted.

DR. CRANE: Second.

(Whereupon, a vote was taken on the motion, and it was carried unanimously.)

MR. CHASE: Dr. MacDaniels, you may come in now.

DR. CRANE: We moved that nominations be closed. We haven't accepted them.

MR. STOKE: When you are through, I have a resolution to offer.

DR. CRANE: Move that the report of the nominating committee be accepted and we proceed with the election by voice vote. All in favor of having the secretary cast a ballot for the slate nominated by our nominating committee please signify by saying "aye."

(A vote was taken on the motion, and it was carried unanimously.)

MR. STOKE: I would like to make a motion that we elect a parliamentarian, and I wish to nominate Dr. Crane.

MR. STERLING SMITH: Second the motion.

(A vote was taken on the motion, and it was carried unanimously.)

MR. FRYE: We elected a parliamentarian last year. I wonder how it's coming on.

DR. CRANE: I have a report on it.

MR. WEBER: Mr. John Davidson, Xenia, Ohio.

MR. McDANIEL: He was parliamentarian before we made him our president.

MR. WEBER: That's passed on to Dr. Crane.

MR. CHASE: Now, Dr. MacDaniels, you may come in.

DR. MacDANIELS: Hope it's legal.

Is there any further business? Do you think of any, Mr. Weber?

MR. WEBER: Hold it open until after the banquet. Then if we think of something that we have left out, we haven't adjourned.

DR. MacDANIELS: I will adjourn this particular session and give the gavel to our new president.

MR. WEBER: We adjourn until this evening at the banquet.

DR. ANTHONY: Before you bang it down, may I make one announcement? I thought you would be interested in an action that the Pennsylvania Nut Growers have taken. Mr. Allaman, it is O.K. to report that committee appointment?

DR. MacDANIELS: The question is raised as to the time of the next meeting. The place has been decided. The time, I think, has to be left to be worked out with the authorities at Illinois, is that right? Do you want to say a word, Dr. Colby?

DR. COLBY: It is difficult, if not impossible, to give an exact date right now, because we don't know at this time what our facilities for meeting rooms and lodging will be on any particular date in the latter part of the month of August. We will have to check and find out the best days, if that is agreeable to the group.

DR. MacDANIELS: Does this group wish to express a preference as to the last week in August or the first week in September? In other words, it would be the week before Labor Day, or the week after. That wouldn't necessarily fix it, but it would give the committee, if there were no other restrictions as to available facilities, would be a guide for a choice.

MR. WELLMAN: Call for a show of hands.

DR. MacDANIELS: I will do that. Those who would prefer a meeting date comparable to this year? (Showing of hands.)[34] Those who prefer the week after Labor Day? (No hands raised.)

[34] The 1951 meeting will be at the University of Illinois in Urbana, August 28 and 29, to be followed with a tour in western Illinois for those who can stay through the morning of August 31.

MR. STERLING SMITH: Maybe those who prefer the after Labor Day date aren't here now.

DR. ROHRBACHER: I just want to say I appreciate very much the honor that has been bestowed upon me. I appreciate the fact that the president is purely an emblem, a figurehead, but with the staff that's under him, it's the same as in the Post Office Department of the United States, the head receives all the salary and his understudies do all the work. So it's a very appropriate setting, and we should go forward under a very good staff of men that have been elected to the positions under that of the president.

One thing I want to say in regard to the problem that came up last night that was discussed: that as the president, I can assure you that the vice-presidents are certainly not going to be emblems if they expect to continue on in their positions in the various states that are in the group, because the working out of this problem, the success of it, is going to depend on how well these vice-presidents carry out their work.

I thank you.

DR. MacDANIELS: We will close this session until tonight. I will give Dr. Rohrbacher the gavel.

(Whereupon, at 4:50 o'clock, p.m., the Tuesday afternoon session of the Northern Nut Growers Association was closed.)

Note on the Annual Tour, August 30, 1950

The third day of the Annual meeting, as is customary with the Association, was spent touring interesting nut plantings in the vicinity. The first stop was Bernath's Nursery, southwest of Pleasant Valley, where he has his greenhouse, young nut plants, and a number of fruiting trees. The second stop was on the grounds of the State School at Wassaic, where many grafted nut trees, particularly walnuts, are thriving, due to the interest and activity of Gilbert L. Smith, when he was on the staff there. A picnic lunch was served in the recreational area of the school grounds. Here Dr. W. C. Deming of Hartford, Conn., Dean of the Association, was on hand to greet many of his old friends. After lunch we visited Mr. Stephen Bernath's farm nut planting, then the topworked hickory woods on Mr. Wm. A. Benton's farm out of Millerton. At the Benton and Smith Nut Nursery, also on the farm, the tour was concluded.

OBITUARIES

Harry R. Weber

Members were saddened to hear of the death, on his way home, of Harry R. Weber, who had taken an active part in the meeting at Pleasant Valley, as he did in most of the meetings since the very earliest years of the Association. We shall have a more complete obituary in the next volume.

George B. Rhodes

COVINGTON, Tenn., Dec. 16, 1950--Services for George B. Rhodes of Mt. Carmel who died Saturday at 5:15 p.m. at his home will be held Sunday afternoon at 3 at the Clopton Methodist Church. The Rev. David Olhansen, pastor of the church, assisted by the Rev. E. D. Farris of Henning will officiate. Burial will be in the Clopton Cemetery.

Mr. Rhodes, who was 82, was born at Clopton, Tenn., and spent his entire lifetime in Tipton County. He was the first county agent of Tipton County. He was interested in the budding of pecans and had operated a nursery for the past 20 years. He was a member of the Clopton Methodist Church.

He leaves his wife, Mrs. Ivie Drake Rhodes of Covington; two sons, Sol Rhodes of Tampa, Fla., and Marion Rhodes of Beverly Hills, Calif.; two daughters, Mrs. R. B. Davie of Covington and Mrs. Lillian Bringley of Memphis; two sisters, Mrs. Pauline Meacham of Senatobia, Miss., and Mrs. Mattie Nelson of Forrest City, Ark., and two brothers, Sam Rhodes of Bolivar, and Duke Rhodes of San Francisco, Calif.; seven grandchildren and five great grandchildren.--Reprinted from a Memphis paper.

Mr. Rhodes' greatest contribution to nut growing was the discovery and first propagation of a heartnut variety mow called Rhodes. It is the most successful heartnut yet tried in western Tennessee, a reliable and heavy cropper, and one of the best cracking varieties of all known heartnuts. It deserves testing in other areas.

Note: The following members of the N. N. G. A. have died recently, and we hope to have fuller obituaries on them in the next volume:

Charles C. Dean, of Anniston, Ala. (Died September 21, 1950.)

Henry Gressel, of Mohawk, N. Y. (Died in June, 1951.)

W. N. Achenbach, of Petoskey, Mich.

L. B. Hoyer, of Omaha, Nebr.

Life Member Wang Is in Hong Kong

In our 1942 Report there was a note that our only Chinese member, P. W. Wang, had probably died, since he had not been heard from since 1930. Mr. Wang, we are happy to report, has recently written to us from Hong Kong. Many of the nut trees he planted while secretary of the Kinsan Arboretum at Chuking (not Chungking) in Kiangsu Province had survived the Japanese invasions and were fruiting in 1945, but are now in Communist hands. Mr. Wang hopes some day to be able to send to America scions of a fine pecan (seedling of Teche variety) which he fruited at Chuking. Meanwhile, he wishes to have nut literature and catalogues sent to him at his present address: P. W. Wang, c/o China Products Trading Corporation, 6 Des Voeux Road, Central, Hong Kong.

Letters

Nuts in Quebec

July 16, 1950

Dr. George L. Slate,
Associate Professor,
New York State Agricultural Experiment Station,
Geneva, New York

Dear Dr. Slate:

I am very much flattered by your invitation to prepare a paper on nut culture in Quebec. My only regret is that for two reasons I am unable to comply with your request.

The first is that I am quite ignorant on the subject. It is only lately that I have developed an interest in this matter when I suddenly found myself responsible for a so-called "arboretum" which is now mainly empty space that I am endeavoring to fill. The fact that shagbark hickory and butternut were common in our woods and that some of our neighbors have apparently flourishing individual trees of black walnut served to arouse my interest in the question. One neighbour has a tree of what he calls "French walnut" because they came from near Lyons, France, which are evidently the ordinary English or Persian walnut. Furthermore, I have been advised that there is quite a grove of black walnut near Lotbiniere, Quebec, which is on the south shore of the St. Lawrence not far from the city of Quebec. I understand that it was planted some seventy-five years ago and trees are now timber size. Indeed, I was told that the owner was offered a considerable sum during the war--the wood was wanted for gun stocks. I have not been there to verify this. However it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to get several specimens of various nut species that might grow here to place in the arboretum--this might incidentally give some information on what species would survive our winters.