Chapter C: A. REED, Washington, D. C (2)

This is Felix Gillett standing beside the first Jordan almond tree in America. The difficulty with the Jordan tree in this section was that it flowered too early and too few crops were produced. We have tried a good many sections for the almond and one of the problems, in my opinion, is the development of stocks for it. Here is the IXL on one of Meyer's Chinese stocks (_Amygdalus davidiana_). It does very well on this stock in the region of San Antonio, Texas. But the future of this almond business ought to have been told you by Meyer after he came back from his trip in Western China. These bushes are of the Tangutian almond, a little bush almond; growing occasionally 15 or 18 or 20 feet in height and hardy. It was Meyer's plan, had he lived, to find some place in Southwest Colorado in which to breed hardy almonds that would cover those hillsides with a food producing plant. I believe had he lived he would have done that for we have gotten together already for the breeders a number of forms of great promise. Mr. Wight of the Office of Pomological Investigations is now in California doing breeding work, and I hope his life will be spared so that he can produce a practical bush almond. My object in throwing this photograph on the screen is to show you a hillside covered with a food producing plant which has never yet received the attention of human beings, and yet if studied might lead to the production of an entirely new type of almond which will probably grow as far north as the Dakotas.

Jumping from the Dakotas to Florida I want to introduce to you the Candle Nut or Kukui nut of the Hawaiian Islands which is growing in the sandy regions of the tropical belt of Florida. If you will read the literature you will find that it is referred to as a cathartic, resembling in this respect the castor bean. The problem is whether the candle nut as grown in Florida is poisonous or not. Prof. Simpson is growing in his yard in Florida a tree of this Kukui nut and has eaten these nuts for years, and he just sent me a couple quarts of them from his tree and I have tried them on my friends with no injurious results whatever. The thing to look out for is this fetish, this superstition of poison. This is a very hard-shelled nut, very oily and resembles somewhat the Brazil nut. If a market can be made for it, and there does not seem to be any reason why there cannot, there is no reason that they cannot be grown and they will be grown in southern Florida. That country which in 1898 was a wilderness is now developing very rapidly as a region of homes and what they want is plants that they can grow down there that they can live upon.

On the left is one of these trees which has a good many nuts on it. It is in Miami, Florida. This is a branch of one of these Kukui nuts in Miami.

This is probably the least known of any of the nuts. It is the Yeheb nut. It belongs to the order of Leguminosae and they tell us it is so sweet, having between 21 and 22 per cent of sugar, that the native Arab will desert his dates and rich diet, which is the ordinary diet of that region, and take to the Yeheb whenever it comes into fruit. This Yeheb shrub grows in the deserts of Italian Somaliland and ought to succeed in our southwestern country. During the war there was attached to the Italian Embassy the Italian Explorer Captain Vanutelli, who had the distinction of having been captured by a savage chief in Abyssinia and bound for over two months to a black Abyssinian slave. When I spoke to him about this Yeheb nut he said, "Yes, I have eaten it. It is a wonderful nut. Some day I will get you some of it." When the shipment came there were two tons of nuts and I was a little surprised to say the least. They were brought on camel back over the deserts. During the war they took eight or nine months to get to Washington and when they arrived they were all dead. Notwithstanding many attempts this nut is not grown in the United States but we will have it. It is very thin-shelled, the kernels come out whole and have a very sweet, delicate flavor.

You have just come from Dr. Van Fleet's chestnuts. You know that this is the Chinese chestnut (_Castanea mollissima_) which Meyer found in China. Dr. Van Fleet would probably tell you this is not the way to prune them if you want to increase the chances of these Chinese chestnuts withstanding the bark disease. You are probably familiar with the fact that Meyer discovered over in China on this species the original chestnut bark disease which has destroyed our chestnuts in this country. He found that this variety was highly resistant but not entirely immune to the disease. Dr. Galloway, who is handling the propagation and distribution of these Chinese chestnuts, for our office, wishes to have it understood that in the distribution of these which we will make in the spring we desire to have them sent out in blocks; we would rather not distribute these Chinese chestnuts in single specimens but would be very glad to consider offers from people who have a quarter or a half of an acre that they want to plant. We want to get some idea of the behavior of this species as an orchard crop.

This illustrates the way, as I understand it, that Dr. Van Fleet thinks the trees should be treated, on the left; the way they should not be treated on the right. They seem to be much more susceptible to the disease when pruned up in this neat orchard fashion.

One of Meyer's photographs taken at Fanshan, northeast of Pekin, where he found the chestnut bark disease. This is the way the trees appeared. This gives you some idea of the size of Chinese chestnuts which he got. Those back on the hills are all Chinese chestnuts on rather poor soil as he explains in his description of the photographs.

This is an orchard of Chinese chestnuts as planted by the Chinese on the richer soils of the low lands which show larger trees. Even when full sized they do not compare with our American chestnut but are old enough to show you that they have not been killed by this bark disease.

These trees show signs of the disease but that they have a high degree of resistance is apparently beyond dispute. This shows the black scar near the top which Meyer diagnoses as the remains of the chestnut bark disease.

The scar there in the crotch of this chestnut tree indicates the degree of resistance of this species. Just how it is going to behave here in America no one can tell but that it would be possible to grow orchards of these Chinese chestnuts with the care which you exercise in growing pears or even peaches I think is a pretty safe guess.

Meyer remarks that this tree is probably a century old and with signs of this disease on it. Here is one that he marks as between two and three centuries old.

This, gentlemen, is the newest arrival in this country coming from East Africa near Zanzibar. In Curtis's magazine there is published an account of this nut after Mr. Playfair a British subject who had lived on the island of Zanzibar. This is one of the most curious and most interesting nuts that has been brought to our attention.

It is borne by a climbing vine the stem of which sometimes reaches six or seven inches in diameter. The fruit is between two and one-half and three feet long and eight inches in diameter, and bears between 250 and 264 of these large seeds about the size of chestnuts and with a delicate flavored. In 1884 this Mr. Playfair sent some of these nuts to England, but we have just discovered them so to speak. They will probably grow in our tropical possessions and we must not overlook the fact that after all there is a distinct drift in our agriculture towards the development of that part of the globe which has been so overlooked by horticulturists in the past. It is not at all impossible that some of you who are here in this audience today will buy that Playfairia on the markets.

I thank you very much indeed for your attention.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: The hour is late. What Dr. Kellogg may have to say I know will interest you all greatly but it might better be said tomorrow when we are fresh and the attendance will probably be larger than it is this evening. If there is nothing further to come before the meeting tonight we will take a recess until 9:30 in the morning.

The convention adjourned until 9:30 a. m. Friday, October 8.

MORNING SESSION FRIDAY OCTOBER 8, 1920

The session was called to order by President Linton at 10 o'clock.

THE PRESIDENT: I wish first to beg the pardon of the membership of the Association for the little time that I have been able to give to the preparation of this particular paper. To illustrate how limited that time has been, starting from Michigan prior to our meeting yesterday I had less than twenty-four hours to get to Washington. It was necessary that I should call a meeting together at a little town in Michigan where the regular train did not stop. In order to get that train it was necessary to send a man to buy a ticket to that particular point and as he climbed off that train I climbed on. The conductor thought we should be held up for a conspiracy for stopping a train of that character. On reaching Detroit there were a few minutes between trains. After landing in Buffalo I found that there were fifteen minutes to make connections, and after getting on that train I found our good Brother Pomeroy aboard and he had some fine drinks and other things from his home farm so that it was really the midnight hour before I could commence on this document.

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

HONORABLE WILLIAM S. LINTON, SAGINAW, MICHIGAN

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

I well realize that it is an extreme honor that has come to me in having been named as your President, conferring the privilege also of presiding at this important meeting, your Tenth Annual Session. It has been my lot for almost three score years to mingle largely in civic affairs through organized efforts, for man's betterment along many lines. But with all this experience I do not recall any single group, or undertaking of greater possible and probable value to the people of this country and especially the next and all future generations than the purpose for which we gather today. It is of such vast importance that earnestly and enthusiastically we find foremost in the work, "the best equipped, most intelligent, progressive and successful Agricultural Department" of any government on earth. We are signally honored by the co-operation of one of the most important members of the President's Cabinet, the Secretary of Agriculture, assisting in our program by the presence of leading officials of his staff, all endeavoring in every possible way to supply excellent sustaining foods to mankind, and to add from many choice products of field or of forest, to the joy and comforts of living.

The particular line of effort in which this organization is enlisted is worthy of at least some time and thought upon the part of all persons interested in promoting the welfare of the community, state or county in which they live. Those who will do their share, and there are thousands of them if the subject can be properly presented, can add largely to the food supply of the nation, and provide real delicacies for every table in the homes of the poor as well as in the mansions of the rich. It would be but a few years before we would have in size, and quality the aristocrats of the nut family, in walnuts, hickory nuts, butternuts, even beech nuts, the same as in fruits we have the Bartlett pear, the Northern Spy apple, the Naval orange, the Crawford peach, or the Brighton grape.

Work of inestimable value is being done by our membership in propagating improved varieties that will be rich and lasting in results. We cannot, however, afford to halt for this development of species as our own time is too short, but we can cause to be planted millions of seedlings out of which will come many choice varieties of the future. We would have had them now had our forefathers realized what could be accomplished along this line and the necessity for doing it.

Therefore I would urge with all earnestness that the work be not further postponed, but that we bend every energy to bring about an awakening in this matter that will cause general activity throughout the entire United States. There are several ways of doing this, any one of which should bring results. The only question about any of them being, who can spare the time necessary for this work. My pleasant acquaintance with the members of this Association proves you all to be one hundred per cent Americans, standing well up in your business and professions, and leaders in the civic life of your communities. These excellent points to your credit, really deter each and all from giving time throughout the year to the Association's work and permit only the annual gathering and the events connected therewith that are largely spasmodic only in action and effort.

The Association should be made large enough and strong enough financially to provide a Secretary with proper clerical assistance and fair compensation for work well done.

From fifty to two hundred members can be easily secured in every state in which the Northern nuts grow. Officials of government, States, counties and cities are ready to join in the movement. Road builders, owners of cut-over and other lands only need to have their attention called to what can be accomplished and the great majority will unite with us. The work of the American Forestry Association has promoted our cause also, and the establishing, and naming of historic trees throughout the land can well be made a feature of our plans. Only a day or two ago a Michigan paper carried the following item:

MOUNT VERNON WALNUT TS THRIVING IN INGHAM

Mason. Sept. 26.--Summit R. King, a pioneer of Mason, who was
present when the Republican party was born "under the oaks" in
Jackson county, has evolved a plan for raising historic trees in
Ingham county.

In 1906 he visited the tomb of Washington at Mount Vernon and while
there gathered some black walnuts from a tree on the grounds. He
planted those and his trees are now in bearing.

He has placed a quantity of the nuts in the hands of the county
school commissioner, Miss Daisy Call, to be given to the rural
schools that the grounds may be beautified with trees planted in
memory of George Washington.

Why not have Mount Vernon walnuts thus distributed throughout the Union. Every school boy and girl in the land would be delighted to get them for planting.

The supply would not equal one hundredth part of one per cent of the demand for them. Then select throughout the country other special or historic trees of various kinds or varieties of nuts and still I am sure the supply would not begin to equal the demand. Long ago I began to arrange for nut crops from some of these historic trees, planted by Washington at his beautiful Mount Vernon home, now the Mecca for prince or pauper and all those millions who love the freedom of glorious America.

Those nuts will be planted in the parks and on the grounds of the people of my home city this very year by the children of our schools who are now in their moulding being taught to revere the name of the father of our country.

This very act of patriotism will cause thousands of boys and girls to have fixed in their minds for youth or age the value of planting the useful trees that will in later years produce food of the very best character for the human race. Carry this message into every city, village and school district and the good work will be duplicated thousands of times and then the movement in which we have so earnestly engaged will have brought forth fruit in great abundance so that even the great majority of those living today, and certainly the generations to come must give this organization and its founders great credit for real and lasting benefits that will prevail for centuries to come.

We all desire at this very important period in our existence as an Association, to strengthen our forces and enlarge the scope of our work. To do it at once let me suggest the early choosing and naming of live vice-presidents in every state that may be united with us in membership; also a general committee on legislation. This committee can do much the coming year when legislatures throughout the country will be in their regular session, to cause the adoption of laws similar to the Michigan Statute known as the Penney Act, which provides for the planting of nut and other food bearing trees along the public highways.

It is one of the most progressive enactments in recent years and its good features should be adopted by every State, and the Federal Government as well, by applying its provisions to National highways also.

In conclusion I wish to thank each and every officer and member for uniform courtesies and favors extended to me throughout the year. My only regret being that official duties, extended traveling, and other unforeseen demands upon my time have prevented me from giving the close personal attention to every detail of the Northern Nut Growers Association business that it otherwise would have been my great pleasure to have done.

My gratitude is cordially extended to each and every member.

* * * * *

MR. B. G. FOSTER: Mr. President and Fellow Members: I realize that children should be seen and not heard and I am merely a child in this organization. At the same time I believe under modern conditions children are being more and more heard and the older people are being put more and more in the background. So I am going to take the liberty of making a few remarks particularly with reference to the president's address. This is my first attendance at a meeting of the Northern Nut Growers' Association and I have profited very greatly by it. I have become very much interested in nut culture. In a small way I am stumbling along and learning something of the work and the development of this industry. At present it is merely a fad with me but I do not know but what it may become something more as I get into it. I have been particularly impressed this morning with the address of the president. There were one or two suggestions that he makes that I wish to refer to. I think it is an excellent suggestion to get the children interested in nut culture through historical nut trees if nuts can be secured from such trees and delivered to different school authorities.

Another is the question of having a representative from every state. I would like to inquire from the secretary if some such provision has been adopted.

THE ACTING SECRETARY: We have always had a list of state vice-presidents which you will find in each one of the reports. Those state vice-presidents have been selected because of their being the most active members in each particular state but they have never been especially active more than to turn in some communication about their work. I have never been able to get any of them to make any special campaign for new members.

MR. FOSTER: Then, as I understand it, the president's idea is to urge these vice-presidents to take a more active interest in the affairs of the association.

THE PRESIDENT: That is the point I desire to make.

MR. MORRIS: When the constitution of the United States was drawn up it was said to be "insanely ideal." We do not have to stretch our imaginations this morning to the point of a question of our sanity when our president's compositions are put before us. His paper seems sanely ideal. There is only one thing that interests a child more than history, (unless it is Sunday school), and that is a dollar bill. Now if we are going to approach the children let us introduce the pragmatic side of giving the child an object lesson showing where the planting of a nut tree will bring a return in dollar bills that will ripen along with the leaves every autumn instead of just leaves alone. We should have in connection with various educational institutions a few object lesson trees. It seems to me that this is a responsibility of the state. A number of responsibilities have been put upon the state in the past and a number of responsibilities have been put upon the educational department in every state. So many of them, in fact, that hardly any legislature will stand without hitching when there is a question of diversion of "pork barrel" funds away from river and harbor appropriations toward education. We can show that very much larger river and harbor requirements will follow if our children raise so much of this great new feed supply that we have more things to transport. The question may be taken almost seriously from that point. In fact if you give further consideration to the matter it seems to me that this statement of mine, made somewhat in the spirit of levity, is like many other statements made in the spirit of levity. It has a basis in real fact. The development of that basis I will leave to your imagination.

MR. MCGLENNON: In regard to Dr. Morris' remarks relative to the financial consideration, that appeals to me with peculiar force and I think we can very materially provide for it in an enlarged membership. For some time I have been giving very serious thought to the subject of enlarging the membership of the Northern Nut Growers Association. I think quite a substantial gain was made last year and I believe that a very large gain can be made this year. I think we ought to have a membership in the neighborhood of a thousand anyway. I believe we can increase it this year to at least 500. Probably I am particularly fortunate in having a source of supply of membership that perhaps the rest of the members have not, through the L. W. Hall Company. This company is handling our improved filberts and is getting a large number of orders and the people who have received plants during the past couple of years seem to be very much pleased with them. In many instances they have already borne fruit. The Hall company has received splendid letters in regard to them. In the fall and in the spring the Hall company sends out a large number of catalogues. This fall they will send something like a thousand, in the spring from five to seven thousand and in each of these catalogues the literature of the Northern Nut Growers Association can be included. We experimented a little last year along this line and I believe Mr. Bixby will bear me out in saying that there was quite a tangible response. I got a few members in and about Rochester through friends but I believe that I can almost guarantee at least a hundred members myself this year and probably more, particularly through the medium of the Hall agency. But, as Dr. Morris says, or practically said, there is nothing in this world that talks louder than a dollar so I thought I would come here prepared to back up my position and to guarantee at least 25 members for this year.

There is another matter to which I think we ought to give serious consideration and that is the matter of the American Nut Journal. It is the only nut journal, as I understand, in the country and I believe there is an inestimable future for it if we seize our opportunity or enable Mr. Olcott to seize his. At this time, I believe, he is not getting the support that he ought to have from this Association and the other nut associations of the country. He is a very able man, at one time the editor of the Post Express in Rochester, the classiest paper in Rochester, and we have some classy ones there, he is an educated man of large experience and very versatile and it seems to me he ought to have substantial support. So I came here with a certified check for 25 memberships to the association and 25 subscriptions to the American Nut Journal as a guarantee of good faith. I believe I can add 75 more.

There are some other things that I think we ought to give consideration to and that is the work that is being done by Dr. Deming and Mr. Bixby. I think these men should have special and substantial support, real support, money support, so that they can do things as they ought to be done at the time they ought to be done. I think we are selfish in asking these men to give so much of their time and attention and money to the affairs of this association without giving them better support. If we have more members we will have more money and more members will bring more members. This propaganda will be spread far and wide. The interest in nut culture is growing by leaps and bounds. I think this is the time to strike as a scientific organization. I think the Northern Nut Growers' Association is the most scientific of all of the nut growing associations. That is something of a guess, of course, but if they were put to the test I believe it would come out on top. Anyway put me down for the very best efforts that I can render to the end of building up membership and financial support of this association. It seems to me that with men like Deming, Bixby, Morris, Littlepage, and others whom I could mention, the scientific and practical ends of this association are being pretty well taken care of. We meet here in association and it is very lovely, something of a mutual admiration society; we go away and are likely to forget until it is about time to get busy with another meeting. Now it seems to me we ought to be busy all the year doing something so that when we come to the meeting like this we have something to report in the way of membership and money. That will make possible these plans that Dr. Morris suggested. I was unable to hear the president's address but it seems to me that more attention should be given to the matter of finances of this association and the membership.

I just want to add a remark or two in regard to Mr. Vollertsen who is going to read a paper on the filbert. We have found, and we certainly believe, he and I,--and he knows more than I do because he is on the ground all the time--I look after the sales end of it,--we have found that several of our smaller varieties of nuts are, in our estimation, decidedly superior to some of the larger varieties. While we believe that the consumer is going to give first thought to size he will be making a mistake if he passes by some of our smaller varieties which are splendidly filled, filled to capacity, very rich, and thin-shelled. I do not want the smaller varieties passed by.

MR. JONES: I think the nurseries would be glad to co-operate in the getting of new members and it has occurred to me that they might like to donate trees to new members or plants or something that would attract them. That might be worked up with the secretary if it would be any great attraction for getting new members.

THE PRESIDENT: I think that is a very good suggestion.

THE SECRETARY-TREASURER: Mr. McGlennon spoke of the amount of time that the secretary had to give to the work. I can speak from experience and I can speak frankly because the secretary and the treasurer are different persons, although the office of the secretary treasurer has not yet been officially divided. The treasurer is supposed to have not much to do and the secretary to get the bulk of the work. While the finances of the association at the present time are not such that we can recommend the paying of a salary to the secretary, yet there should be a salary paid to the secretary sufficient so that he could employ someone to relieve him of a good portion of the detail which comes on him. I know by experience what that is. I would like to ask the association to authorize the treasurer to pay the secretary a salary not exceeding $500 a year. That is what it ought to be or whatever portion of that the finances will permit for this purpose. In offering that I do not want the secretary to think that he must begin to spend the money right away, because it is not in the treasury, but I have a lot of faith that we will get more money and will be enabled to pay that. So I want to ask your authority to do it.

MR. OLCOTT: I would like to second that motion and also to endorse what Mr. McGlennon said, and Mr. Jones, in regard to new members. I think that is one of the things we need as much as anything right now and that we can get them if we go after them. I know that our secretaries, both Mr. Bixby and Dr. Deming, have done a great deal of work and that it takes a great deal of work to get new members. There are a good many other things on the schedule for the treasurer and secretary to do besides that. We have a system of vice-presidents for each state and one of my recent ideas has been that he might form the center for an increase of membership in his particular state through co-operation with the secretary of this association. If we do not keep after this matter after we adjourn we shall be just about where we are now a year from now. It is activity that counts. I am sure that if we provide for a salary for the secretary we will get busy and provide for that salary, so I make the motion that the treasurer be authorised to pay $500, or any portion of that amount that the association can afford, to the secretary.

DR. MORRIS: I second the motion.

The motion was carried unanimously.

THE ACTING SECRETARY: You will notice that, in the question box, question number 12 is in relation to roadside planting of nut trees. More people, it seems to me, are interested in the roadside planting of nut trees than in any other one phase of nut planting. I get many questions about what is desirable to plant on the roadsides and many suggestions that the Association particularly interest itself in encouraging roadside nut planting. Therefore it seems to me that it would be advisable that this association should appoint a committee which should consider all the factors concerned in roadside planting of nut trees, and should draw up a bulletin which can be sent out to officials and people who make inquiry and to all people who are interested, giving them exact and specific information on the subject of road planting in each state, considering each state separately and suggesting what nut trees had best be planted in that particular state.

MR. JONES: I think Dr. Deming's suggestion is a good one but I do not like the idea of waiting another year. I think we ought to do that right now. There is a big opportunity for producing new varieties. For instance, get each state to take up planting of the very best nuts they can get and then plant the seedlings on the roadside and we will get new varieties that will be better than anything we have now. If you plant common nuts you will get common nuts but if you plant fine nuts while you will still get a large number of ordinary nuts you will get some that will be fine and some that will be better than anything you plant, if you plant enough of them. I think that is the greatest opportunity we have in roadside planting.

THE ACTING SECRETARY: I think this is the proper course to follow, that the committee appointed should have power to issue a bulletin without waiting for the next convention. I would like to see our president at the head of the committee.

MR. JONES: I would like to see them get the nuts this year. There is a good crop of nuts this year, black walnuts, hickory and other nuts.

THE ACTING SECRETARY: I move that a committee be appointed by the president, the number to be determined by the president, and our president, Mr. Linton, to be the chairman of the committee, to consider the compilation and issue of a bulletin on roadside planting of nut trees.

MR. BIXBY: I second the motion.

The motion was carried unanimously.

MR. POMEROY: You will find this argument probably will be used by some that the trees will be destroyed by automobile parties and children hammering the nuts off with sticks and stones. I have a few nut trees planted along the roadside now that are in bearing. They have been in bearing, some of them, six or eight years and they are within forty feet of a school house with a large attendance of children. I have had no trouble at all with the children gathering the nuts or tampering with the trees. Of course they take a few--I would take them if I were in their place,--but none of any consequence. Automobile parties passing along there seldom bother them--although they are worse than the children to tell the truth. You will hear that argument, that a food producing tree along the roadside will be injured by travelers.

DR. MORRIS: Mr. Pomeroy's remark relates either to one of two things, to bad nuts or good children. We will not have that feature throughout the country at large. It is an important point, however, but if this is to be committee work it seems to me that perhaps Mr. Pomeroy and others might offer their testimony at the time there is a committee meeting for bulletin purposes and we ought not to go on with this discussion at this time.

THE PRESIDENT: The next thing on the program is an address by Dr. William A. Taylor, Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, on "The Place of Nut Trees in our Northern Horticulture."

THE PLACE OF NUT TREES IN OUR NORTHERN HORTICULTURE

WM. A. TAYLOR, WASHINGTON, D. C.

We are somewhat inclined in America to consider none but the big things worth while.

We like to do the big things and the quick ones. To organize billion dollar corporations; grow billion bushel wheat crops; to have the swiftest motor boat or auto; to receive the largest income per man, per year, or per acre. Concentrating our attention on cap sheaves and superlatives rather generally we very easily lose sight of features less conspicuous though highly important.

Such an one is the rational development of nut culture in our Northern States. Since the scouring of our chestnut forests by the Asiatic chestnut blight has practically eliminated that nut from consideration for orchard planting in the infected territory until resistant varieties yielding good crops of nuts of acceptable quality are obtained or developed, we can hardly say with assurance that we have any nut of proved adaptability in sight which is worthy of planting on an extensive scale for its crop alone, on productive agricultural land in the Northern States.

Along the southern fringe of "the North" as in Delaware, Maryland, southern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri exception in favor of the hardy varieties of pecans should probably be noted but in the light of present knowledge orchard planting of the commercially important almond, Persian walnut, and pecan must be left to the Pacific Coast and in the South.

This fact has been so generally recognized that we have been inclined to give up all thought of attempting nut production in the North merely because large scale operation is not attractive. There is much ground for belief that this view is erroneous and that there is need for localized planting.

If the world war taught any economic lesson to civilized men which they should remember and act on, it is that low cost food reserves should be provided against possible exigencies. They are not needed every year but when needed their value can hardly be estimated. Only to a limited extent can such reserves be accumulated out of the production of our ordinary cereals and commonly cultivated crops. Potential reserves in the form of fruitful nut trees can be established at relative light initial investment or of continuing care and labor on almost every farm and by many a roadside in much of our farming territory. Black walnut, butternut, shag bark, shell bark, beech and other hardy, long-lived native trees can be established at low cost in large numbers for beauty, shade, and food production. Nor should the possibilities of Persian walnut, Japanese walnut, and native hazel be disregarded in favored sections.

While none of these are entirely free from plant diseases or insect pests, they are, when once established, capable of maintaining themselves fairly clean and sound with little expenditure for spraying or other attention during the growing season when the peak load activities of the farm are on. Why should not their planting receive more attention and encouragement from our horticultural and other rural societies? For rough land and roadside planting they are decidedly more practical in most sections than any of our fruit trees, substantially all of which require spraying and tillage to maintain productiveness, or in fact to avoid becoming nuisances by harboring pests to contaminate the commercial orchards of the neighborhoods. While much has been said in America in commendation of the roadside planting of fruit trees so common in portions of Europe, and while there are possibilities of useful development along this line, most American efforts in this direction have proved disappointing because of the impracticability of giving the trees the care and attention they require. While often promising at the start they have quickly become infested with San Jose and other scales, borers, blights and rots which can only be prevented or controlled by systematic and thorough remedial measures, rarely possible on rough lands, in fence rows and on roadsides.

If this type of nut culture is sufficiently promising to be worth while, do we not need to attack its problems from a somewhat different angle than has become our custom with the trees which are to be grown under intensive cultural conditions at high maintenance cost, such as more and more characterizes our orcharding?

It has seemed to me for some time that in this field we need to return in our study of varieties and strains of nut trees to the standards and ideals of the earlier and ruder period of American Pomology when rusticity of tree, including storm endurance, freedom from troublesome diseases and insect pests, as well as productiveness and dessert quality were the primary consideration next after satisfactory productiveness and quality of crop.

This and other like societies might well devote much effort to the securing of performance records of promising individual nut trees, whether wild or grown by man, with a view to locating those which, whether bearing nuts of the largest size and finest quality or not, possess the inherent ability to bear regular crops of fair quality under the rough and humble conditions of the average fence row or roadside of the region to which they are adapted. Can a more alluring and fascinating field for search throughout the growing season be suggested or one more likely to interest the growing army of nature lovers, whether dwellers in country or town?

Once located and proved worth while through a sufficient period of cropping such trees, especially of black walnut, could be made available through nursery propagation for rapid dissemination for experimental planting throughout the areas of their probable adaptability.

Do not understand me as in any sense discouraging the continuance of painstaking experimentation with a view to finding or developing varieties suited to orchard planting in those scattered, favored spots where conditions make success reasonably probable. My point is rather that in our northern states by far the largest potential production of nuts is through waste land utilization and dual or triple purpose planting, such as nuts and shade and in some cases ultimate yield of highly valuable timber.

In short, widespread recognition of the importance of nut-tree planting as a side line. This deserves attention during the next few years because of the practical certainty that as our nationwide development of permanent highways proceeds, roadside trees planting on a large scale is sure to follow. When undertaken it should be on a solid foundation of experience especially with regard to the climatic adaptation, soil and drainage requirements, varietal characteristics, such as habit, vigor, pest resistance, and productiveness, all of which are fundamentally important where the use of the land for a century or more is involved. What has been said with regard to highway planting is still more important with regard to the planting of the farmstead where ill-suited trees become a source of grief rather than of satisfaction.

Side-line planting of nut trees in our northern states is practically sure to develop on a large scale during the next twenty-five years.

How can the essentials to its rational development be most promptly and accurately determined and most effectively disseminated among the people?

DR. MORRIS: Apropos of side line planting, Mr. Jones some three or four years ago gave me a very handy little orchard saw. He said that when I went around the orchard on Sunday morning before church time if I had this saw with me I would find something to do. Well when I have this saw in my hand before church I find so much to do that I cannot go to church. Now if we take up tree planting as a side line it is going to be the little cap that will fire off the big gun. I think we may safely urge side line planting of nut trees believing that men who take up the side line will be drawn into putting them out on the very best land they have.

THE SECRETARY TREASURER: Dr. Taylor said "if the trees were suited to the climatic conditions." I would like to ask him about that. I get many requests from people from various parts of the country as to what trees would succeed in their sections. As a matter of assistance in the future I would like to ask Dr. Taylor how he would go about finding that out.

DR. TAYLOR: Mr. President, my first step I think would be to put that question to my neighbor who had been there longer than I, who had had his eyes open and who had had opportunity to observe. There is great risk in undertaking to project into investment propositions theoretical considerations with respect to particular varieties of trees. Our guide, our only guide, must be actual, observed behavior of the trees that we have under consideration. Of course we can draw some broadly general lines. We do well in a matter of this character to draw those lines rather conservatively and make clear that he who passes beyond the line does so at his own risk. He does it deliberately experimentally rather than upon what you might call an investment basis. The important thing, it seems to me at this stage is to observe and record the facts with respect to the trees now growing. That, of course, is particularly true with regard to the native trees which, without doubt, must take the lead in side line planting throughout the northern states. That is to my mind the important thing. Trees exist in large numbers. They need to be located and studied not merely observed on one bright sunny afternoon when everything tends towards satisfaction and optimism, but through the eyes in a way that will make available not only to the observer but to the rest of us the facts in regard to those trees.

THE PRESIDENT: The next number on our program is Tree Planting for Definite Purposes, by Charles Lathrop Pack, President of the American Forestry Association. Mr. Pack has notified us that he is unable to be present, but has forwarded his paper.

GREATEST POWER PRODUCING ENGINE IS THE NUT TREE--MAKE NUT TREES YOUR MIDDLE MAN IN FIGHTING FOOD COST

CHARLES LATHROP PACK, PRESIDENT, THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION

On every hand we hear the call for power and more power. Every scientific genius in the world directs his attention to increasing power units in the struggle for world trade on which we are entering following a World War. Business calls for quicker transportation and the motor world answers with master motors; railroads are being or have been electrified; water power developments are being pushed in many parts of the country. The business world calls for more power and the aeroplanes answer with the delivery of mail and soon we are told it will enter the strictly commercial field. But what of man? What is being done to make him stand up under this terrific strain; this keener competition? What of the food that must keep him going? What of products that must be put before him with the middle man standing between?

A nut bearing tree is the most powerful engine in the world if its fruits be properly used. If the people of the United States could have nut bearing trees for their "middlemen" in the fight to bring down the High Cost of Living it would come down quickly.

Nuts are the most important of all tree crops because they are the richest natural food substance known. A nut is Nature's supreme effort to pack as much nourishment as she can into the smallest possible space for the nourishment of the future young plant. That some people are aware of these food values is evidenced in the nationwide tree balloting now being conducted by the American Forestry Association for the selection of a national tree. In this voting nut bearing trees are in the lead. Many nuts contain as much musclebuilding food as rich cheese, a third more than beef steak, twice as much fat as cheese, five times as much as eggs. Chestnuts contain 70 per cent of starch, nearly as much as the best wheat flour and four times as much as potatoes. Peanuts and hickory nuts are three times as nourishing as beefsteak. When you think of it that way it hardly seems to be the thing to casually munch triple extract of beefsteak from a street nut stand or after a hearty dinner. Say a fifty-pound bushel of black walnuts costs two dollars. It yields 12-1/2 pounds of meats whose fuel, or food value is 37,500 calories. The same number of calories in beefsteak at fifty cents a pound would cost more than fifteen dollars. A bushel of hickory nuts at three dollars yields as many calories as sixteen dollars' worth of round steak.

Out in Kansas the other day a single walnut tree stump, grubbed out on the banks of a creek in Geary County brought the farmer $250. When the call of war came we found we had to hunt for black walnut to make gun stocks and aeroplane propellers. In some towns in Ohio, citizens cut the walnut from their streets so high was the price offered for this wood. So let us make trees, particularly nut bearing trees, the memorials or the proper setting for memorials to the men who offered their lives to their country in the World War. Let us line our highways with trees and make them Roads of Remembrance. In this way the trees will impress their value upon millions of our people. Put these trees where they can spread the message of production and beautification combined. Take their seeds and pass them on to other places where the message will be spread still further.

Michigan is planting apple trees along a Victory Highway. Tourists will pick those apples some day. That is just what Michigan wants them to do. Michigan wants the tourists to carry the fame of Michigan's apples to the southern tip of Florida and to the northern tip of Montana. Why do not your members of this Association of nut growers follow the example of Michigan by planting nut trees along the highways of the state they represent. The American Forestry Association is glad to co-operate with anyone who wants to spread the message of the tree. The people of this country have a responsive ear to campaigns of education. The American Forestry Association's call for memorial tree planting has demonstrated this. Trees are being planted by the American Legion, the Service Star Legion, schools, church congregations, all sorts of organizations and individuals throughout the country. The tree is the one thing with its ever renewing life symbol that meets the requirements of a memorial. The tree is the memorial the individual can erect, care for and protect. Then just consider what the tree gives the planter in return--an affection that only comes from the bosom of the earth, to which the loved one for whom the tree was planted, has returned.

You gentlemen are missing a great opportunity if you do not get squarely behind the American Forestry Association and help it spread the message of the tree, Nature's masterpiece and greatest gift to man, and in doing so urge the value of planting trees that produce food wherever such trees can give better service than those which do not produce food.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: The next number on our program is A Nursery of Improved Filberts, by Conrad Vollertsen, of Rochester, N. Y.

A NURSERY OF IMPROVED FILBERTS

CONRAD VOLLERTSEN, ROCHESTER, N. Y.

Again I have prepared a paper on the growing of Improved European hazelnuts, but through practical experience perhaps a little more positive in my statements.

It is well known, a well established fact, that our common native American hazelnuts both Corylus rostrata the beaked hazel, and Corylus Americana the American hazel in their present state of appearance are for various reasons not very well adapted nor desirable for cultivation, particularly Corylus rostrata, a very slow growing variety with unusual small and hard shelled nuts, so small and hard that even the rodents of field and forest refuse to gather and eat them. The only value I can see in this variety is that it may prove to be a good pollenizer. Corylus Americana is a better grower with nuts a little longer than the preceding variety, but a short life plant and therefore not even fit to use for stock to graft on and should never be used for that purpose. There is in fact by both varieties lots of room for improvement, which only could be gained through scientific hybridization and which we hope will be realized to a certain extent at least in a comparative few years.

It is true a few better varieties of the American type like the Rush hazel and one or two others have been discovered or produced, but even they do not favorably compare with the better European varieties and the consequences are: If we want to grow hazel-nuts, we are at the present time and until such time has arrived, when through scientific hybridization substantial improvements over the present state and condition of our native hazel-nuts has been gained, actually compelled to rely on some of the European varieties, compelled to grow and cultivate a large assortment, from which to select the proper varieties for the different sections of our country.