Chapter C: A. REED, Washington, D. C (3)

I therefore have chosen as a title to my paper The Growing of Improved European Hazel-nuts in Nursery and Orchards in the State of New York and other Eastern and Northeastern States. I have chosen this title, because it indicates that a nursery of European hazel-plants is in existence and that orchards are planted, which is really equivalent with growing of European hazel-nuts for commercial purposes, otherwise there would be no need of such nurseries and no need of hazel-orchards.

I have alluded to this very subject in an earlier paper, but was at that time not as convinced of the final success as I am today.

We have since not only experienced a very severe and constant winter but a winter in a great many ways rather peculiar and unusual with early and heavy snowfall, which prevented in some sections of the eastern states the freezing of the ground in spite of the bitter cold. We have since seen another season of buds and blossoms and balmy breezes passing away never to return and a season of harvesting our fruit is rapidly approaching its end, but, ladies and gentlemen, during this now vanishing and for some sections of our country rather peculiar season, great opportunities were offered the close observer to study and investigate the different problems concerning the growing of European hazel-nuts in the northeastern states of our country.

Let us hope that not all of these opportunities and chances offered us have passed unobserved, but that some of those perplexed questions of filbert or hazel-nut growing in the east have been solved. To me this past season, though somewhat unusual, was very interesting and above all very instructive to growers of hazel-nuts.

It is my opinion that the peculiarity of this season has wonderfully aided to solve many of those unanswered questions about the growing of European hazel-nuts for commercial purposes in the Eastern States. Through practical experience and close observation throughout the whole season it certainly has convinced me beyond the slightest doubt in my mind that some varieties of European improved hazel-nuts properly selected for the different states or parts of the Eastern States can be profitably grown for commercial purposes. It will of course require time and work to find out the right and proper varieties for the different sections of our country. For Western New York I could select eight or ten varieties from my nursery that would prove A No. 1 for that part of the state of New York, probably a number of the same varieties would do equally as well in parts of adjacent states, but of that we are not sure until actual planting has been done and thoroughly tried out. The question now is how and where can we obtain the necessary varieties of hazel-plants, as the importation of most kinds of nursery stock, including all nutbearing trees from foreign countries is at the present time very much restricted, practically prohibited. To my judgment there is but one way out of this, if we want to grow hazel-nuts of foreign origin.

We are under the existing circumstances, as stated before, simply compelled to grow our own plants. And this is being done. And to prove that it can be successfully done I will try to describe and demonstrate the method I am using or employing in my nursery for propagating the hazel- or filbert-plants. I still adhere to layering as the best method of propagating the hazel, large numbers can be produced in a comparative short time, if sufficient stock-plants are at hand; and plants on their own roots have many advantages over grafted or budded stock, as there is no wild growth to combat with, so deceiving and aggravating to the people who plant hazel-nuts and liable to choke or kill the growth or bud, that eventually nothing but the wild stock will remain.

The general assertion or claim, that grafted or budded hazel-plants are more productive, more prolific, than plants on their own roots does not hold good to all varieties, as I have both grafted plants, as well as plants on their own roots of bearing age and have so far not been able to see any difference in bearing, now in the size of the fruit or nuts, but would like to have it strictly understood that this opinion of mine, gained through experience and observation in my nursery only should not be taken as final, as I only have a few grafted varieties to watch and to compare. In fact I have every reason to believe that grafted hazel-plants of some varieties, will be more prolific and bear more regular, but have had so far no proof of it, but will do more grafting of other varieties to establish the fact more positive and report the result later. For the buying public at the present time, plants raised from layers on their own roots should be preferable and layering as a method of propagating the hazel-plants resorted to until the general public gets more and better acquainted and familiar with the growing of hazel-plants.

The layering of hazel-plants in my nursery is done from imported stock or parent-plants planted on ordinary farm land thoroughly worked and well manured 12 feet apart each way. Two year old plants are selected for such planting, they are allowed to grow about two seasons before we layer them, which would be about in the autumn of the second year, at that time there should be besides the ordinary growth of the original plant, some fine young shoots growing from the root, which could be, if go desired, layered together with other branches of the plant, but is not always advisable, neither is it necessary, as the plants selected for parent stock should be well branched and well able to furnish wood enough for the first layering without those one year old shoots.

I will now try to show to you, as an illustration and at the same time try to explain the reason why they should not be layered, simply because they are there. It is all well and good to layer them, if the scarcity of wood of a choice variety demands every branch obtainable and they will grow all right, but will never produce as nice a root as layers from a two year growth. These are the young so-called one-year-old shoots I have referred to, really just this season's growth, perfectly straight without any laterals. Now in layering them a little opening long enough for the branch and about 3 to 4 inches deep, the same as for layering other branches should be made in the ground and the young shoot or branch carefully bent and placed in the opening and well anchored or fastened before the ground is filled in again, otherwise our changeable winters may heave and loosen them, we will then at the best of it eventually grow but one plant from each of such shoots and generally poorly rooted at that, that is a root rather long and crooked not very easy to plant and still harder to dig, very much like this specimen a layered one year old shoot, just taken from a parent plant.

We cannot improve much on this awkward root as it is impossible to shorten the bend in layering them, but we can improve on them, if we allow the one year shoot or growth another season to grow, we will then at the end of the second season have an altogether different branch before us, a branch in appearance about like the one I have here. You will notice the terminal bud of the last year's growth has made a growth of about 12 to 15 inches during this second season, besides that, you will see from 4 to 7 fine laterals all of them including the growth from the terminal bud fit for layering and all of them will bend easily and can be placed almost perfectly straight in the ground, which will invariably insure finer and better rooted plants and more of them, than a one year growth can produce, as is shown in this specimen from a-two-year-old branch I have brought with me, this demonstration plainly shows that there is nothing lost in waiting two years with the layering of young branches, as our reward will be more and better plants possibly a little smaller, but better growing plants than the longer layers from a one-year growth, besides that, a branch with 4 to 7 laterals can be layered about as quick, as a one-year growth, as the same opening in the ground made for one layer is fully sufficient for 6 or 7 on a two-year old branch. All layered branches or little shoots should be cut back to about 3-4 eyes above the ground and remain in the ground about one year, the earth around the parent plants and between the layers must be well worked throughout the whole season and if necessary mulched with half rotten manure. After the layers are well rooted, they should be taken up, cut apart and properly trimmed and planted in the nursery row, where they remain until large enough for market or orchard planting. There is but very little pruning of the young hazel-plants necessary until they are planted in the orchard. I will therefore not dwell on the subject of pruning just now, but will leave the propagating and growing of the hazel or filbert-plants in the nursery and try to make a few remarks about the hazel or filbert orchard. I should perhaps have mentioned the growing of seedlings for stock to graft or bud upon before I begin my talk on the hazel-orchard, but as there is but very little to be said about it, I may as well refer to it right now.

It is very difficult at the present time to import the ordinary wild hazel (Corylus avellana) from Europe for grafting purposes. We therefore are obliged to raise our own stock. This can well be done by sowing the seed or nuts or by layering of European varieties, we are in possession of. I have among my imported varieties several of which the fruit or nuts are too small and not at all satisfactory for commercial purposes, those varieties I am layering with that point in view to use them for stock to graft upon only. Such stock can also easily be grown from seed or nuts. It has for me so far not been necessary to grow seedlings, as I had stock enough from layers to graft upon, but have found any number of seedlings on my ground from nuts dropped from the plants and not gathered or destroyed by mice or squirrels so I know the seed or nuts will readily grow. Nuts can be sown in the fall quite successfully providing they are safe from mice, otherwise they should be stratified and kept from freezing during the winter. I will leave this subject now and call attention to the hazel or filbert orchard. If the planting of such an orchard is planned, the soil and location should be well considered. Ordinary farm land well worked and fairly well manured and not too wet will answer the purpose, providing it is an open piece of land well exposed to sun and air, as the hazel-nut requires both and a good deal of it in order to perfectly mature its' fruit.

In planting the orchard, three or four varieties should be used on account of better pollenization and plants about three to four years old planted. Varieties that naturally grow more conical or pyramidal shaped could be planted about 12 feet apart each way, but the more spreading varieties like the Lamberts and others I would advise to plant 15 feet apart each way, as part of the land between the rows can well be utilized for low growing crops for several years to come and thereby prevent the waste of land. It is not necessary to plant an equal number of each kind, if three or four varieties are chosen for the orchard, we may select say two very prolific kinds and add a few plants of other varieties to mix in for pollenization, which will fully answer the purpose. Before going any further with my talk on hazel or filbert orchards, I should emphatically recommend the thoroughly working and preparing of the ground, as it is a very essential part of the operation and a necessity to the final success. It is a mistaken idea that a hazel orchard will take care of itself, the ground should be well cultivated and kept free of grass and weeds. Barnyard manure or other fertilizers should be resorted to whenever the ground shows a necessity thereof, neither trees or fruit can be grown successfully on poor and exhausted soil. All filberts or hazel plants are naturally inclined to produce a number of suckers or young shoots grown from the root, they should be removed as soon as they appear, it will stop when the plants grow older. Standard trees with a short stem say 10 to 15 inches should be planted in the orchard, if such plants could be had. It should be our aim to try to grow and prune them with that point in view to raise such plants, as they are then easily taken care of. This actually brings us to the operation of pruning our hazel plants, which is in every way quite an important part of the growing of hazel nuts. At the time of planting all plants should be cut back, the same as is done to any shrub or tree when newly planted, but after that the hazel being more a shrub than a tree should be pruned every year with the center well kept open all the time, all weak and unnecessary wood or branches in the middle of the plant should not be cut back but entirely removed, also the young growth of most of the branches should be removed to just below the terminal bud of the previous years growth, as I will show you on a branch I have brought with me.

If we will treat the plants in our hazel orchards as herein described we should not experience any difficulty in raising a fairly good crop of nuts, if the proper varieties are selected. Insects have so far not troubled in the least, a few tent caterpillars appeared in its season, but were soon destroyed by birds. We should not allow our hazel plants to grow too tall, 12 to 15 feet should be the maximum height, after that the tall growing branches should be greatly reduced, or gradually removed, as there is generally young growth enough to take their places.

During the severe winter of 1919 and '20 most all catkins or staminate blossoms above the snowline in our nursery were frozen, also part of the wood of a few varieties were more or less frozen, of which due notice has been taken. They will be closely observed during the coming winter. Only a few of the staminate blossoms that were well covered under snow developed perfectly and the result was a very small crop of nuts on most of the varieties, but all the varieties had some, even those more or less frozen plants. It plainly shows that but a very few catkins are necessary for pollenization, even over a wide area. There will be failures caused by climatic or atmospheric disturbances in our hazel orchards as well as in all other orchards which we cannot control nor prevent, but that should not discourage us as long as the prospects of fair crops are otherwise all right, the selecting of varieties, the proper pruning of our plants, the control of insects and the location of our hazel orchard is all in our power and should, if properly exercised, almost guarantee a fair crop and insure a fair profit from each acre so planted, providing the proper varieties are selected. Before coming to a close with my paper it seems to me justice is not quite done to the hazel proposition if I would not mention the beauty and pleasure thereof, the beautiful appearance of an hazel orchard and the pleasure and enjoyment it affords us, not from a financial point of view only in gathering the nuts, etc., but from other sources as well. No other orchard will in a comparatively short time appear more like a natural grove than the hazel on account of its characteristic compact growth and dense foliage, so attractive and inviting to our song and other insectivorous birds for hatching and rearing their young, the constant warbling of the different birds from early spring until late in summer, the building of their nests, the feeding of the young, all affords endless pleasure and enjoyment to the close observer. Now October is here, quietness reigns in field and forest, also in the hazel orchards birds are silent, a number of them departed for warmer climates, others ready to leave us, butterflies and other insects have disappeared, nuts have been gathered, and the leaves are falling, death, decaying and destruction seems to be dominating all around us, but our hazel orchard, though remarkably changed, still retains a certain part of its former beauty as the little catkins the staminate blossoms now become more conspicuous, an ornament to any catkin bearing tree throughout the winter, and a pleasure to look upon. There is no reason for discouragement, nature is not dead, only at rest, where we see death and destruction, nature in reality celebrates a new beginning.

The close examination of our hazel orchard at this time will fully convince us that vegetation is still alive and active. Examine the leafless limbs, notice the beautiful staminate blossoms, notice back of the falling leaves the life, the thrifty little bud, a sure and positive promise of a coming spring with the early pistillate hazel blossoms, a great consolation and a great source of pleasure and enjoyment to all. Why not combine profit, beauty and pleasure? Why not plant a hazel or filbert orchard?

MR. JONES: I would like to ask Mr. Vollertsen if he has tried layering the two years growth and rooting the one year branches thereon instead of layering the one year growth. The one year shoots would no doubt make larger plants at one year but you get a larger number of plants by layering the two years growth and rooting the branches.

MR. VOLLERTSEN: I have found that these smaller plants will be better plants.

MR. JONES: What About rooting these and then transplanting. Don't you suppose you gain by rooting those and transplanting in a year.

MR. VOLLERTSEN: If these were all apart each and every one would make a good plant. I know from experience that they will grow faster a great deal faster than these long roots. There is a plant that has been planted one year from a layer. It is a one year growth. This is a two-year.

THE SECRETARY: I would like to ask Mr. Vollertsen if the soil makes a difference in the way in which they grow. That is if a sandy soil or a clay soil is better adapted.

MR. VOLLERTSEN: Well I must say if we had sandy loam the plant would grow better and it is more easily worked. Too heavy a soil is not so good.

PROF. CLOSE: I would like to ask Mr. Vollertsen what method of grafting he prefers and just when he would like to do it; if he has any choice of time and also the method of budding and the method of treating the bud.

MR. VOLLERTSEN: We really should have the common European variety to graft on. Though these are a little small we do graft on them and they do grow well.

PROF. CLOSE: Do you whip graft or cleft graft?

MR. VOLLERTSEN: Either way they grow easily.

DR. MORRIS: I would like to make one remark. I have grafted hazels using the paraffine method from April until September, every month between April and September and have had them grow. The ones I grafted in September were winter killed but up to the sixth of September we have had them pull through the winter.

THE PRESIDENT: I do not desire to be placed in the bragging class but as a Michigander several things have been brought to my notice very recently that cause me to take pride in Michigan. As I landed in the fine central station in Washington it occurred to me that a senator from Michigan, James McMillan, had caused the old railroad stations in the District of Columbia to be cleaned out and the fine new depot established in place of them. For his good work one of Washington's parks bears his name. The plans for the new Union Station were prepared by Mr. Spencer, an engineer from Michigan. Passing the Senate Office building I realized that another Michigan Senator, Senator Charles E. Townsend, was at the head of the national road movement in the United States, being chairman of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, fully in accord with the tree planting plan that we have mapped out to be carried on on the public highways throughout the United States. Picking up the program showing what our work might be at this convention, I find five Michiganders noted thereon, a fair proportion of the program. Picking up the morning paper, if you please, you will find that Michigan has been advanced in population beyond the other states. You will find that our city of Detroit has passed a number of other great cities, going from tenth place to fourth, becoming one of the four cities of the United States with a million inhabitants. So you see we have a prosperous state. And we have good men in Michigan that have helped to make it so. Going into a railroad station in a Western city within the past two or three weeks this occurred. The morning paper had stated that the candidate of a great political party to the presidency of the United States was on a train that had been ditched, that the engineer had been severely injured and a number of others on the train; that the distinguished candidate himself had been badly jarred and might possibly have been injured. An hour or two after this first report came from this accident the news boys were calling on the streets: "Extra, extra." Naturally we thought it would be a continuation of news relative to this railroad accident and immediately I purchased a paper. What do you suppose its heading was? In great type three inches high: "Henry Ford has reduced the price of automobiles." Henry Ford perhaps is the best known Michigan citizen today and when we get the river and harbor appropriation that my good friend Dr. Morris referred to not long ago you will see the Washington steamers going up the St. Lawrence River and loading at the seaport of Detroit, carrying out the products of Michigan, we will hope the cargoes of nuts to which he referred. But next to Henry Ford I am sure that the best-known citizen of Michigan today is the next speaker upon the program. He needs no introduction to you. He is one of the pioneers of this movement and in my opinion has done more than any other man in this day and age to promote health, to promote good morals and to benefit the race in many ways along the lines that he has chosen. I take great pleasure in presenting Dr. Kellogg of Battle Creek, Michigan. (Applause).

DR. KELLOGG: Mr. President, Ladies and gentlemen, I fear I cannot qualify in all of the good things which your chairman has said about me. I am glad to be from Michigan. I assure you I am greatly interested in the work of this association. I admire immensely the perseverance of the members of this association. I am not to any extent a nut grower although I have nuts planted in my garden and hope that my heirs will reap the fruit of my trees. I went into the business rather too late. I have been so busy all my life that I did not have time to do some things. But I am very greatly interested in increasing the consumption of nuts. I have been popularizing the idea of nut consumption and making it a staple article of food for almost fifty years, and I have been continually faced with this objection that if we get all the people eating nuts there would not be enough nuts for them to eat. That is really the situation. There is not much use to increase the demand for a thing unless we can supply the demand. So I am very much interested in the production of nuts.

NUTS NEEDED AS SUPPLEMENTARY FOODS

DR. J. H. KELLOGG, BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN

The nut is the oldest and best of Nature's products intended as food for man. The paleontologists tell us that early man was a nut eater as are the gorilla, the orang-ou-tang, and the chimpanzee, his modern prototypes.

Elliot, an eminent English anthropologist, tells us in his interesting volume, "Prehistoric Man," that "there was not, so far as we are aware, any carnivorous creature in the Eocene period."

Elliot also tells us that walnuts, almonds and palm nuts were produced in great quantities in the forests of the ancient world contemporaneously with the lemur-monkey man, who had then made his appearance in what is now northeastern North America, the first land to rise out of the ancient ocean. From the facts set forth by Elliot showing that all the higher mammals were originally vegetable feeders, as well as from his biological affinities with the anthropoids with which man forms the family of primates, it is evident that man is so constituted that he may if he chooses, select his entire bill of fare from the vegetable kingdom. That this may be done successfully, that is, that a man may live on a diet, no part of which is drawn from the animal kingdom, has been abundantly proven. The experience of many millions of human beings in India and other Oriental countries who abstain from the use of flesh on religious grounds, and to whom cow's milk is almost a novelty, is a practical demonstration of the fact that the vegetable kingdom is able to supply to human beings everything required for complete nutrition.

It is true that some years ago Slonaker, of Leland Stanford University, in an animal feeding experiment in which one group of rats was fed a mixed diet and the other exclusively on food stuffs of vegetable origin, found that his vegetable feeding rats, although for a few weeks showing themselves superior to the mixed feeders later developed unmistakable evidence of malnutrition and physical inferiority.

Some years later, however, McCollum of Johns Hopkins, then of Wisconsin University, demonstrated conclusively that by making a proper selection of vegetable foodstuffs, rats may live and thrive indefinitely on a diet wholly derived from the vegetable kingdom. In connection with this and other similar experiments, McCollum made the interesting discovery that when an animal's bill of fare is to be wholly drawn from the products of plant life it is necessary, in order that the animal shall be fully nourished, that all parts of the plant should be eaten. His experiments demonstrated that if animals are fed upon seeds, alone they undergo physical depreciation, do not obtain full growth, are unable to reproduce or nourish their kind, and ultimately perish. In like manner, roots are found to be incapable of bringing an animal to full development and sustaining its life indefinitely. It was found that to be well nourished the animal must eat in suitable proportions, variable within considerable limits, seeds or fruits and leaves. The great importance of the green leaf as a complement of other foods has been clearly shown.

Experiments by McCollum, as well as those of Osborne, Mendel, and numerous other investigators in the same line of research, have made clear several new and highly important facts in the physiology of feeding.

They find that foods contain certain subtle elements known as vitamines which are absolutely essential to the full development and prolonged life of an animal. These elements are not found equally distributed in the parts of plants and animals. In seeds they are found chiefly in the outer layers or envelope which is commonly rejected as bran. A certain vitamine especially concerned with growth and development, the fat soluble B, is found in the green leaf along with lime and iron, all of which are deficient in seeds. Roots especially supply an abundance of alkaline salts which are highly necessary to balance up an excess of mineral acids found in seeds.

Ignorance respecting these highly important facts has been responsible for a great number of failures in attempts to adopt a non-flesh dietary. A diet consisting of cereals and fruits, as for example a bread and fruit diet, while apparently satisfactory for a brief period, must inevitably result in failure because of lack of lime, iron and special vitamines found in the green leaf. The same deficiency exists in flesh foods. The soft parts of an animal, fat and lean meat, are almost wholly lacking in lime and vitamines. They contain a great excess of mineral acids. Even a carnivorous animal fed on such a diet soon shows evidence of failure. The lime in the animal body is found almost wholly in the bones, and the vitamines are concentrated in the liver and other glands, so that in the case of flesh foods, as well as vegetable foods, for complete nutrition it is necessary that the whole animal or its essential parts should be eaten. Wild carnivorous animals do this as do also wild men who live largely upon flesh foods. The cave men crushed and ate the bones of the animals upon which they fed, and the Indian tribes of Texas and the Northwest have long practiced the grinding up of the bones of fishes to eat with their food.

Dr. Treves, one of London's most eminent surgeons was called upon by the head keeper of the animals of the London Zoological garden for advice respecting the condition of the lions. It was noted that the cubs bred in captivity were club-footed and variously deformed, and in many cases were either born dead or survived but a few weeks. His investigation showed that the fault was wholly in the diet. The lions received only the soft parts, lean and fat, of animals. When given bones and bone meal the difficulty speedily disappeared. Stefansson reports that, when living upon an Eskimo diet it is necessary to take the whole bill of fare, including the raw frozen liver of the seal, otherwise serious illness intervenes.

Hindhede, by arranging a dietary based upon these principles, has demonstrated that a man may be perfectly sustained on a diet which contains no animal product of any sort. In a letter received by the writer from this able Danish physiologist, the statement is made that a strong laboring man was maintained for 23 months in perfect health and vigor on a diet into which no animal products entered.

Another important fact developed by Rubner, Mendel, McCollum and other investigators which is of fundamental importance in animal nutrition, is that proteins differ in their value as tissue builders. Proteins differ from the starches and fats in the great complexity of their composition. Instead of being simple compounds or mixtures of a few simple compounds, proteins, as found in nature, consist of several sorts of highly complex molecules which vary greatly in their composition.

The protein molecule is made up of a number of organic units known as amino acids. There are 30 or 40 different kinds of amino acids of which less than 20 enter into the formation of the proteins of the human body. These 18 or 20 different amino acids are absolutely essential for the formation of body proteins, and are produced by plants, hence if they are not found in the food the body cannot produce them and the material necessary for tissue building or repair will be lacking.

Proteins which contain all the amino acids essential for tissue building are known as complete proteins. Other proteins, lacking in certain essential constituents, are designated as incomplete: Flesh foods necessarily furnish complete proteins. The proteins of milk and eggs are also complete proteins. The proteins met in the vegetable world are exceedingly varied in character. Each species of plant produces its own kind of proteins. Vegetable proteins differ greatly among themselves. Complete proteins are comparatively rare. The proteins of cereals, for example, have been shown to be deficient in some of the essential amino acids. The deficiency is still greater in the proteins of beans. In fact, the proteins of vegetable foods in general may be said to be deficient.

The necessity for providing the body with complete proteins was doubtless the original cause which led men under circumstances of privation and emergency to resort to the use of animal flesh for food. The cows of Nantucket, the ponies of Alaska, and I have recently been informed by Mr. Goddard, curator of anthropology in the American Museum of Natural History, the rabbits of northern Canada, in times of great scarcity of food, also resort to the eating of flesh. The necessity for complete protein to maintain physical fitness is so great that animals by nature the farthest removed from the carnivorous class resort to flesh eating when this is the only source of the needed element.

But what bearing has all this upon the dietetic use of nuts? The relation is very direct and very important. The situation developed as a result of the World War made very clear to everybody how close the world has arrived to the point where the careful economizing of our food resources will be absolutely necessary. The rapid increase of the world's population which has occurred, especially within the last two centuries, is a hew world experience. Two hundred years ago the average length of human life was less than 20 years, as it still is in Mexico and some other parts of the world where the life-saving influence of modern sanitation and health conservation have not had an opportunity to exercise their influence. In former times great epidemics devastated whole continents so frequently that the world's population barely held its own from century to century. In many instances whole tribes were wiped out. Such catastrophes are now almost unknown, although we still have with us the plagues of influenza, tuberculosis, syphilis, and pneumonia. Even these, however, are being conquered, so that their destructive influence is being stayed.

At the present rate at which the population of the world is increasing, the time is certainly not far distant when it will be necessary to utilize in the most economical manner possible every acre of soil capable of producing food. During the war the attention of agriculturists was very forcibly called to the enormous waste involved in our so-called animal industry. The first measure of food economy adopted in Germany at the beginning of the war was the slaughter of a large part of livestock. The same measure was adopted in Scandinavian countries and in all parts of central Europe. This was absolutely necessary, as Lusk and numerous other authorities have shown, for the reason that to produce one pound of water-free food in the form of beef or mutton requires the consumption more than 30 pounds of digestible food material. The cow is a much more economical means of food transformation, requiring the consumption of only a little more than 5 pounds of food for each pound produced, so that the waste of food in the production of milk is less than one-fifth as much as in the production of meat. This has led the food economists to recommend the reduced use of meat and the increased use of milk as a source of the complete protein required for sound nutrition. McCollum and other authorities, including representatives of the United States Department of Agriculture, have within the last four years persistently urged upon the public the importance of using more milk and less meat, and not simply as a matter of economy but as a matter of health as well, for it has been shown that the protein of milk is even superior to that of meat. It was found, indeed, that by the use of a few ounces of milk daily, a pint and a half, in connection with a dietary otherwise consisting wholly of foods derived from the vegetable kingdom, the body will be amply supplied with complete proteins, the milk not only furnishing protein of a superior character but serving also to supplement the proteins of the cereals, roots and other vegetable foods, supplying the amino-acids which they lack so as to render them also available for tissue growth and reconstruction.

This discovery respecting the important place which milk is capable of filling in the solution of the great and pressing problem of human nutrition is a highly important one, and its value has led to very active efforts on the part of the U. S. Department of Agriculture to enlarge the dairy interests and increase the milk production of the country as one of the best means of food economy which could be adopted. But even this is not a complete solution of the difficulty, for the keeping of milch cattle involves still a very large waste of food material, five pounds being consumed by the cow for each pound produced. The evident reason for this is the fact that the cow requires the large part of the foods she eats for her own use in maintaining heat production, supplying energy for exercise, supporting the work of the heart, lungs, digestive organs, etc. The food value of the milk produced represents simply what is left over after the cow has made use of what she needs for herself.

There can be no doubt that as meat production diminishes, as it is certain to do, milk production will likewise decrease. There is even at the present time a notable shortage of dairy products, and the average per capita production will undoubtedly continue to decrease for the same causes which inevitably lead to a lessened meat production. Some other source for the complete proteins needed to supplement the incomplete proteins of cereals and roots must be provided. Fortunately, Nature has supplied us with this all-essential foodstuff in that choicest of all our products, the nut. This is a vitally important fact which sometime will save the race from protein starvation.

A study of the relative protein content of nuts, milk, and meat shows that, pound for pound, the almond, beech nut and walnut contain on an average as much protein as does meat and five times as much as is found in milk, and protein which from rat feeding experiments appears to be of equal value. The chestnut, the chinquapin, the filbert, the hickory, pecan and pine nut contain on an average as much protein as is found in fish, while the butternut, the peanut and the pignolia contain twice as much or 50 per cent more than is found in the best of meat.

The following table shows the number of pints of milk equaled by one pound each of the several nuts mentioned, together with the calory value of the nuts per pound and of the amount of milk containing an equivalent amount of protein and the amount of each kind of nuts needed to supply supplementary proteins for one day:

Pints of Milk
containing as Calories Calories Amt. needed
much protein Milk Nuts for one day
as one pound

Acorn 2.4 780 2620 8.3
Almond 6.1 2080 3030 3.2
Beech nut 6.6 2145 3075 3.0
Butternut 8.5 2762 3165 2.4
Chestnut 3.2 1040 1876 6.4
Chinquapin 3.8 1072 1800 6.4
Filbert or Hazelnut 5.0 1625 3290 4.0
Hickory nut 4.6 1495 3345 4.8
Pecan 3.6 1170 3455 5.6
Peanut 9.2 2090 2600 2.2
Pinon 4.4 1430 3205 4.8
English walnut 5.4 1555 3300 3.7
Black walnut 8.5 2762 3105 2.4

From animal feeding experiments it has been determined that about 20 oz. of milk will furnish sufficient complete protein to supplement a vegetable diet otherwise deficient in complete proteins. This amount of milk will supply one-third to one-half the total daily protein requirement for the average person. Nuts are so rich in these precious proteins, practically identical with those of milk, that the protein found in 20 ounces of milk may be furnished by 2 ounces of peanuts, 2-1/2 ounces of butternuts, 3 ounces of almonds or beechnuts, 4 ounces of English walnuts, or filberts, 5 ounces of pinenuts (pinons) or hickory nuts, 5-1/2 ounces of pecans, 6-1/2 ounces of chestnuts or chinquapins, or half a pound of acorns.

The nut is one of the most important and interesting of all foodstuffs for the reason that it presents in concentrated form the most valuable and easily digestible of proteins. It is for this reason that the farmers of Northern Italy are able to thrive on a diet of which the chestnut is the staple. For the same reason 300,000 Pacific Coast Indians prospered for centuries on a diet consisting chiefly of acorns and pinenuts. In recent times, one of these Indians was known to be living at the age of nearly 140 years, and the farmers of the West and South before they had destroyed with axe and fire the splendid oak forests of pioneer days, depended chiefly on mast to fatten their hogs. The acorn was their chief source of protein, which is as necessary for a hog as for a college professor.

From the standpoint of cost, nuts, even at the present extraordinary prices, compare favorably with milk as a source of protein, because of the small quantity required to furnish the needed supplement of complete proteins. For example, shelled almonds, at a cost of $1.00 a pound (retail) supply for 19.2 cents the same amount of supplementary protein furnished by milk at a cost of 24 cents. Black walnuts supply the same amount for 15 cents, pine nuts (pinons) for 20 cents, hickory nuts 15 cents, and peanuts 4 cents.

The late Dr. Austin Flint more than fifty years ago prepared from almonds a milk for use by certain classes of patients. The writer, about thirty years ago, prepared from the peanut and other nuts a preparation known as malted nuts which much resembles malted milk in appearance and flavor, and which has been successfully used in place of milk by persons sensitized to cow's milk in hundreds of cases.

The preparation of milk substitutes from vegetable sources is not a new idea. When in Russia a few years ago, I found on sale in delicatessen shops a paste prepared from honey and almonds which with the addition of water made a very palatable emulsion much resembling milk in appearance as well as in flavor. I have been informed that the natives of the Philippines prepare from the litchi nut a vegetable milk for feeding infants deprived of their natural nourishment. These natural products have the advantage over the infant foods of commerce most of which are better fitted to destroy than to preserve life. They are complete foods, supplying the essential vitamines as well as other necessary elements.

The nut is not only the most concentrated form of nourishment known, but, contrary to the general view, is one of the most easily digestible. The supposed indigestibility of the nut is due to two things, eating when already satiated with food; that is, taking the nut as a surplus food, and second, neglecting to masticate the nuts thoroughly. Watch a monkey eating nuts and see how thoroughly he masticates each particle. Any particle not well crushed and emulsified is passed through the intestinal canal undigested and of course unabsorbed. But when crushed and converted into a smooth cream, the nut is one of the most easily digestible of all foods. Most nuts consist almost exclusively of two food principles, proteins and fats. The protein is one of the finest sort and more easily digestible in the raw state than is cooked protein of any kind. The fat is finely emulsified, and thus prepared for prompt digestion and absorption.

Experiments on human subjects conducted at the Battle Creek Sanitarius by an expert from the laboratory of Yale University, showed that the proteins of nuts are as easily digested and as fully utilized as the proteins of other foodstuffs.

The peanut produces an average crop of at least 40 bushels, or 900 pounds of shelled nuts to the acre, equivalent to 8,280 pounds of cow's milk, to produce which would require 4.6 acres. A grove of black walnuts, 40 trees to the acre, producing one hundred pounds of nuts to the tree, or one thousand to the acre, would afford as much protein as 8,500 pounds of milk, to produce which would require 5.3 acres. It is to be noted, also, that one pound of peanuts has a nutritive value nearly one-third greater than that of the 9.2 pints of milk containing an equivalent amount of protein, while the calory content of the one pound of nuts is more than ten per cent greater than that of the milk furnishing the same amount of protein. In the case of many nuts the disproportion is greater. For example, one pound of filberts has a food value double that of an amount of milk containing the same amount of protein.

The nut is evidently superior to milk as a source of protein. Like milk, nuts are rich in lime, doubtless due to the high protein content with which the lime is associated in vegetable products. Nuts, like milk, are deficient in iron, although in this respect they are considerably superior to milk. Hence when nuts are freely used as a source of protein care should be taken to supplement them by a liberal quantity of greens, which are rich in iron and lime as well as in the fat soluble vitamine which is also found in abundance in milk but in which nuts are rather deficient.

It thus appears that nuts, because of the superior quality of their protein, may not only take the place of meat in the dietary, but when properly combined with other vegetable foods, may to a large extent, at least, take the place of milk. In this respect they constitute a unique class of foodstuffs.

The soy bean, which like the peanut is a legume rather than a true nut, resembles the peanut in composition and like it affords a protein of a quality so closely resembling that of milk that a very excellent milk has been prepared from it. Its protein is also complete in character and may replace the protein of meat. The soy bean has, in fact, for many thousands of years been the chief source of complete proteins for the Chinese and the Japanese.

Aside from the soy bean and the peanut, nuts have no rivals in the vegetable kingdom. They are real plant aristocrats, the value of which will be more and more appreciated as scientific research and practical dietetic experience make clear their numerous points of superiority.

The meat industry and the milk supply are so closely related that both are influenced by the same causes. Both meat and milk are certain to become scarcer and more costly. And while it is most desirable that milk should continue to constitute a part of the human bill of fare and that its use should be encouraged and if possible increased, it is certain vegetable substitutes for both meat and milk will be increasingly in demand as pasture lands shrink in area and the world's population and consequent demand for food cereals increase.

It is certainly greatly to be desired that such efforts should be put forward to convince members of congress and of state legislatures of the importance of nut culture as will induce them to institute efficient measures for encouraging the wide spread culture of nut trees and thus make provision in time for the pressing need of the superfine material afforded by them which coming years will certainly develop, for it cannot be doubted that as the earth's population increases and as the science of nutrition is perfected, we shall return more and more to the dietary of primitive man, in which nuts were the chief staple, with fruits, succulent roots and tender shoots as supplementary foods for bulk, vitamines and food salts.

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THE SECRETARY-TREASURER: I have been asked to prepare a paper on the "Propagated Hickories." I have passed around a printed slip giving the results of tests of some hickory nuts which will be useful in connection with the paper.

PROPAGATED HICKORIES

WILLARD G. BIXBY, BALDWIN, NASSAU CO., N, Y.

The title of this paper is a little misleading. In the nut contests the word "propagated" is restricted to those nuts which any nurseryman lists in his catalog and of which he is prepared to furnish grafted, budded or otherwise asexually multiplied trees. There are few hickories which are "propagated" in this sense and perhaps a better title would be "What We Know About the Hickories That Are Propagated Experimentally."

In a paper which Dr. Morris is to deliver he will tell us about top working hickory trees. This is a matter of great interest for top working existing trees is the method which at the present time promises to be the means of getting our first orchards of fine hickories in bearing condition.

The earliest instance of which we know anything of grafted hickories is that of the Elliot hickory owned by the late Whitney Eliot, of North Haven, Conn. This was awarded a prize offered by the late A. J. Coe of. Meriden Conn., for the best hickory nut exhibited at the December meeting of the Connecticut Agricultural Society in 1892. According to the Bulletin of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture on "Nut Culture in the U. S.," 1896, this was the product of a grafted tree. I have never seen a specimen of the nut although I understand that the tree is still standing. I have been unable to get any definite information as to when the grafting was done, methods used, etc.