Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |DISCLAIMER | | | |The articles published in the Annual Reports of the Northern Nut Growers| |Association are the findings and thoughts solely of the authors and are | |not to be construed as an endorsement by the Northern Nut Growers | |Association, its board of directors, or its members. No endorsement is | |intended for products mentioned, nor is criticism meant for products not| |mentioned. The laws and recommendations for pesticide application may | |have changed since the articles were written. It is always the pesticide| |applicator's responsibility, by law, to read and follow all current | |label directions for the specific pesticide being used. The discussion | |of specific nut tree cultivars and of specific techniques to grow nut | |trees that might have been successful in one area and at a particular | |time is not a guarantee that similar results will occur elsewhere. | | | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+

NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION

REPORT

OF THE PROCEEDINGS AT THE

TENTH ANNUAL MEETING

BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN

DECEMBER 9 AND 10, 1919

CONTENTS
Page

Officers and Committees of the Association 4

Members of the Association 5

Constitution and By-Laws 9

Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Convention 11

President's Address, Mr W. C. Reed, Indiana 11

Report of the Secretary-Treasurer 14

Business Sessions 15, 133

The Farms by the Side of the Road,
Matthew Henry Hoover, New York 23

Native Nut Tree Plantations in Michigan,
Prof. A. K. Chittenden, Michigan 33

Pecans Other Than Those of the Well Known Sections,
J. F. Jones, Pennsylvania 44

Hazel Nuts and Filberts,
Conrad Vollertsen, New York 53

Disease Resistance in the American Chestnut,
Arthur H. Graves, Connecticut 60

Notes on the Hickories,
Dr. Robert T. Morris, New York 68

The Nutritive Value of Nuts,
F. A. Cajorie, Connecticut 80

Nut Trees and Bushes in Landscape Work,
O. C. Simonds, Illinois 88

Nut Culture in Michigan,
C. A. Reed, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 98

Nut Trees for Highways and Public Places,
Hon. William S. Linton, Michigan 108

Legislation Regarding the Planting of Nut and Other Food
Producing Trees, Senator Harvey A. Penney, Michigan 112

Michigan Law Regarding Roadside Planting of Nut Trees 116

The Soy Bean, Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Michigan 118

Judging Nuts, Willard G. Bixby, New York 122

The 1919 Nut Contest, Willard G. Bixby, New York 146

OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION

_President_ W. S. LINTON Saginaw, Michigan

_Vice-President_ JAMES S. MCGLENNON Rochester, New York

_Secretary and Treasurer_ WILLARD G. BIXBY Baldwin, Nassau Co.,
New York

_Acting Secretary_ W. C. DEMING Wilton, Connecticut

COMMITTEES

_Auditing_--C. P. CLOSE, C. A. REED

_Executive_--J. RUSSELL SMITH, W. C. REED AND THE OFFICERS

_Federal Aid_--J. M. PATTERSON, R. T. MORRIS, J. H. KELLOGG, T. P.
LITTLEPAGE, WILLARD G. BIXBY, J. F. JONES, J. S. MCGLENNON

_Finance_--T. P. LITTLEPAGE, WILLARD G. BIXBY, W. C. DEMING

_Hybrids_--R. T. MORRIS, C. P. CLOSE, W. C. DEMING, J. G. RUSH

Membership--HARRY R. WEBER, R. T. OLCOTT, F. N. FAGAN. W. O.
POTTER, W. C. DEMING, J. RUSSELL SMITH

_Nomenclature_--C. A. REED, R. T. MORRIS, J. F. JONES

_Press and Publication_--RALPH T. OLCOTT, J. RUSSELL SMITH, W. C.
DEMING

_Programme_--W. C. DEMING, J. RUSSELL SMITH, C. A. REED, R. T.
MORRIS

_Promising Seedlings_--C. A. REED, J. F. JONES

STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS

California T. C. Tucker 311 California St., San Francisco

Canada G. H. Corsan 17 Rusholme Park Crescent, Toronto

Connecticut Henry Leroy Lewis Stratford

Georgia J. B. Wight Cairo

Illinois E. A. Riehl Godfrey

Indiana M. P. Reed Vincennes

Maryland C. P. Close College Park

Massachusetts James H. Bowditch 903 Tremont Building, Boston

Michigan Dr. J. H. Kellogg Battle Creek

Missouri P. C. Stark Louisiana

New Jersey C. S. Ridgway Lumberton

New York M. E. Wile 37 Calumet St., Rochester

Ohio Harry R. Weber 601 Gerke Building, Cincinnati

Pennsylvania J. G. Rush West Willow

Texas R. S. Trumbull M. S. R. R. Co., El Paso

West Virginia B. F. Hartzell Shepherdstown

MEMBERS OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION

ARKANSAS

* Drake, Prof. N. F., University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

CALIFORNIA

Cress, B. E., Tehachapi

Tucker, T. C, Manager California Almond Growers Exchange, 311
California St., San Francisco

CANADA

Corsan, G. H., 17 Rusholme Park Crescent, Toronto
Sager, Dr. D. S., Brantford

CONNECTICUT

Barrows, Paul M., May Apple Farm, High Ridge, Stamford
Bartlett, Francis A., Stamford
Deming, Dr. W. C, Wilton
Filley, W. O., State Forester, Drawer 1, New Haven
Glover, James L., Shelton, R. F. D. 7
Hungerford, Newman, Torrington, R. F. D. 2, Box 76
Ives, Ernest M., Sterling Orchards, Meriden
Lewis, Henry Leroy, Stratford
McGlashan, Archibald, Kent
* Morris, Dr. Robert T., Cos Cob, Route 28, Box 95
Pomeroy, Eleazer, 120 Bloomfield Ave., Windsor
Sessions, Albert L., 25 Bellevue Ave., Bristol
Southworth, George E., Milford, Box 172
Staunton, Gray, 98 Park St., New Haven
White, Gerrard, North Granby

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Close, Prof. C. P., Pomologist, Department of Agriculture, Washington
Foster, B. G., 902 G Street, N. W. Washington
* Littlepage, T. P., Union Trust Building, Washington
Reed, C. A., Nut Culturist, Department of Agriculture, Washington
Taylor, Dr. Lewis H., The Cecil, Washington
** Van Fleet, Walter, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington

ENGLAND

Spence, Howard, Eskdale, Knutsford, Cheshire

GEORGIA

Bullard, William P., Albany
Van Duzee, C. A., Judson Orchard Farm, Cairo
Wight, J. B., Cairo

ILLINOIS

Casper, O. H., Anna
Librarian, University of Illinois, Urbana
Poll, Carl J., 1009 Maple St., Danville
Potter, Hon. W. O., Marion
Riehl, E. A., Godfrey, Route 2
Uran, B. F., Mattoon

INDIANA

Crain, Donald J., 1313 North St., Logansport
Reed, M. P., Vincennes
Reed, W. C., Vincennes
Simpson, H. D., Vincennes
Staderman, A. L., 120 S. Seventh St., Terre Haute
Wilkinson, J. F., Rockport

IOWA

Snyder, D. C., Center Point (Linn Co. Nurseries)

KANSAS

Sharpe, James, Council Grove, (Morris Co. Nurseries)

KENTUCKY

Baker, Sam C., Beaver Dam, R. D. 2
Livengood, Frank M., Berea

MARYLAND

Hoopes, Wilmer P., Forest Hill
Keenan, Dr. John F., Brentwood
Littlepage, Miss Louise, Bowie

MASSACHUSETTS

* Bowditch, James H., 903 Tremont Building, Boston
Cleaver, C. Leroy, 496 Commonwealth Ave., Boston

MICHIGAN

House, George W., Ford Building, Detroit
Kellogg, Dr. J. H., 202 Manchester St., Battle Creek
Linton, W. S., President Board of Trade Saginaw
McKale, H. B., Lansing, Route 6
Schram, Mrs. O. E., Galesburg, Box 662

MISSOURI

Mosnat, H. R., 3883 East 62 St., Kansas City
Stark, P. C., Louisiana
Ward, Miss Daisy, 2019 Allen Ave., St. Louis

NEBRASKA

Caha, Wm., Wahoo

NEVADA

Swingle, C. G., Hazen

NEW JERSEY

* Jaques, Lee W., 74 Waverly St., Jersey City Heights
Landmann, Miss M. V., Cranbury, R. D. 2
Marston, Edwin S., Florham Park, Box 72
Price, John R., 36 Ridgedale Ave., Madison
Ridgeway, C. S., Floralia, Lumberton

NEW YORK

Abbott, Frederick B., 419 Ninth Street, Brooklyn
Ashworth, Fred L., Heuvelton
Atwater, C. G., The Barrett Co., 17 Battery Place, New York City
Bixby, Willard G., 32 Grand Ave., Baldwin, Nassau Co.
Brown, Ronald J., 320 Broadway, New York City
Buist, Dr. George J., 2 Hancock St., Brooklyn
Crane, Alfred J., Monroe, Box 342
Ellwanger, Mrs. W. D., 510 East Ave., Rochester
Goeltz, Mrs. M. H., 2524 Creston Ave., New York City
Harper, G. W., Jr., 115 Broadway, New York City
Hicks, Henry, Westbury, Long Island
Hodgson, Casper W., World Book Co., Yonkers
* Huntington, A. M., 15 West 81st St., New York City
McGlennon, James S., 528 Cutler Building, Rochester
Olcott, Ralph T., Editor American Nut Journal, Ellwanger and
Barry Building, Rochester
Pomeroy, A. C., Lockport
Stephen, John W., New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse
Tallinger, J. F., Barnard
Teele, A. W., 120 Broadway, New York City
Ulman, Dr. Ira, 213 W. 147th St., New York City
Vollertsen, Conrad, 375 Gregory St., Rochester
Wile, M. E., 955 Harvard St., Rochester
Williams, Dr. Charles Mallory, 48 E. 49th St., New York City
* Wissman, Mrs. F. deR., Westchester, New York City

NORTH CAROLINA

Barrett, Dr. Harvey P., 211 Vail Ave., Charlotte
Hutchings, Miss Lida G., Pine Bluff
North Carolina Dept. of Agriculture, Raleigh
Van Lindley, J., J. Van Lindley Nursery Co., Pomona

OHIO

Burton, J. Howard, Casstown
Dayton, J. H., Storrs & Harrison Co., Painesville
Ketchum, C. S., Middlefield
Truman, G. G., Perrysville, Box 167
Weber, Harry R., 123 East 6th St., Cincinnati
Yunck, E. G., 706 Central Ave., Sandusky

OREGON

Pearcy, Knight, Salem, R. F. D. 3, Box 187

PENNSYLVANIA

Druckemiller, W. H., Sunbury
Fagan, Prof. F. N., Department of Horticulture, State College
Heffner, H., Highland Chestnut Grove, Leeper
Hile, Anthony, Curwensville National Bank, Curwensville
Jenkins, Charles Francis, Farm Journal, Philadelphia
* Jones, J. F., Lancaster, Box 527
Kaufman, M. M., Clarion
Leas, F. C., Merion Station
Murphy, P. J., Vice President L. & W. R. R. Co., Scranton
O'Neill, William C., 328 Walnut St., Philadelphia
Patterson, J. E., 77 N. Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre
* Rick, John, 438 Pennsylvania Square, Reading
Rife, Jacob A., Camp Hill
Rush, J. G., West Willow
Smedley, Samuel L., Newtown Square, R. F. D. 1
* Sober, Col. C. K., Lewisburg
Weaver, William S., McCungie
Wilhelm, Dr. Edward A., Clarion
* Wister, John C., Wister St. & Clarkson Ave., Germantown

SOUTH CAROLINA

Shanklin, Prof. A. G., Clemson College

TEXAS

Burkett, J. H., Nut Specialist, State Department of Agriculture, Clyde.
Trumbull, R. S., Agricultural Agent, El Paso & S. W., System Morenci
Southern R. R. Co., El Paso

VIRGINIA

Parish, John S., University
Smith, Dr. J. Russell, Roundhill

WEST VIRGINIA

Brooks, Fred E., French Creek
Cannaday, Dr. John Egerton, Charleston, Box 693
Hartzell, B. F., Shepherdstown
Jenkins, Miss, The Green Bottom Homestead, Glenwood P. O.

* Life member.

** Honorary member.

CONSTITUTION

ARTICLE I

_Name._ This society shall be known as the NORTHERN NUT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION.

ARTICLE II

_Object._ Its object shall be the promotion of interest in nut-bearing plants, their products and their culture.

ARTICLE III

_Membership._ Membership in the society shall be open to all persons who desire to further nut culture, without reference to place of residence or nationality, subject to the rules and regulations of the committee on membership.

ARTICLE IV

_Officers._ There shall be a president, a vice-president and a secretary-treasurer, who shall be elected by ballot at the annual meeting; and an executive committee of five persons, of which the president, two last retiring presidents, vice-president and secretary-treasurer shall be members. There shall be a state vice-president from each state, dependency, or country represented in the membership of the association, who shall be appointed by the president.

ARTICLE V

_Election of Officers._ A committee of five members shall be elected at the annual meeting for the purpose of nominating officers for the following year.

ARTICLE VI

_Meetings._--The place and time of the annual meeting shall be selected by the membership in session or, in the event of no selection being made at this time, the executive committee shall choose the place and time for the holding of the annual convention. Such other meetings as may seem desirable may be called by the president and executive committee.

ARTICLE VII

_Quorum._ Ten members of the association shall constitute a quorum, but must include a majority of the executive committee or two of the three elected officers.

ARTICLE VIII

_Amendments._ This constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the members present at any annual meeting, notice of such amendment having been read at the previous annual meeting, or a copy of the proposed amendment having been mailed by any member to each member thirty days before the date of the annual meeting.

BY-LAWS

ARTICLE I

_Committees._ The association shall appoint standing committees as follows: On membership, on finance, on programme, on press and publication, on nomenclature, on promising seedlings, on hybrids, and an auditing committee. The committee on membership may make recommendations to the association as to the discipline or expulsion of any member.

ARTICLE II

_Fees._ The fees shall be of two kinds, annual and life. The former shall be two dollars, the latter twenty dollars.

ARTICLE III

_Membership._ All annual memberships shall begin with the first day of the calendar quarter following the date of joining the association.

ARTICLE IV

_Amendments._ By-laws may be amended by a two-thirds vote of members present at any annual meeting.

Northern Nut Growers Association

TENTH ANNUAL MEETING
DECEMBER 9 AND 10, 1919
BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN

The tenth annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers' Association was called to order at 11:00 A. M., Tuesday, December 9, 1919, in the Annex Parlor of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, Battle Creek, Michigan, with the President, W. C. Reed, presiding.

The meeting was opened with a short business session beginning with the President's report as follows:

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

W. C. REED, VINCENNES, IND.

FELLOW MEMBERS, NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

Our Association meets today under the most favorable surroundings. We have this splendid building in which to hold our meetings, furnished gratuitously also have with us in this wonderful Institution several thousand guests, men and women of ability and prominence in their respective communities, from all parts of the United States.

Dr. Kellogg has been very kind and generous in extending an invitation several times to this association, and your speaker has thought there was no place quite so well suited for a winter meeting. It gives me great pleasure to be able to be with you and preside over a meeting as the guests of Dr. Kellogg. There is probably no man in America who has done so much to further the use of nuts, to show their benefits, and to explain their uses, as a food for mankind.

Conditions have changed greatly since our last meeting, September 1917, at Stamford, Connecticut. At that time the greater part of the world was at war, and owing to conditions prevailing during 1918, it was impossible for this association to hold its annual meeting. Your speaker is still holding the office of President because you have had no meeting at which new officers could be elected. It is to be regretted that the past three years have been crowded so full of events, that it was impossible to give the association matters the attention they deserved, and devote the time to them I would have liked to have done.

With the armistice came a cessation of war, and we are all happy that the terrible struggle is over, but with it have come conditions that are almost as terrible as war. Famine and want stare millions of people in the face on the continent of Europe. Our own country is at present in the grip of strikes for higher wages, the like of which has never been known. Yet we are prosperous beyond the greatest dreams of any nation on earth, but with this prosperity comes many duties. Our yields of food crops have been great, but to us has fallen the lot of feeding the world, and this will continue until industrial and agricultural conditions of Europe, have been reestablished on a pre-war condition.

There never was a time when meats of all kinds were so expensive, and to many almost prohibitive. Many have learned the use of nut meats in varied ways until all kinds of edible nuts are quoted on the markets today at prices undreamed of in former years. These conditions will not always last; crop failures will come; and production will be curtailed. Land values are advancing so rapidly that the production of cheap meats will be impossible. To help supply this deficiency, there will be an increased demand for nuts of all kinds.

To help meet this demand, much can be done by road side planting. On our main market highways, such trees as the grafted black walnuts could be planted profitably, in many sections of the country; the English walnut in some parts where they succeed the best; and the pecan and chestnut in other parts of the country where they are specially adapted.

While commercial planting of nut trees may not be attractive to the average man, home planting of a few nut trees can be recommended for every where space is available. They will make beautiful shade trees, and produce crops that will eventually be of great value. To land owners who are planting private parks, avenues and pastures, we would recommend nut trees.

The production of nut trees is very difficult, and the development and testing of new varieties, a slow and expensive process. We need the Government's helping hand, and are very glad that there has been set aside by Congress an appropriation to help develop this industry. We have with us, the Nut Culturist from the Department of Agriculture, who is devoting his entire time along these lines.

On the programme that is to be presented here, today and tomorrow, are men of national reputation in their respective lines, who stand at the head of their profession. To our friends and visitors here, we extend an urgent invitation, that you attend all the meetings possible, and we trust that you may learn much that will be of interest, and that this information may be taken home to your different communities.

Our sincere thanks should be extended to the Programme Committee and our very efficient Secretary who have given so much time to this work.

For an association to stand still, is usually to go backward. Owing to war conditions, and missing one meeting, we have had little chance to increase our membership. I sincerely trust that the Membership Committee will be active while here, and extend an invitation to all to become members, and to help advance an industry that will be for the good of posterity, and should give us much pleasure during our own lifetime.

We are told, the good we do unto others lives after us. May the Nut Trees planted and fostered by the members of this association, live long to wave their leafy branches under Heaven's purple dome, and may weary pilgrims of future generations rest beneath their shade, and enjoy their fruits, thanking us with a silent prayer that these trees were planted for their benefit.

PRESIDENT REED: I believe the next thing in order will be the reading of the secretary's and treasurer's reports. Does any one have anything to present while we are waiting for the secretary, who is busy?

DR. MORRIS: How many members have we, Mr. President?

PRESIDENT REED: I don't know. Several have written me asking about members, and Mr. Olcott probably knows something about it.

MR. OLCOTT: I don't know how many there are now; but I think there were 150 or 200 at the time of the Stamford meeting. I think there were that many enrolled. I presume that two-thirds of those renewed--probably something over 100 members.

PRESIDENT REED: There were 138 paid members.

DR. MORRIS: Dr. Kellogg says there may be a thousand men in the audience this evening, and if there are we ought to do some propaganda work.

PRESIDENT REED: I don't remember who the membership committee was. Mr. Weber was chairman, I believe, and he is not here. Olcott is next on the committee.

MR. OLCOTT: I didn't know I was on that committee.

PRESIDENT REED: Fagan was on that committee, Potter, Deming, Williams, J. Russell Smith. I guess you are the only member of the committee who is here. We are ready for the report of the secretary and treasurer, Mr. Bixby.

* * * * *

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-TREASURER
SEPT. 1, 1917-NOV. 30, 1919

Key: A: Sep. 1. '17 to Dec. 31, '17 B: Jan. 1, '18 to May 20, '18 C: May 21, '18 to Dec. 31, '18 D: Jan. 1, '19 to Nov. 30, '19

RECEIPTS

A B C D Total Balance

Balance on hand date of
last report, August 31,
1917. $ 15.93
Received from annual
members including joint
subscriptions to
American Nut Journal $69.50 $123.54 $ 73.75 $247.35 $514.14
Received in payment of
life membership 20.00 25.00 45.00
Sale of reports, brochures
and leaflets 2.25 4.00 9.95 4.85 21.05
Advertising in report of
Stamford meetings 8th,
1917 21.00 21.00
Sales of sundry material. 1.58 1.58
Contributions for 1917
Contest 25.00 125.00 150.00
Contribution for special
hickory prizes 25.00 25.00
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
$112.75 $145.12 $108.70 $427.20 $793.77 $793.77
-------
$809.70

EXPENDITURES

American Nut Journal,
their portion of joint
subscriptions $ 6.75 $ 14.00 $ 59.00 $ 79.75
Stationary, printing and
Supplies .69 44.05 49.50 94.24
Postage, Express, etc. 4.82 13.95 9.66 9.24 37.67
Prizes 1917 Nut Contest 15.00 15.00
Prize 1918 Nut Contest 107.00 107.00
Advertising 1917 Nut
Contest $10.21; expenses
1917 contest $2.90 13.11 13.11
Advertising 1918 Nut
Contest 51.50 51.50
Stamford Meeting 1917
expenses 65.55 65.55
Printing Report of
Stamford Meeting 162.00 162.00
Errors in remittance
corrected 3.85 3.50 7.35
Litchfield Savings Bank.
Life membership of John
Rick Balance on hand
Dec. 1, 1919. 20.00 20.00
------ ------ ------- ------- ------- -------
$97.81 $30.91 $244.71 $279.74 $653.17
$653.17

Balance on hand Dec. 1, 1919.
Special hickory prize 25.00
Life membership Lee W.
Jaques 25.00
For regular expenses. 106.53

-------
$809.70

I have carefully been over the above statement and found it to be correct. C. A. REED, for Auditing Committee.

The above are records of receipts and expenditures for two years
and three months and are approximately double those noted in the
report of of the Stamford meeting. The activities of the
Association were necessarily at a low ebb in war time, and,
although a joint meeting with the National Association was planned
for the fall of 1918, it was never held.

The list of members printed in this report numbers 128 while that
in the last one shows 166, apparently a very large decrease. The
last report showed 138 paid up members. Following the methods of
Secretary Deming, members who have not responded to notices and
letters have been dropped. In no case has a member been dropped
until a letter with return postage has been sent. In a number of
instances members thus written to have resigned giving various
reasons, the most common of which are change of occupation or
residence, which prevented their doing anything in the line of nut
growing or lack of success in their attempts to grow nuts. Two
members have died since the last meeting, Mr. Wendell P. Williams
and Mr. Mahlon Hutchinson; the former was in the U. S. Service at
the time of his death. 57 new members have been added to our rolls
since 1917 making a total of 410 joining since organization of whom
we now have 128, 282 having dropped out. Of the 52 who have joined
since last meeting, 21 joined before Oct. 1, 1919 the date of the
proposed meeting in Albany, Ga., which was never held, and 31 since
that date.

The holding of members is a difficult problem and one that has not
been worked out at all satisfactorily. Most members join in the
hope of thereby learning how to successfully grow nut trees. They
find out that so much is still experimental that most do not
remain. This is bound to continue till we can show grafted or
budded nut trees bearing satisfactory crops, and, until that time,
there seems nothing to do but to keep on going after new members
and by means of bulletins, reports, letters and otherwise making
the membership more valuable than ever. There has been a greater
interest in nut growing during the past fall than at any time since
your Secretary-Treasurer has held office.

Respectfully submitted,

WILLARD G. BIXBY,
Secretary-Treasurer.

* * * * *

PRESIDENT REED: You have heard the report. What is your pleasure? I believe that is usually referred to an auditing committee. C. A. Reed was chairman of that committee.

MR. BIXBY: Mr. Reed spoke to me about this yesterday. He said he would be glad to audit it, but there has not been time to give it to him. It was ready for him this morning, but he was busy on other things.

PRESIDENT REED: What is the next thing on the program, Mr. Secretary?

MR. BIXBY: The reports of committees. I do not know how much report the standing committees have.

PRESIDENT REED: There is the executive committee, the finance committee, the hybrids committee--maybe Dr. Morris has something on that.

DR. MORRIS: No, I have no report to make on that. I shall talk on the subject this afternoon or in the course of my paper incidentally. I didn't see any occasion for action in that direction since the last meeting, so I have not acted except incidentally in the course of my work.

PRESIDENT REED: The committee on nomenclature--of course they wouldn't have any report until after this meeting.

MR. BIXBY: Who is on that committee?--C. A. Reed, Dr. Morris, and J. F. Jones. Two members of the committee are here. There is one matter which perhaps I better bring up to the committee first,--one matter I think they should take some action on.

PRESIDENT REED: I think it would be best to have that come up at a later time.

DR. MORRIS: I would like to bring in something incidentally in relation to nomenclature in my paper. Perhaps we could have the question discussed after I have brought up that point.

PRESIDENT REED: There is a committee on promising seedlings C. A. Reed, and J. F. Jones. I think that covers all the standing committees. Wasn't there a committee on nominations for officers to be elected, this morning?

MR. BIXBY: That nominating committee has to be elected.

PRESIDENT REED: How many members?

MR. BIXBY: There were four or five last time, I think.

PRESIDENT REED: (Reading by-laws calling for five members).

MR. BIXBY: I move Mr. Olcott be on the committee.

VOICE: I second the motion.

PRESIDENT REED: It has been moved and seconded that Mr. Olcott be elected as a member of the nominating committee. All in favor say, Aye. It is so ordered. Who else shall we have, for a second member?

MR. LINTON: I move Mr. Bixby be a member of the committee.

MR. BIXBY: There is a precedent that the secretary has never been a member of the nominating committee. He has sometimes given them information. I move Dr. Morris, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Linton be members of the nominating committee, and Mr. McGlennon.

MR. MCGLENNON: I second the motion.

MR. OLCOTT: The committee as you suggested it is Dr. Morris, Mr. J. F. Jones, Mr. Linton, Mr. McGlennon and myself?

PRESIDENT REED: You have heard the motion. All in favor say Aye. The committee stands elected as named. They report at tomorrow morning's meeting. I think there is one matter it would be well to bring up, and that is the membership committee.

MR. OLCOTT: I was going to suggest that is an important matter, and I think that committee should be filled out with those who are present, inasmuch as the regular members are not here. It looks as though a comparatively small membership would have to double up on membership committee.

PRESIDENT REED: Have you any suggestions as to whom you want on that committee?

MR. BIXBY: Those committees, with the exception of the nominating committee, are appointed by the president. I think myself that the new president appoints them.

PRESIDENT REED: My idea was to appoint for this meeting and help Mr. Olcott out.

MR. OLCOTT: I suggest Mr. McGlennon and Mr. Jones as two of the members.

PRESIDENT REED: Let it stand as it is with the three and give the chairman power to appoint two more later.

MR. MCGLENNON: Can the secretary tell us how many members there are?

MR. BIXBY: One hundred sixty-four notices of this meeting were sent out. There are 128 paid up members.

MR. OLCOTT: On the matter of membership, I wonder if the association could suggest some inducement for membership, or summarize the inducements. As you know, the American Association of Nurserymen has been desirous of more members, and they found it very advisable to outline definitely the benefits of membership in that association. I am wondering if that has been done recently and could not be emphasized in some way to the advantage of larger membership. You have got to do something more than say that there is in existence an association devoted to these purposes and everybody is invited to come in. Maybe the secretary has something on that line.

MR. BIXBY: I have no suggestion. It is very evident that there is a greatly increased interest in nut growing over what there was when I first took up the office. That is very clearly brought out by the amount of mail received. You may know that Capt. Deming, when in the service, took the position of editing the nut department of the American Fruit Grower. I saw him recently and it looks to me as if, as editor of that department, he is answering about as many correspondents on nuts and trying to boost the association in that way as he did when he was secretary before. And that would appear to be in addition to the communications that are coming to me now.

MR. OLCOTT: There is interest. We get at the Journal office a great quantity of inquiries but only a small per cent of them result in memberships and subscriptions, and while this interest is so strong, ought not this association to study that which is something of a problem--perhaps something that ought to be taken up in view of the interests and the benefits of the association shown.

PRESIDENT REED: I think that is a good suggestion. I think they need something along that line. Is there anything else we want to bring up at this morning session?

MR. MCGLENNON: Is this not a very good field to open up operations along that line, right here at Battle Creek? A large number of people who come here are people who eat nuts, and I believe that condition would resolve itself into a material advance of membership. I think we ought to get busy right here and see if we can not enlist the membership of a great number of the patrons of this institution.

MR. OLCOTT: That was the principal object of the membership committee I suppose. My idea was to get the ideas of the individual members, put them together and present a broadside of benefits in this organization rather than have one man attempt to outline them.

DR. MORRIS: There is an immense amount of interest. The question is how to get it together and formulate it in such a way that men will join. There is an enormous, large loose majority, and we must have a small compact minority to swing it as the Senators do down at Washington, you know. Prof. Murrill of the New York Botanical Garden told me that wherever he went (he is interested in mushrooms, that is his special subject) he had had no idea in the world there was so much interest of the public in mushrooms; yet when it comes to getting together members to form the base of an association to study the subject, he finds very few members. It is simply because men haven't got the habit, and we have got in some way to give direction to that in such a way that it will be focused and concentrated on some one objective point. How to do it, I don't know.

MR. BIXBY: Dr. Kellogg suggested that at the meeting this evening there will be the largest number of people, not members, that there has been at any meeting; and he said he had had requests from people that they wanted to hear Dr. Morris, and they wanted to hear Prof. Cajori who used to be here, and he asked me to change those from this afternoon to this evening in order to accomplish that, and I said we would switch the program. That was for that very purpose.

MR. OLCOTT: Mr. President, it just occurred to me that in view of the number of inquiries we get, and I am sure the secretary gets, and I am also sure Dr. Deming gets from his articles, there is no doubt of the interest, yet the joining of this Northern Association, and the attendance of its single annual meeting, does not appeal to many. They do not find it convenient to attend the convention; they do not see any great amount of benefit in the membership. It occurs to me that if we had a list of state vice-presidents and each of those could provide for some local gathering of people interested in nut culture in the various communities; rather, I would say that if our members, as fast as we can increase our membership, wherever they are located, would form a nucleus of a little circle in their neighborhood, and have them affiliated with the Northern Association; it would accomplish this result. And afterward it occurred to me that perhaps that could be done through state vice-presidents. But what is really needed is to get them together in meetings. They won't come yet. They will when you get a larger membership, but they won't come to the annual meeting of this association where I think they would go to a community affair and talk over matters and refer difficult problems to the Northern Association of which they were affiliated members. In some way, a wheel within a wheel could work at it that way, and we could increase membership in that way.

DR. MORRIS: It is a rule in psychology that you have got to have personal interest first. If Mr. Olcott's idea of having a local vice-president offer prizes, no matter how small, for nuts in the vicinity, and would also state that any one finding some remarkable nut would have that nut named after him to go down to all time, you would have two points there in self-interest. First, a five dollar prize to the best nut; next the name going rattling down through time in association with it. There are two points of personal interest. We may as well take it back to the basic principles and begin with the psychology of the situation.

MR. KETCHUM: Mr. President, in regard to these vice-presidents, that point looks to me very good for this reason. I saw it work out in the Minnesota State Horticultural Society. They had a vice-president in each congressional district. I was vice-president in the third district one year myself From them reports were sent from their district by people who were interested. They were asked to fill out blanks about conditions as they found them in their neighborhood and we got great good from it. Then this vice-president was to make a general district report from the reports sent him, and hand it in at the annual meeting. It was quite a success.

DR. MORRIS: There you have civic pride brought into your psychology.

MR. KETCHUM: That was in the third district which included the northeast part of the state. It was quite a large district geographically, and I sent out something like seventy of these blank reports, and while the interest was very slight, I think I got 23 field reports in return, and out of those 23 were some nine or ten that were of some considerable importance; but it was a great big help to me in making out my report together with what I knew in my own location. The percentage of reports that came back showed that there was great interest taken by those persons.

DR. MORRIS: You can arouse local pride in any locality.

PRESIDENT REED: I have tried that in our own state in the last two or three years, at county fairs and local district horticultural meetings. Several times I have offered prizes out of my own pocket individually; then I have gotten other parties to help in some cases, and some exhibits even at county farmers' institutes, even very creditable exhibits and they seemed to attract as much interest even as the school exhibits. I know of one case at Martinsville two years ago this winter where the nut exhibit was almost as large as the fruit exhibit, and I think it attracted more attention; and I think there was only something like ten dollars spent in order to get it out. I think that work along that line, missionary work of that kind, is going to do us more good than almost any other endeavor.

MR. OLCOTT: I do not think that the industry is old enough or strong enough yet, perhaps, to operate that state vice-president plan as it would be perhaps later on, for this reason, that if you have a state vice-president, you narrow the activity in that state to that immediate locality. But it would probably be much better, instead of that, to endeavor to get each member to form the nucleus of a local circle, and so have ten or a dozen in a state, instead of one.

PRESIDENT REED: I think that suggestion is better.

MR. OLCOTT: That was my original idea, and the state vice-president idea came in afterwards.

MR. MCGLENNON: How many states are included in the northern association territory?

MR. BIXBY: There is no limit.

DR. MORRIS: Northern is a relative term.

PRESIDENT REED: I don't think there is any clearly defined line where the Northern Association is.

MR. OLCOTT: For the reason that men live in the North are interested in lands in the South, and _vice versa_.

PRESIDENT REED: There are twenty-three vice-presidents on the list here, in the last published report. Is there anything else that should come up at the morning session? Mr. Secretary, do you know of anything else?

MR. BIXBY: I would really like to see something definite on this line of increasing the membership. I can think of several things that will help; but to get something that is going to have action right away is not so clear. Recently I have had a good many people come down to my place to look at the small orchard I have there. I aim to have varieties of every nut tree that is being propagated, and I think if I keep at it a few years longer I will pretty nearly have them; and in most cases, when people have come down that way, they have become members afterwards. Two or three of them have. I am only twenty miles from New York City, and it is not difficult, if I find someone interested, to invite them down to look over the trees growing there, and usually when they come they join afterwards.

MR. OLCOTT: Pardon me for speaking again, but I am on the membership committee and I am anxious to draw out anything that may be of use. Why could not some plan be devised by the secretary or by this committee and sent out tentatively in the way of suggestion and perhaps some other suggestions will be made to add to it. Perhaps also in addition to this local community plan that I suggested, there might be formed, all of it within the Northern Association, a subsidiary thereto--the walnut society--people particularly interested in the walnut, but do not care for the hickory, pecan or any other nut. You will find people particularly interested in the black walnut, some in the Persian walnut, some in the filbert--form a filbert society as the American Nut Journal has suggested, and let all the enthusiasts of the filbert get together, and if they are scattered, let them keep together by correspondence and increased activity in that way. The same for the butternut. Get at it from that way.

MR. KETCHUM: Another thing to further our society here today, we can make those small organizations auxiliary thereto.

DR. MORRIS: Any one who is interested in one nut becomes interested in all eventually.

MR. BIXBY: I received more inquiries regarding the Persian walnut and the pecan than any other nuts--probably more regarding the Persian walnut. Nearly everybody who writes wants to grow Persian walnuts; and in the great majority of instances, I have to try to switch them onto black walnuts with the suggestion that they plant a few Persian walnuts because we have no experimental data of the Persian walnut succeeding in their section. In some instances they will turn to the black walnuts; in other instances I hear nothing further from them. The Persian walnut is the most popular with people who have not tried to grow any nuts. Mr. Jones perhaps can tell us how his inquiries run. Don't they run very largely for Persian walnuts?

MR. JONES: Yes, they do. I was thinking possibly you could make a combination--take, for instance, the membership, the nut journal, and some nut trees. The nurserymen could make considerable concession.

DR. MORRIS: That combination is right well.

MR. JONES: You could give a coupon good for so much on an order for trees or something of that sort.

MR. BIXBY: That suggestion was made and I referred it to the executive committee. I have not had any reply.

PRESIDENT REED: I didn't have time to answer the communication and get it back to you before I came here; so I thought we would decide on that here. If there is nothing further to come up this morning, a motion to adjourn will be in order until the afternoon session.

MR. BIXBY: I might repeat that at the request of Dr. Kellogg, in order to get the papers which he had been particularly requested to have given so that people could hear them, Dr. Morris and Prof. Cajori who were scheduled this afternoon, will come this evening, and Mr. Hoover's and Mr. Graves' papers, which were scheduled for this evening, will have to come this afternoon. Neither of the writers are present, but the papers are here. Mr. Graves expected to be here but I had a telegram yesterday that he could not get away. I have the paper, though and the photographs.

MR. MCGLENNON: Has there been provision made for a paper on filberts by Mr. Vollertsen? If not, I should like to have it.

MR. BIXBY: Certainly, there can be. It ought to come in this afternoon. I wrote Mr. Vollertsen asking if he could deliver it.

MR. MCGLENNON: He has the paper prepared, and I want to hear it. I have been closely associated with Mr. Vollertsen for some ten years, and I know that his whole heart and soul are in the development of the filbert; and I know what he has done and that he is a rare character in the nut world today, that he possesses a fund of information. I am sure you will find intensely interesting; and furthermore I would suggest, and I believe I speak for him when I say I hope you will feel free to ask him questions. As I said before, he has a fund of information that I think we nut people ought to have, and the general public as well. We have a very good exhibit of the nuts. Mr. Vollertsen is the practical man in the enterprise we are interested in. I look after the business end of it. We are equally interested in it and feel that we have made some progress.

DR. MORRIS: Put Mr. McGlennon on too.

MR. MCGLENNON: I have said all I can say.

MR. VOLLERTSEN: You have said too much.

PRESIDENT REED: If there is nothing else, we will stand adjourned until 2:30 p. m.

* * * * *

TUESDAY AFTERNOON, DECEMBER 9, 1919, 2:30 P. M.
PRESIDENT W. C. REED, IN THE CHAIR

PRESIDENT REED: The first paper is by Mr. Hoover, Matthew Henry Hoover, of Lockport, N. Y., president of the New York State Conservation Association. Mr. Hoover is not here, and the Secretary will read his paper.

THE FARMS BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

BY MATTHEW HENRY HOOVER, LOCKPORT, N. Y.
FORMERLY NEW YORK CONSERVATION COMMISSIONER
PRESIDENT NEW YORK STATE CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION

Horace Greeley is best known for his contribution to the abolition of human slavery in the United States. Yet his service to mankind is not fully appraised by the average American, because many of the younger generation are unaware of his aid to agriculture. His maxim about farmers' failing to till the most valuable part of their farms underneath, opening the eyes of agriculturists to the efficacy of sub-soil plowing, was the preamble to freeing American husbandry from the slavery of antiquated and unscientific methods.

Following the application of science to the cultivation of the soil, came the students of Conservation. They were teaching the farmer the relation of conservation of natural resources to agriculture, the effects of forests on rainfall, moisture, erosion of soil, minimization of floods that annually bury thousands of acres of arable lands in the valleys, under rocky debris and so on.

Greeley discovered the Farm Below. The Conservationists are saving the Farm Above.

Now, in these days of reclamation and reconstruction, it is high time to pay more attention to the Farm by the Side of the Road.

The Northern Nut Growers' Association is to be congratulated upon the fact that it is blazing the trail through the forest of popular ignorance on this vitally important conservation question; leading public thought in the right direction; and providing both the seed and the stock for practical efforts in behalf of the Farm by the Side of the Road. I am going to claim a bond of brotherhood with you in this great work, basing my claim not upon my small activities in nut cultivation, but rather upon the fact that I was one of the conservation pioneers in New York State in the advocacy of planting profitable trees--nut trees and fruit trees--along the public highways.

That eminent conservationist, Gifford Pinchot, addressing the National Council of Farmers' Co-operative Associations in 1915, defined "Conservation" as "the wise use of the earth for the benefit of the people who live on it." That would be a perfect definition, if it did not invite the query: Should it not be enjoined upon the people who live upon the earth today, while enjoying its benefits, to keep faithful stewardship of the interests of the inhabitants of tomorrow?

About the time Mr. Pinchot enunciated this famous definition, the New York State Conservation Department summed up the purposes of practical Conservation as: "The correction of past indiscretion, the perfection of present utilization, and the formation of future accumulation with respect to natural resources."

Conservation activities must repair errors of the past which have left denuded forest lands and empty game covers and waters; they must afford and direct the present use of the forests and the streams; they must safeguard the future supply, if they would meet the requirements of a conservation which shall raise the standards of life and lower the cost of living. That is a conservation embracing both the aesthetic and the economic, the only kind worth while. It is a conservation wherein the arable areas and the so-called waste lands and waters have a very intimate interrelation of interests. And, I submit, Gentlemen, that the American people too long have failed to recognize and to account as in the class of waste lands, "The Farms by the Side of the Road."

The reclamation of waste lands is a compromise between the activities of the Conservationists, who claim that in the more thickly inhabited portions of the United States the cultivated or semi-cultivated areas are out of sane and safe proportion to the wild forest sections, and the advocates of intensive and extensive agriculture. It is not the purpose of this article to take sides in that controversy, but rather to invite attention of both sides to a safe and practical field for their endeavors, namely, the reclamation of the "wasted lands" along the roadsides, the farms along the highways.

During the War Garden campaigns of the past two years, these heretofore largely unused strips of tillable land, forming in the aggregate thousands of along-the-road acres in every state, received considerable attention from the thrifty plow and hoe. But in the main, the results were not encouraging. The public will trespass, unintentionally or otherwise, upon the land cropped along the highway. Then, if the farms by the side of the road are to be conserved--used by present as well as future generations--there remains but one practical recourse: productive trees.

The American people love beautiful trees, possibly the expression of a reaction from the sentiment of the pioneers who regarded trees as their enemies, handicaps to agriculture to be removed as thoroughly and expeditiously as possible. But with virgin soil producing enormous crops, they naturally centered their interest on ornamental trees without reference to their fruits. Hence the horse-chestnut, buck-eye, maple, locust, oak, poplar, along the highways and byways of America, instead of the native nut trees and the Persian or English walnut.

And, speaking of highways, this is the age of concrete. Taking the hint, I am selecting one concrete example of which I have intimate and personal knowledge, well aware that there are numerous others that I might cite were my acquaintance with practical nut culture more extensive than it is. The one that I know about of my own personal knowledge is, a very good example of the plain common sense of productive trees which combine the useful with the ornamental.

IT READS LIKE A FAIRY TALE

In 1876 two Niagara County farmers, Norman Pomeroy and Matthew O'Connor, neighbors, decided to go to the Centennial. They packed one carpet-bag in common for their baggage and boarded the train for Philadelphia. Although well to do farmers, their economic instincts warned them to beware the profiteering hotel keepers. So they sought a humble boarding house in the suburbs of the city. Returning one evening from sight-seeing at the exposition, the travelers were so weary that they retired immediately after supper. During the night Pomeroy was awakened by a tapping on the window. Assuring himself that the wallet under his pillow was still there, he investigated the cause of the disturbance of his slumbers. The noise had ceased and he decided that the overstrain of the day had worked an hallucination. Pomeroy dropped off to sleep, but presently was aroused by sounds which were unmistakably caused by a gentle tapping on the window pane. Exasperated, the man arose, picked up a boot, slipped to the window and raised it gently ready to give the joker or would-be burglar a rousing whack on the head if within reach. He stuck his head out of the window for a better view of the exterior world, and his curiosity was rewarded with a stinging blow on the cheek. The pain aroused all the Pomeroy French Huguenot fighting blood in his veins. Viciously he swung the boot at the unseen foe, only to hear it crash through tree branches. Laughing softly, in his enlightenment, he reached out into the night, grasped a branch, broke it off and turned on the gas and lit it. On the twig were two curious nuts.

Pomeroy was a lover of nature, as I learned by many an interesting talk with him. He found time in his regular farming pursuits to study native trees and shrubs, and had forbidden his hired men to cut down any of the native nut trees on his 500 acre farm. But the nuts on the branch retrieved from darkness were specimens new to him and he could hardly wait for daylight to come to enable him to get acquainted with the tree which had invited his attention so rudely. Next morning Pomeroy learned that his new found arboreal friend was a Persian walnut. It was loaded and the wind storm of the night had covered the ground with shucked and unshucked nuts. By permission of the landlord, he gathered a peck of the Persian walnuts, wrapped O'Connor's and his own belongings in a newspaper and filled the carpet-bag with the nut treasures. Arriving home, the tourists stopped first at O'Connor's house. There they had to relate the experience of their great trip to an assemblage of the two families. The recounting of the Centennial wonders took until midnight. When Pomeroy picked up his carpet-bag to go home, it was empty! The children had made a discrete retirement after having consumed the entire peck of English walnuts, as the shells in the kitchen disclosed. Luckily for the youngsters, they were safe in bed and asleep.

The next day, according to the elder Pomeroy, little Albert who had not been at the O'Connor home the night before, heard the dolorous tale of the wonderful tree in Philadelphia, the gift of nuts and their weird disappearance. To confirm the sad story he picked up the carpet-bag, turned it inside out. Within a torn lining, he triumphantly extracted ten nuts. Child-like, he proceeded to sample them and had eaten three when his father rescued the remainder. Seven Philadelphia walnuts were planted in the yard, and, in due time there were seven slender, silver-grayish seedling trees. These were carefully staked, guarded and cultivated by Norman Pomeroy. Despite the caviling of the neighbors, who declared that a Persian walnut tree would not thrive and bear so far north, twelve years after planting the "lucky seven" reproduced their kind--from a dozen to two dozen large, handsome Persian or English walnuts. Today the seven Centennial trees are about two feet in diameter and about 60 feet high. And as to the value of the crop, one tree alone produced nuts which sold four years ago for $142.50.

Now as to the application of this romance in real life. I must return to the more prosaic generalizations of conservation and its relation to the products of cultivation with which this article began.