Now to return to the almond again. We find that for best results in production the almond must be grown in a climate where the winters are comparatively short and yet where there is sufficient cold weather to force the trees into complete dormancy. Where the winters are long or the summers are so dry as to force the trees to come dormant too early in the fall there is a great tendency to premature blossoming in the spring. In other words, the first warm weather in the late winter will bring the trees into bloom because of the fact that they have completed their normal rest period. This same condition has been found to be true of certain varieties of peaches which can be grown in the South but do not do well when planted in the North. It is for this reason primarily, in our judgment, that almonds do not produce under eastern conditions. There are other factors, such as extreme humidity, which may have a bearing, and undoubtedly would in the maturing of these nuts, but this should not prevent them bearing provided they could escape the adverse weather of late winter and early spring.

A mistaken notion has been given considerable credence that the almond is much more tender to frost or cold than the peach. Our experience, where the two have been grown side by side under identical conditions, is that the almond will stand fully as much cold as the peach and in some cases even more. The reason why almond crops are lost oftentimes when peach crops are not is due to their earlier blossoming and consequent subjection to the more severe weather of early spring which the peaches avoid.

It is evident, therefore, that the principal problem in producing almonds in regions of long winters, as compared with those localities where almonds can be produced, is to secure an almond which naturally has a long resting period, resulting in late blossoming, and yet one which will mature its fruit reasonably early. An almond tree beginning to blossom about the first of February will usually ripen its crop between the first and middle of August, though sometimes later. Those beginning to blossom about the first of March or later ripen their crops during September usually and often extend into October.

The question of soils and stocks is too broad to discuss here, except to dismiss it with the statement that the soils that will successfully produce peaches should also prove reasonably satisfactory for almonds through the use of peach rootstocks. These are commonly and successfully used in commercial almond orchards in the West.

Whether it will ever be possible to produce commercial almonds will depend upon whether an almond can be bred which will fulfill the requirements of late blossoming and early ripening and at the same time answer the requirements of a commercial nut. We should judge that it is possible, although we believe it is a big problem. Our reason for thinking so is that the Ridenhauer almond under eastern conditions will often produce nuts and it is recognized as doing quite well. We have never had an opportunity of tasting this nut but have seen photographs of the tree and have examined personally the nuts. Without any knowledge as to the actual ancestry of this nut we are very much inclined to the belief that it is a peach-almond. If this is so it opens up a line of breeding possibilities which should not be overlooked.

The procedure which should be followed will depend necessarily upon the conditions under which breeding experiments may be carried on. We believe that under eastern conditions the only opportunities for outdoor breeding work will lie along the line of interbreeding with peaches and almonds. The feasibility of indoor breeding with almonds is questionable in view of the difficulty of properly hardening for winter and yet affording protection during blossoming and providing at the same time for conditions which will favor the setting of the fruit. We do believe that there is abundant opportunity for experimentation, with the possibility that valuable results may be secured by systematic breeding along the line just mentioned.

Along with this cross breeding simple almond breeding experiments should be carried on, but these must be done in a locality where almonds can be brought to fruitage. Of course, the ideal place for this would be in California in a known almond district, and it is hoped that as time goes on experiments along this line will be conducted in an effort to secure later blossoming varieties and earlier ripening varieties. Our guess is that it would not be possible, at least within the lifetime of one man, to lengthen the normal resting period of any strain of pure bred almonds to the point where they would be able to withstand the long eastern winters and at the same time shorten the ripening period to practical limits. The development of this work, as far as it can be practically carried, should result in relatively late blossoming almonds which could then be used as a basis for breeding with peaches in an effort to still further approach the desired results and yet maintain the desirable characteristics of the almond. This simply involves the application of known breeding methods to these fruits.

To accomplish anything of this kind involves the development of a long-time plan which must be consistently followed. We would not look for any results to speak of before ten years, and would not expect any definite worthwhile results short of twenty years. It appears, however, that the possibilities are great and well worth striving for, and it is our sincere hope that some day a variety may be developed which will prove adaptable to eastern conditions.

The usual summer climatic conditions which prevail in the eastern states are not favorable to the economical production of almonds in a commercial way but we see no reason why they should not be eventually developed to the point where they may prove of considerable value and satisfaction for home orchards. The very fact that thus far no varieties of peaches have been developed which are immune year after year to spring frosts would indicate that it would probably be impossible to secure an almond which would be better than any peaches now known. On the other hand, one never knows until he tries and we believe that out of the effort much good could be accomplished, not only in the possible production of satisfactory varieties of almonds, but possibly in the accidental development of new and highly desirable peach varieties.

The possible development of a desirable table or canning peach variety with a sweet kernel would in itself be well worth the effort.

I had occasion to examine those Illinois almonds on the table here. It is quite evident that even though dried out somewhat they have some of the characteristics of the peach. The hull itself is fleshy even though thin. That is a characteristic that does not appear in the normal, pure bred almond hull.

I was just talking with Dr. Morris about some efforts he made at Stamford, Connecticut, to grow almonds. He stated to me, what was a very great surprise, that almonds there are afflicted with peach leaf curl and other diseases to which, under our weather conditions, they are not subject at all. There are undoubtedly other conditions here, due to a different climate, which we of California do not recognize at all.

I have endeavored to make this paper just as short as I could. I think that after it comes out in the proceedings there may be opportunity to study a few of the suggestions made here, and I want to express, on the part of the people in California, our desire to co-operate with those of you from the other sections of the country in every way possible for the development of varieties of almonds, or peach almonds. I can see that it will be difficult to compete with the sections in which almonds are naturally produced under semi-arid conditions. But I do believe in being close to your market if it is possible and in developing an almond which will be worth while for local consumption, especially for home use.

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THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Taylor, we thank you for the good advice and suggestions offered in your paper. I believe some attempt has been made to study the almond here in this vicinity. I know of one instance down in Forest Lawn by Mr. Baker. I believe that some years ago Mr. Wile attempted to do something in a commercial way with the almond, but I have since learned it proved a failure.

As Mrs. Ellwanger was very gracious in giving up her place I am going to call upon her now to read her paper.



OPPORTUNITIES FOR A WOMAN IN NUT CULTURE

MRS. W. D. ELLWANGER, Rochester

When at Mr. McGlennon's request I agreed to give some of my experiences in nut growing at this meeting I had no idea such a large and comprehensive title was to be given to my brief remarks.

Are not such opportunities wide and open to all? Women are now taking up so many branches of agriculture, gardening, farming, landscaping, that specializing in nuts is but one more. A real love for growing things, perseverance in face of many discouragements, and incidentally a place to grow the trees, are all that is necessary. I hope before long there will be classes in nut culture in the women's horticultural schools.

What is more delightful than to plant a tree? Planting flowers is a pleasure of the present but a tree is a link with the future.

My interest in growing Persian Walnuts in this region was started in 1912 by reading in a newspaper that these nuts could be grown in any climate suitable for peaches. Then I remembered that when a child I had picked walnuts from a tree on our lawn here in Rochester. Having a farm on the shore of Lake Ontario, part of which was a peach orchard, it seemed worth while to experiment with walnuts. Needless to say I am still experimenting!

The first trees planted were about one hundred Pomeroy seedlings and some fifty grafted trees, of the Rush variety. Dynamite was used at this time with such success that we have used it ever since. The seedlings are now quite large trees but not over half a dozen of them have borne any nuts. I early learned from growers in California that seedlings are a waste of time and money. I own a few acres of land in Southern California and of course have planted walnuts there. A few years ago I received word that the crop from my trees was being shipped to me. They arrived. There were six nuts. If I were a Californian I might say six bushels.

Three years ago the trees here bore quite a crop and no squirrel ever hoarded his winter supply with more satisfaction than I had with that first peck or so of nuts. Last year promised well, and many trees had nuts set for the first time, but owing to the intensely hot summer, or some other reason they did not mature.

There is a question as to the adaptability of Persian walnuts to this climate. The severe winter of 1917-18 with its sudden and extreme changes of temperature killed scores of my peach trees, while the established walnuts came through practically uninjured by a temperature of twenty-three below zero.

The World War did not take all the black walnuts in the country for gun stocks, for there are many fine trees still in the Genesee Valley. Every fall I am on the watch for trees bearing an abundance of large nuts which we use for parent stock.

It would be quite out of place for me to discuss the various methods of grafting before this audience all of whom know so much more about it than I do. But after many trials we have had the best results from grafting in the greenhouse. The black walnut stock is about four years old when potted, and the scions are cut in January or February and used immediately. Fifty per cent. is our average of success by this method, and some of the trees not two years old are bearing nuts.

I have tried planting pecan trees, but so far they have always been winter killed. Some Indiana trees planted this spring are growing and I am hoping they may prove hardy.

The Sober Paragon chestnuts have shown wonderful growth and bear nuts most abundantly. Each year, however, a tree or two is killed by the blight and I suppose soon my orchard will meet the fate of all the other chestnuts in the East. It seems as if someone ought to discover a remedy for this destructive pest. Tomorrow I hope to see you all at my farm where you can see what use one woman has made of her opportunities for nut culture.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: On behalf of the association I am certainly very grateful to you for your paper which contains some very valuable information.

Last week I went up to East avenue here to see the Thompson walnut grove and met Mr. Thompson and talked with him. The grove is in a very much run down condition. In fact he is thinking of using dynamite to blow it up and market the wood in Batavia for gunstocks at the gun factory there. He told us that in the thirty-six years that he has had it, he has had only three crops of nuts. One of the crops was an especially good one, I have forgotten the number of bushels he had, but he sold one hundred bushels, he said, to Sibley. Lindsay & Curr at nine dollars a bushel. If he could get a crop every year at that price I think he would be making pretty good money. I would class that orchard as a failure.

Last week, however, I had the privilege of seeing a walnut orchard that certainly surprised me greatly. I went to Lockport at the invitation of our very enthusiastic member, Mr. Pomeroy, to see the Pomeroy orchard, and I saw several trees heavily loaded with good sized nuts. Mr. Pomeroy estimates that he will have in the neighborhood of six or seven thousand pounds of nuts. The trees look healthy and show no evidence of disease. As I understand some of the trees are fifty years of age and there have been only two crop failures in that time. My idea is that the Pomeroy walnut is very hardy and of unusually fine strain. I believe that there is little hope for the commercial development of the English walnut much north of the fortieth parallel. I believe there will be some instances found, like that of the Pomeroy nut, where the seedling will do very well. It certainly has done very well with him. The Avon orchards are seedling trees, of course, the nuts having been gotten from a residence on Lake avenue, Mrs. Cramer's, at the corner of Emerson street. Evidently that strain is entirely different from the strain of nuts represented by the Pomeroy orchard which were brought from Philadelphia by Mr. Pomeroy's father.

I am going to ask Dr. Morris if he will present his paper and make his demonstration at this time.

DR. ROBERT T. MORRIS: I have had a good many experiences in grafting for a number of years. I have finally discarded most methods and have gotten down to rather simple principles. As a matter of fact this is the last word from my own point of view. During the past thirty or forty years I have changed my mind so many times on so many subjects that I have no confidence at all in anybody who puts any trust in me.

I am getting down to the splice graft. The reason why I didn't try it before was because it didn't seem reasonable to believe that the simple splice would hold. It was because I was so busy with many other responsibilities that on one occasion I neglected to brace some large splice grafts. Thus I learned that the splice graft would hold even through the very severe storms in our vicinity of Stamford, Connecticut. We have violent thunder storms and sometimes for a few minutes in advance of a storm we have a wind velocity of sixty or seventy miles an hour. If at the time the leaves happen to be wet the battering power of a seventy-mile wind is so tremendous that it will break out almost any form of graft. But my splice grafts during the past two years, simple splice grafts, subjected to this sort of storm, have not given way on a single occasion so far as I know, much to my surprise.

I will pass about some examples of the simple splice graft first and then show how we do it.

Here is a Stabler black walnut graft on common black walnut stock last year. For years I had been in the habit of cutting my scions and throwing the stubs away. I had a nice lot of hardy looking stubs in the grass and I said to myself "Why not try some of the stubs?" They made a very fine growth. I didn't lose one of them. Here is one of the big stub grafts and here is the growth it made last year. Here is another plain splice and the growth it made last year. This tree was killed by the ice in the river on my place last year. Sometimes in the spring we have great masses of ice come down that run through the orchard and kill some of my trees. That is the reason I cut off this one. I have only brought specimens that were injured but they show perfectly well. In this smaller splice you see I fitted the scion to the diameter of the stock. In the larger one I took no pains to do that. Furthermore the paraffin method was used. The scion is covered entirely with paraffin and I think you will notice, by rubbing your fingers over this stock, that the paraffin, although two years have elapsed, is all there. It is because I put it on in such a fine layer that it expanded with the growth of the scion.

Not always, but in order to make sure that my simple splice graft would hold, I have sometimes put in screws. I use flat-head, brass, wood screws, seven-eighths inch long.

I will put in some screws for you. So, if any of you fear that the simple splice grafts may not hold, put in screws and study Basil King's book on the "Conquest of Fear." This is a black walnut graft that I put in late this year with screws. You can see the screws projecting from the paraffin cover. I do not care if the screw sticks out quite a little distance. It is covered with a thin layer of paraffin. This graft caught and started to grow but was killed off by sprouts springing from the butternut in great masses before it had a chance to assert its own individuality. The graft, however, is all complete. Here is another one, where the screws are projecting, which was killed off by the stock sprouts below, with the repair all complete. In fact it would have gone on well enough to a successful growth if I hadn't been away and allowed the stock sprouts to grow. This shows, incidentally, the thin layer of paraffin. If we use a thick layer of paraffin it will crack and not be successful.

The simple splice graft is a very simple affair. In the first place it is well to have a knife with which you can shave. I think, Mr. Chairman, you could shave with that (handing knife to the President). That is the sort of edge to use in all our grafting work, the sort of edge that will bring terror to the heart of the mother of boys. I find very few people who really can sharpen a knife. I have been surprised at the small proportion of people who are really able to do it. They put on a feather edge, or they leave a round edge, or at any rate they are unable apparently to use the little finesse required to put the finishing touch on a really good knife. Above all other essentials is this little piece of carborundum made at Niagara Falls, F F Fine. Moisten it, hold it in the fingers this way, and then by simply rubbing it back and forth in this way you can put on the very finest edge. Do not use a knife unless you can shave with it because it is quite essential to have the cambium layer very nicely kept.

A couple of years ago hearing of Mr. Biederman's work in the use of the plane for grafting with his Persian walnuts, it occurred to me to try it with shagbark hickories. I went out in the barn to look for a block plane and I found three or four rusty ones. I wondered where they came from and then it occurred to me that about eight years ago I had thought to try the plane, and did try the plane, but it was not a success. That was before we had any success in grafting hickories. Now we may use the plane almost to the exclusion of the knife in cutting our scions of hard wood trees. Perhaps the majority of scions are shaped with the plane rather than with the knife because it gives a much truer surface. The block plane, then, I believe, is to be used more and more instead of the knife because of the very true surface that we make on the scion and on the stock and very quickly.

Of course with a small scion of this sort that would be about the slope that I would use for my ordinary splice. Fasten the splice together and simply wrap it with raffia. There is an ordinary splice graft fastened with raffia. That is the simple form that has given me the best results and I have tried out all the fantastic forms of grafting.

Now I am going to use the plane on a little larger scion. That is about the slope that I would use ordinarily. We will say this is to be the scion and this the stock. In order to make them fit perfectly I will use a smaller block plane. Now I will pass this about. You see with what absolute perfection those surfaces fit. You can get absolute perfection of fit by trimming a scion with a plane instead of with a knife. Even the best experts, like Mr. Jones, who make beautiful free-hand cuts, will find that with a plane they may make still better ones. That is one of the grafts that I would ordinarily fasten just with raffia, but I will fasten one together with screws to show how it is done. Now we will say that this is the stock and this is the scion. I am going to prepare them to fit each other. Some will ask if I ever use a scion as large as that. Sometimes I use a scion two or three feet long and as large as that in diameter. They are full of vitality and make wonderful growth. In order to do this I trim it down roughly with the knife to the general shape before I use the plane. I will cut as true as possible with the knife in order to simplify my work later.

MR. WEBER: In a large scion don't you have to have a larger exposed surface?

DR. MORRIS: I do not think that really counts.

MR. SMEDLEY: Isn't the tree in the ground when you graft it?

DR. MORRIS: This is supposed to be in the ground.

MR. JONES: You couldn't do a thousand of those a day?

DR. MORRIS: If you have something special, where you want to use up some big scions. But you can use the plane on little grafts just as well. Now this is the stock and Dr. Deming is going to represent Mother Earth.

MR. SMEDLEY: Are the scion and stock necessarily of the same diameter?

DR. MORRIS: Not necessarily, but preferably so. One's sense of nicety might demand that they be just alike, but you will find it doesn't make any difference. It takes a little longer to put in a big scion of his sort but it is very sure to grow. Your tree is already made by the time you have done this.

MR. SMEDLEY: Should you have bark contact all around?

DR. MORRIS: I could do it with contact on one side.

MR. CORSAN: What time of the year do you do it?

DR. MORRIS: Almost any time of the year, preferably May or June.

MR. CORSAN: Do you wax that before you put the raffia on?

DR. MORRIS: After everything is all complete that is my final touch.

MR. WEBER: When the stock is sappy wouldn't the sap jam the edges of the plane and roughen the bark?

DR. MORRIS: Not if you make it shave. I get the edge of my plane so it will shave. Then it will not roughen it. I can screw in a scion two feet long. I have tried it and had it start into growth. Thus I have got half my tree under way. Now I cover the whole thing with melted paraffin.

MR. CORSAN; How do you apply the paraffin, paint it on?

DR. MORRIS: Yes, with a soft brush.

MR. CORSAN: Do you use the stuff you buy at Woolworth's by the pound?

DR. MORRIS: Yes, I buy what they call parawax.

QUESTION: It is not necessary to wrap a scion with raffia if it is fastened with screws?

DR. MORRIS: No. After it is screwed you don't have to use raffia. I use either screws or raffia. In a large one like this the screw is preferable. In a smaller one the raffia would suffice. It is the plain splice graft that I use almost to the exclusion of anything else.

MR. WEBER: Wouldn't it assist the union, if the graft didn't make a perfect fit, to wrap it with raffia to hold it together?

DR. MORRIS: Possibly, but I think with the plane one can make a perfect fit. That is the idea at any rate. After three weeks of growth that will stand any storm.

QUESTION: How do you tell when the paraffin is the right temperature?

DR. MORRIS: That is very much as a woman does in cooking. You put in so much of everything. It is a matter of experience. I get it very hot but not hot enough to scald. The idea is to have it hot enough and to have it very thin. On one occasion my light went out when I was grafting walnut trees. It went out when I was grafting the very last tree. I put in perhaps twenty or thirty grafts in all. All the other grafts caught but on that tree, after my light went out, only one caught. In examining into the philosophy of it a week later I found that the paraffin, being a little too thick, had cracked.

QUESTION: When is the best time to do the grafting?

DR. MORRIS: I think the best time is after the sap season in the spring; all through the latter part of May and in June and the first half of July.

QUESTION: Do you use paraffin of a particular melting point?

DR. MORRIS: I have tried many but the one I use the most is the commonest one. You can buy parawax in all groceries. If you wish to make the parawax harder for the southern sun put in stearic acid. It may be bought at any drugstore. Melt it with the paraffin and that will harden it very much.

QUESTION: What proportion do you use?

DR. MORRIS: It would depend on the degree of heat to be resisted. I suppose you might use it in the proportion of one to four of parawax, but very little stearic acid will harden it.

QUESTION: Isn't there a tendency to melt under the high temperature of the sun?

DR. MORRIS: As a matter of fact I pay no attention to that in the North. Although we have very hot days and the paraffin does soften, it does not seem to interfere with the repair on the part of the tree.

QUESTION: In the case of smaller grafts, what would be your objection to the use of the ordinary whip graft?

DR. MORRIS: It makes one more motion.

QUESTION: It seems to me that it is more quickly done?

DR. MORRIS: It may be; that is a matter of individual technic. My idea is to do the thing the quickest way. If a man has found that he can put on one graft more quickly, that he has a technic that gives him speed, which is one of the essentials of grafting, if you can put on the whip graft quicker than I can put the other on, do it.

QUESTION: Do you have any trouble with the oxidizing of the cambium?

DR. MORRIS: Yes and no. Of course you free a certain number of enzymes. I haven't thought of it as an oxidizing process so much as an enzymic injury, where enzymes are freed from an organic solution.

QUESTION: I think that is correct. That is the common method of expressing it.

DR. MORRIS: I use sometimes, when the weather is very hot and I am grafting in the midst of sunshine on a hot day, a solution that I have described containing salts belonging to the salts of trees. I use that to dip my graft in and in that way the enzymes that are freed from the cut surface are removed by the solution in such a way that they do not interfere. Practically we can get almost one hundred per cent. of catches of our grafts now by the paraffin method, that is, with perfect scions, perfect stocks and perfect technic by the operator.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Time is pressing and we have with us a member whom I am very anxious to have you all hear. I refer to our beloved member and my warm personal friend, the Pecan King, Mr. J. M. Patterson of Putney, Georgia, who is here this evening with Mrs. Patterson and their two sons. It affords me great pleasure to introduce Mr. J. M. Patterson.

MR. PATTERSON: Ladies and Gentlemen, your distinguished president has set a nice pace for me, introducing me as a king! Of course I am not unmindful of the fact that crowned heads are not any longer in favor in this democratic world of ours.

THE PRESIDENT: When I introduced Mr. Patterson at the Chamber of Commerce yesterday to Secretary Woodward, I introduced him as the Pecan King. He is known as the Pecan King and he is the Pecan King. There is no question about it. Mr. Woodward responded in what I thought was a very gracious way. He said he was much happier in meeting a pecan king than he would be in meeting some of the kings in the old world.

MR. PATTERSON: That is my apology for being here. You have made it easy for me. I have been away from home for nearly five weeks traveling on four wheels, and I received notice from your worthy president just a day or two before leaving my office that he would expect me to read a paper on the Commercial Possibilities of Nuts. At all events I had no time to collect my thoughts or make any preparation, and those of you who have toured through a new country and through some twelve or fifteen states, and passed through eight or ten universities and got your graduation papers each time as you went through, will realize that I have had not much time to compose my thoughts on this subject.

However, I am exceedingly glad to be here and I am going to talk a little like a preacher I heard once in the city of Pittsburgh. He said, "My text will be found in the Gospel of John, 4th Chapter, 15th verse, which reads as follows:" and he read the text. Then he proceeded without a lapse of breath and said, "From which we now take our departure." My subject is the Commercial Possibilities of Nuts, "from which we now take our departure."

California, or the Pacific Coast, has found the commercial nuts, the almond and the walnut. The Southland has found the commercial nut in the pecan. You good people of the effete and frozen East are still looking for the commercial nut. That is how it comes that we are here. It looked to me very much this afternoon when we were out at Mr. McGlennon's nursery that he had helped you very materially to answer that question, that he had discovered for you one commercial nut.

We have in the South two pecan organizations, one of which we call the National Nut Growers' Association. You will notice the word National Nut Growers' Association. The association is composed wholly of pecan growers. Many of us recognize that the name is a misnomer. We have been hoping that the time would come when we could have the name of that organization changed to the Southern Pecan Growers' Association, but we have one old member who has one English walnut tree in his orchard, who says we are a national nut growers' association and he objects. Some time that English walnut tree will die or he will die, and then we will be able to change the name. Then we have the Georgia-Florida Pecan Growers' Association. There is a California Walnut Growers' Exchange and a California Almond Growers' Exchange, and I am hoping to see a time when this Northern Nut Growers' Association will have discovered some real commercial nut, and then we will have complete the organization of the nuts of this country, the Almond Association, the Walnut Association, the Pecan Association and then the filbert, or whatever nut you discover here. We will bring them all together in one great national organization, and we will have an organization of real nuts. I am expecting to see that day. (Applause.)

I read a criticism the other day of a book that was published in which the reviewer said: "It is well for a man when he sits down to write a book that he know something of the topic on which he is going to write." I know very little about the possible nuts that may become commercially important in this section of the world. If it wasn't for the fact that when I come North here I like to meet some fellow nut, we wouldn't care very much whether you fellows ever discover a commercial nut in this part of the world or not, because the Lord has been so generous to you. The Lord has not given us a perfect climate. He gives one climatic feature here and another one there and another one some place else. He distributes his benefactions. It seems to me he has been lavish with you people, especially in New York and all through the middle West and the East. You have so many things. Why should you want to grab off the nut business? But just for the sake of letting you have a little variety and having some real good things to eat, I am willing to have you discover some real good commercial nut and then the time will come when we will have this national organization.

I am going to tell you a little bit about the history of the pecan. I think you would be interested in that. The cultivated pecan is of comparatively recent history. It is not so long since those who were in the South dreaming of a commercial nut were in very much the same position as this association is here, although the South seemed to be the natural place for the pecan. There were no commercial pecan orchards twenty years ago. There were wild groves in the river bottoms of Texas which there are today, but there were practically no cultivated pecans. There were actually no bearing groves of cultivated pecans. It is only a matter of fifteen or eighteen years that the cultivated pecan has been commercially planted.

I think our concern was among the earliest. I think we may claim to be the very first who, in a large way, planted pecans. We did not start with the intention of planting them in a large way. It was a sort of natural growth. It was only sixteen years ago this month, sixteen years ago, that I first heard of the paper shell pecan from John Craig of Cornell University; right under the shade of where we are meeting tonight I first heard of the paper shell pecan and was induced to put a little money in planting groves. I think I may say that New York State, through the instrumentality of old John Craig, can take credit for the start of the great commercial pecan groves of the South. Since that time pecan groves have been planted very extensively. I don't think that any accurate statistics are obtainable of the acreage planted to pecan groves in the district in which we are located in southwest Georgia, but in an area of probably forty or fifty miles I imagine there are seventy-five thousand acres of pecan groves. They have not all proven successful. Some have been planted on soil that was not adapted and there are some cases of insufficient or unwise care, and some of not having the proper stock to plant. For one reason or another a good many groves have not proven successful today. Others have proven quite successful. There is no question but what that which was a hope fifteen years ago is today a reality and that the cultivated pecan is today an established industry. I do not mean by that that we have reached the stage which our friend Mr. Taylor has reached with his almonds or which the almond growers have reached. We are still in our infancy and have many problems and the problems multiply as days and years go by. Fifteen years ago we would have said there were no insect pests nor any diseases of the pecan. They have certainly made themselves known in the last few years. We have a good many insect pests and we have some fungus. We do not believe that any of these will be beyond the skill of scientific investigation and that they will ultimately be brought into subjection.

As an indication of the growth of the industry, eight years ago the association of which I chance to be president gathered their first crop of nuts of something like six thousand pounds. Last year we harvested over four hundred thousand pounds of nuts. In eight years of course there was an increased acreage but they were all young groves. I tell you that fact just to show you that when you do find a nut that is adapted to your soil and to your climate, as the pecan is adapted to the climate and soil of the South, it will not take many years to develop such a nut into a commercial proposition.

I had the pleasure last fall of entertaining Mr. Pierce, the president of the California Almond Growers' Association. Mr. Pierce was very much interested in this young giant of the South in the nut world. He had had a very unfortunate experience in the use of pecans. He had passed through Chicago a short time before and a friend of mine, an officer of our association, happened to be a friend of his, and gave him some pecans, and he liked them so well that as he started from Chicago on the way to Washington he indulged too freely, and by the time he got to Washington he had to go to the hospital for repairs. Mr. Pierce wrote me a letter after that and said that he didn't know why the Lord permitted trees to grow such nuts until he created a new race of human beings with gizzards in place of stomachs. That is because California men were not used to eating good, rich nuts. We claim for the pecan that it is about the best nut there is. We don't claim the earth but if you people can develop or discover any nut that is better in quality and more tasty and more alluring than the pecan, we shall be mighty glad to have you discover it, and we hope it will be adaptable to the South. You know the Buick automobile says, "When better cars are made, Buick will make them." "When better nuts are made, we will make them." We know that all people can't have the best. We know that some people have to eat cheaper steaks. The trouble with this country today is that everybody wishes the very best. The packers tell us they have great trouble in disposing of the cheaper cuts of the meat. I do not imagine that the nut growers are going to have much trouble in disposing of the round steaks, but we are going to furnish the best nuts. The market for cultivated pecans has developed in a most marvelous way. There has never been any advertising, except in a very small way, and yet the demand has always exceeded the supply. It has grown just naturally. People learn of a good nut and they spread the good news to their friends so that the demand increases. Customers in New York but four or five years ago would order eight or ten barrels of nuts; they are ordering 150 barrels now.

I want to say to you, find a nut like that that you can grow in New York State or that you can grow down in Connecticut, or in any of this part of the world, and we will be mightily glad to see what you can do, and we will try to steal it and grow it in the South. It has been said that every great institution is only the shade of some great man. If you can build up a great institution of a great commercial nut here in the North let it be the shade of the Northern Nut Growers' Association.

I am not going to keep you longer because this rambling talk is not prepared. I have been interested as I drove through New England in seeing great groves along the public highways of maples and elms, and I have thought how wonderful it would be if those were all pecans or walnuts or almonds or some tree that would bear nuts instead of furnishing shade. There is a world of opportunity in this country for a commercial nut. They are used as delicacies now, most of these nuts, but they are food, and they are food of the very highest type. I expect to see the day when all our best hotels and restaurants will have on their menus nut steaks, almond and pecan steaks, and when a great many of their guests will order these steaks in place of the beef steaks that they are ordering now.

I want to say that we are glad to have your distinguished president as a fellow pecan nut. He is largely interested in Georgia and we see his smiling face frequently in that section of the world. We are interested to see him succeed there and I am sure the members of this association are all interested and pleased to see what he has accomplished in developing the filbert right here in the shade of Rochester. (Applause.)

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Patterson, I thank you. I feel that I cannot let this opportunity pass to correct an impression that might have gotten over from one remark of Mr. Patterson's about the filbert nurseries being the result of my efforts. That is a long way from being so. In every successful operation I believe the master hand can be traced. In this operation of ours here the master hand has been that of my esteemed friend of long standing and very close cooperation covering a period of over a decade, Mr. Conrad Vollertsen. Mr. Vollertsen is entitled to the full credit for the success of our industry. I feel that I am justified in claiming for myself in connection with it the credit for the enterprise. Each of us in life has our particular place to fill. Mr. Vollertsen brought to me the idea of this filbert operation some years ago, over a decade, especially the idea of propagating the filbert from the layer instead of from the bud or graft, it being my belief up to that time that it could be propagated only by budding and grafting. He had worked in the nurseries in Germany as a young man and had told me of his experiences. So I sent to Germany and got five plants of twenty varieties, leaving to the nurseries from which I purchased them the selection of the varieties. I think the plants were six to twelve inches in size. From these, under the ability and knowledge of my friend, Conrad Vollertsen, has been developed what you saw this afternoon. I am mighty proud of it and so is he because he and I alone know what we have had to buck these last ten or eleven years. Speaking frankly, it has been pretty hard going sometimes, but personally I feel tonight, after what has been said to me by many of our members at our place this afternoon, especially the praise of our faculty to which I referred in my paper, that we have accomplished something really worth while, and it is my ambition and Mr. Vollertsen's, too, I know, to prove that we have a really worthwhile thing for the people. The pecan is the highest in food value of any nut known to the world today. The filbert is the second highest in food value and I believe it is a nut adapted for a wider range of soils and climates in the North than any other nut. I know this may sound a little like blowing my own horn, but I want you to understand that I am chuck full of filbert as well as pecan. I am certainly mighty happy for my pecan association in southwest Georgia, and I am feeling pretty happy tonight in connection with the filbert also.

I am met with a disappointment this evening. Mrs. Patterson tentatively promised to favour us with a paper on the use of nuts as foods. But I regret to say that she is somewhat indisposed and unable to favor us with a paper as promised. So I am going to ask another member, a new member, to make a few remarks on the subject of nuts as food. I know that he knows what he is talking about when it comes to a discussion of the subject of nuts as food, because I come in rather vigorous contact with him twice a week, and he talks nuts as food to me on those occasions. I am endeavoring to follow out his suggestions as closely as possible and I know that I am benefiting in health by so doing. I refer to James B. Rawnsley, the noted physical culturist who lives in this city. I have great pleasure in introducing to you Professor James B. Rawnsley.

MR. RAWNSLEY: Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen: The gentleman that Mr. Patterson referred to as going to the hospital for repairs was not taken there because of eating nuts. The cause of the need for repairs was good food going into that man's stomach and mixing up with a lot of refuse matter that he had been eating at some previous time.

MR. PATTERSON: Almonds!

MR. RAWNSLEY: I hope that there are no medical doctors in the place or any butchers because if there are I am liable to go through the door or window. The nuts that you people are growing I hope will be the only thing, along with fruits and vegetables, that will be eaten in the future. As Mr. Patterson said tonight, since God put nuts and fruits and vegetables on this earth, those are what we ought to use from the commencement of life. The nut is one of the cleanest and most wholesome foods that is grown. I have tried it a good many years and I want to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there is nothing so sweet, so good or so substantial. It does not take much of a meal of nuts mixed with fruits to keep a person alive and well and strong. The sooner you people that are growing nuts get that into your minds and use it the sooner you will find it the best advertisement by which to get new members into the association. Show it yourself by using them.

THE PRESIDENT: I am mighty grateful to you for your words. We are going to try and get through one more paper this evening. It is by Mr. John Dunbar, Assistant Superintendent of Parks, Rochester, N. Y., on the subject, Nut Trees in Rochester Parks. I have great pleasure in introducing Mr. Dunbar.

MR. DUNBAR: Mr. President, and ladies and gentlemen: I picked up the program this morning and looking it over I was quite surprised to see that I was down there for a paper. We have given much attention for possibly twenty-five or thirty years to the establishment of an arboretum in the parks of Rochester of all the trees that are hardy in the north temperate zone. I think that perhaps the Rochester parks today stand next to the arboretum at Harvard University in the number of species and variety of trees from all parts of the north temperate zone.

We are studying trees generally from the ornamental point of view and to educate the people in the value of trees. Of course we have a large number of nut trees, hickories, walnuts and hazels, and incidentally we are interested in their food value.

In listening to Mr. Rawnsley tonight I was much interested in what he said because he is a neighbor of mine and lives across the street. I remember seeing him on a cold winter day when I was walking down street in a big overcoat, five below zero. Across the street there was Mr. Rawnsley shoveling snow and all he had on was trousers and a shirt. I have found out tonight how he could do it, by eating nuts. I said to my wife that I didn't see how he could stand it but now I shall tell her that I have found out.

Of course there are some nuts that are commercially of no use here. The pecan is the nut of the South. Mr. McGlennon and Mr. Vollertsen are doing great things with the filbert here. I think there is a great future here in the North for the hazels and king nuts. Other nuts that are very important here because they are hardy are the black walnut and the butternut. If walnuts and hickories can be grafted in tens of thousands like apples and peaches, all right, go ahead, but in the meantime raise all the seedlings you can. I am surprised that so far nothing has been said here about the king nut. There are only two places in New York State where the king nut grows. It grows in the Genesee Valley from Rochester up to Mt. Morris quite abundantly and it grows around Albany and Central New York. There are no other places in New York State where it grows. It is a larger nut than the common shell bark. It makes a magnificent tree. I think the king nut should be planted. We are growing it ourselves in the park. The tree itself grows fifteen miles from here. We have it in the park today and I have planted a good many of these nuts. I think the big shell bark or king nut and the shell barks should be planted quite extensively. Put them in the ground and let them come up. They will come up. Another good tree we have here with great possibilities in it is the Japanese butternut. It is hardy and I understand it is growing at Lockport. These are a few rambling ideas. Incidentally we are doing all we can to spread the gospel of nut culture and the growing of nut trees. If people could see them in the parks it would help along their education.



MORNING SESSION, SEPTEMBER 8th, 1922

The Convention was called to order by the President at 9:30 o'clock A. M.

THE PRESIDENT: After a night of good rest we are ready to proceed with our deliberations and as we have a lot to do we are going to try to push things along fast this morning.

Some of the papers have not arrived and some of the speakers will not be here. Senator Penney of Michigan wrote me that he was not only in rather poor health but he was in the midst of an election primary and that it would be impossible for him to be here but that he would endeavor to send a paper. I am sorry to say that it has not arrived.

I was pretty sure that ex-President Linton would be here. But I have a telegram from him this morning saying it is absolutely impossible and that he, too, hasn't had any time to prepare a paper. Mr. Linton is a very busy man and about the only way to get a rise out of him is by wire. I have written him three times and wired him five times. Finally I succeeded in getting a telegram from him this morning. I was particularly anxious that he and Senator Penney be here to discuss the roadside planting of nut trees and the legislation of Michigan in that regard, believing that such aid would materially help us in getting other states interested along the same line. I'm sorry, therefore, that they are not here.

This telegram from Mr. Linton, received this morning, reads as follows:

"Expected until yesterday that I would get to Rochester convention but am bitterly disappointed in being unable to do so owing to fatal illness of chairman of our state commission, whose called meetings and pendent duties have fallen upon me. Senator Penney is in midst of strenuous primary campaign closing Monday and can not leave and Mr. Beck is in hospital recovering from operation. So your Saginaw trio, positively with you in spirit and good wishes, is held here this time absolutely and all regret the situation beyond measure. I expressed to you yesterday, prepaid, the Washington walnuts, fine young trees only eighteen months old, and will replace them next spring if necessary. Penney and Beck join me in sincerely desiring the success of your convention and extending kind regards to you and those present, all of whom we hope to meet another year.

WM. S. LINTON.

The trees we are going to plant tomorrow morning, if these seedlings get here, are grown from nuts furnished Mr. Linton by the superintendent of Mount Vernon. Last year we planted some in one of the parks at Lancaster.

I will ask Mr. Vollertsen to read his paper now.

MR. CONRAD VOLLERTSEN: Ladies and gentlemen: My paper this morning will necessarily be very short as the subject assigned to me is one of which I so far have not had any practical experience and therefore am unable to say much about.

According to our program I have been assigned to make a few remarks on "The Blight-proof Propagated Filbert," a subject I think rather hard to discuss as we have so far no positive proof that blight, if it at all exists on the improved filbert, will not eventually appear on varieties we are now growing. I therefore believe the subject, "Blight-proof Propagated Filbert," should have been worded somewhat differently, as we have no assurance when blight may appear, nor any guarantee against its appearance. It may fall on our plants over night or at any time. That we can not prevent nor control.

In the nursery of improved European filberts which we have maintained for ten years, blight is so far not known and has never made its appearance. We know of other filbert plants, several varieties, all of German origin, in this, our home city, from thirty to forty years old, never affected by blight, bearing nuts today. But all this will not guarantee the improved propagated filbert to be blight-proof. We certainly do not claim our propagated improved filbert plants are blight-proof. In fact to our knowledge there is no such thing as blight-proof filberts no more than there are blight-proof pears, quinces or other fruits. But we do claim that our improved filbert varieties, imported from Germany, will stand our climatic changes very much better and will resist the attack of blight to a greater extent than any other variety imported from France or Italy.

We really do not fear blight. We have heard very much about it and have so far seen nothing of it. But should it eventually appear in our nursery I am fully convinced we can easily control it and prevent its spreading by cutting the affected parts thoroughly away, removing the diseased twigs or branches so low as to make the cut in entirely sound wood. Through such an operation I am fully convinced the disease can be completely eliminated in a comparatively short time, should it ever appear.

We have been repeatedly told blight will not only attack small parts or branches of the improved filberts but will kill them entirely. Such a thought I can never entertain, not for a moment. I have had too many years' practical experience with the growing and cultivating of improved hazel or filbert plants, and have never seen anything of the kind. It would be very interesting if members of this association who have observed blight on the improved hazels and seen plants actually killed by that disease would relate their experiences and the real facts so as to enlighten the public on the subject. For instance:

Where did it happen that blight killed the plants entirely?

What varieties were attacked and killed?

And was it genuine blight that killed them?

These questions should be well considered, particularly the last one, as it is a well-known fact that in a general way the term blight is frequently used for various injuries or diseases of plants causing the whole or parts to wither and die, whether occasioned by insects, fungi, or atmospheric influences.

We will, in the early summer, occasionally see on various shrubs or trees numerous little twigs and branches dead and decaying and the general saying then will most assuredly be, the shrub or tree is blighted, where a close and thorough investigation will not reveal the slightest sign of blight, merely injuries by frequent climatic changes in the late winter or early spring months.

I also have observed the same thing where insects were the cause of all the trouble. A little downy species of the aphis, or plant louse, had completely overrun a Stump apple tree and really caused it to die. The owner told me that tree was blighted. But here also no sign of blight could be detected. Nothing but insects caused the tree to die, not blight.

I merely mention these instances to show how thoroughly and readily a disease or ailment of a tree or shrub is called blight where in reality not the slightest sign of it can be discovered.

If our people had the understanding and would take the time to investigate the cause of their diseased trees I am fairly satisfied the complaining of trees or shrubs being killed by blight would not be heard as freely as it is today.

Now under no circumstances should this be construed as meaning that I dispute or doubt the existence of blight among our filbert plants. Not at all. Quite the contrary. We have, as stated above, so far no blight-proof filberts and no guarantee that blight will not eventually attack our plants. We therefore will have to be more or less on the alert, will have to watch our filbert plants as we do our pear or quince orchards or other fruit trees more or less inclined to blight. By no means let blight discourage the planting of filbert or hazel nuts, as I am fully convinced should it eventually appear it will not kill our plants. In fact it will not harm them as much as it will our pear trees, our quinces or other varieties of fruit inclined to that disease, of which we, in spite of blight, plant and maintain large orchards.

My advice would be to stop all talk on blight and wait until it appears. Do not let us cross the bridge before we come to it but let us watch our trees inclined to blight, particularly our hazel and filbert plants, as they are not blight-proof, but eventually should blight make its appearance let us be ready for it, fully prepared to receive it, not to welcome but to eliminate it. That we can do, that we can accomplish very thoroughly through the operation set forth in the beginning of this paper.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: That is a subject that I feel we ought to have a little discussion on and I would like to hear from Mr. Jones, Doctor Morris, Mr. Bixby, Doctor Deming, for a brief discussion on the points just touched on by Mr. Vollertsen.

THE SECRETARY: I have had very little experience with the blight. Two years ago Mr. Bixby and I visited the very large hazels in Bethel, Connecticut, seedlings raised from grocery store nuts, and we saw there the blight on some of the largest trees, on the large limbs, unquestionable blight with sunken areas covered with pustules. I didn't see the trees last year, but on Wednesday, just before taking the train to come here, I ran in to this place to get a bunch of hazels to bring here, and I saw the tree on which Mr. Bixby and I had found the blight looking as well as ever. In a hasty examination of the tree I saw one or two stubs where large limbs had been cut off. I presume that the owner had followed our advice and had cut off the blighted limb and, apparently, the tree itself was none the worse for the blight.

I have had hazels planted and neglected for twelve or thirteen years and this is the first year in which I have found the blight. I have found before other causes of death of parts of the shrubs, girdling by insects and apparent winter killing, but this year I found several of my trees on which were undoubted patches of cryptosporella. That is the extent of my experience with the blight.

MR. JONES: I have not had any actual experience with the blight but I have seen it in Connecticut. I have not found it on any of the wild hazels of Pennsylvania. Therefore we do not have it at Lancaster. I have not regarded it as nearly as serious as pear blight and some other blights that attack fruit trees.

THE PRESIDENT: What is that, Mr. Jones?

MR. JONES: I say I have not regarded the filbert blight as nearly as deadly as some of the blights that attack the fruit trees, because of the fact that it works very slowly, and it takes, I understand, about two years to girdle a limb of any size; therefore, it is easily cut out and controlled.

MR. CORSAN: Could it be that the blight would be very much more active in a tree growing in the shade than on one growing out in the strong sunlight and well nourished?

MR. VOLLERTSEN: I know of some trees that were for at least ten or eleven years practically overgrown by butternut trees. I have known the trees for more than thirty years. I visited the place about a week ago and found a tree doing fairly well under the circumstances. That tree is between thirty and forty years old and has grown steadily for the last five or six years entirely in the shade and is bearing fruit fairly well. There were quite a few nuts on it although there were more over the top than on the lower branches; but I did not notice any dead limbs or anything of that kind.

THE PRESIDENT: Do you refer to Doctor Mandel's plant?

MR. VOLLERTSEN: No.

DOCTOR MORRIS: Stamford is a natural home of the hazel. Wild hazels fill the fields to such an extent that they destroy pastures very often. Hazel blight, therefore, is to be found there as an indigenous organism or parasite. Among the native hazels it apparently attacks only those that have been injured or are weakened by age or otherwise. That is the common history where a plant has existed along with a parasite for centuries or ages, a certain amount of tolerance is established by the resistance of a few individual plants and the elimination of the others. By natural selection the best survives.

Now when I brought some European hazels to this place a little over twenty years ago they made a good start. In two or three years all were attacked with blight and at the end of four or five years all were dead. I spoke to Mr. Henry Hicks about it. He has a place on Long Island. Mr. Hicks said, "I have given up foreign hazels. They are no use. They all die. I don't try them." Whenever anybody says that to me it starts me right off doing it. When they said we couldn't graft hickories I said, "Well, here is something to do," and I did it. They said, "Well, we couldn't raise hazels; we might as well give up." I said, "Well, here is the best thing for us to do then." So again I got a small lot and observed them day by day. Very soon the blight began to attack them. I found it grew slowly and gave me plenty of time to cut it out. I neglected some purposely to see how long it would take the blight to girdle a limb and some of the larger limbs took two years. In all of the limbs that were affected, in the hazels which I wished to save, I simply cut out the blight with a sharp jackknife, painted the spot with a little paint, an antiseptic or something of the sort, and had complete control. In fact I found that I needed to go over my hazel bushes not more than once a year to look after the blight, and in one day, or part of a day, with a sharp jackknife I had absolute control of the blight.

There are some large European hazels that I have neglected and have allowed the blight to get under way. Some of them are so resistant that they bear very good crops notwithstanding the fact that they are neglected and have the blight. Others have died. Therefore it is a relative question, a question of relative immunity to the blight. My belief is that the blight will not be any more injurious to our hazels than the San Jose scale has been to the peaches. We have complete control of the San Jose scale because we know the habits of the scale insect. I believe we have complete control of the hazel blight because we know the habits of that particular sporella.

As to the question of growing in the shade or in the sunshine, on the Palmer property not very far from me, there are some very large bushes of red and white avellana and of the purple hazel that have been overshadowed by other trees because they haven't been looked after. Those are all very large bushes, in fact they have grown to be small trees and they are completely overshadowed by other things. They have some blight but continue year after year to bear heavy crops of nuts.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Bartlett, have you any remarks on the subject?

MR. BARTLETT: My experience has been very similar to that of Doctor Morris. I have visited possibly a hundred places and have seen hazels growing, some of which have probably been there seventy-five years. In talking with the people connected with the place I have often heard said, "Why, years ago we used to have hazels, a great many hazels here, picked maybe a bushel at a time, but the best varieties have died, and what we have left are worthless." Or perhaps, "There is only one bush left and we don't get any hazels now." Apparently the purple hazel is freer from blight than most of the other imported varieties. I have seen the blight in these places. I have seen branches from three to four inches in diameter that were attacked with blight and were still growing but were not fruiting very much. I know a very few places where hazels are grown within fifty miles of New York, and I know of some places where they are getting some nuts. But the general impression is that the European varieties will be attacked with blight and killed.

I have seen bushes that have been attacked by blight where the roots are alive but sending up very weak shoots. That is probably through neglect of stocks. Certain of those that I have raised, five or six years old, are absolutely free from blight. Most of the older trees that I have seen around have blight in some form or other.

MR. BIXBY: Doctor Morris' remark as to what Mr. Hicks says of giving up attempting to grow hazels because the blight would take them, seemed to me very appropriate in view of an observation I made on Mr. Hicks' place last fall. I found there a large hazel which was probably twenty-five feet high and bearing a fair crop of nuts. Mr. Hicks told me that he had brought that tree from Germany many years ago—I think it was over twenty years ago—and that that was the only one left out of a lot. Now if other European hazels had been killed there with the blight and this one was left there was apparently a blight-proof hazel in that lot.

I have seen a good many hazel bushes affected with blight, but I have not seen any since I went with Doctor Deming up to Bethel. I have seen no blight since then though I have looked for it whenever I have been where there were European hazels. I examined that tree in Mr. Hicks' nursery very carefully and found there was no evidence of blight. I feel as the other speakers do who have expressed themselves, that we have little to fear from the hazel blight; that if it does appear in the nurseries we can control it by cutting out the blighted portions.

MR. PIERCE: In northern Utah I have a number of bushes of the foreign and the American hazel and they are ten years old. So far I have not seen any evidence of blight.

I would like to ask a question. What form does this blight take, and is it deadly? In other words, will it kill the bush? Is it good to cut out the affected parts?

DOCTOR MORRIS: You find a depression of the bark over a small area, gradually increasing, and around the part that is depressed you will find a little swelling of the healthy part that is trying to grow over the blight area. This also contains the roots, if you can call them that, of the blight. You can recognize it everywhere on the hazel by the distinctly depressed area of bark, which should be cut out before it gets to be the size of a quarter.

In other cases the blight will encircle a small branch and cause a swelling instead of depression that looks very much like the swollen area around the depressed bark. There may be depression in the branch parts but the swelling blocks that so you can see only the swelling. These branches may be very easily removed, with as much ease as a boy would steal the nuts, so there is nothing to be feared on that score. If the blight is left uncared for it will kill some of the plants and it will not kill others. It will injure some also without killing them, so that we have to consider the question of what we call relative immunity. In the case quoted by Mr. Bixby we have a case of relative immunity of a hazel which has grown to be twenty-five feet high and bearing crops in the midst of the blight area on Long Island, while others have disappeared from the vicinity.

MR. BIXBY: I would say in connection with that hazel that Dr. Deming and I visited in Bethel that I took a blighted branch away with me and it was such an excellent example of a blighted area that I had a photograph made and it was printed in the Nut Journal.

THE PRESIDENT: This discussion on the blight of the filbert is of intense interest to me. It is a considerable relief to us to hear these encouraging statements, because during our experiments, covering the past decade, the bugbear of all of our deliberations has been the possibility of blight wiping us out, it having been suggested at the time we imported plants that we would never get anywhere with them. I think we have little cause to feel very much worried on the subject of the blight.

It now gives me real pleasure to introduce to you our friend, Mr. Pomeroy.

MR. POMEROY: Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: Josephus says that he has set down various things according to his opinion and if anybody holds to another opinion he will not object. That's my position in regard to nut growing. I will tell you a few things that I believe and if you hold another opinion you are entitled to keep it.

Professor John Craig once referred to a thing that surprised me very much. We Americans believe we are a very energetic, smart people not to be fooled much in a trade. Well, he had statistics which showed that after we have shipped millions of dollars worth of wheat and cotton and various other products to Europe we receive our pay in the form of great quantities of nuts which we use for food, holiday nuts, all-year-round nuts. Now I believe that those nuts can be raised right here and we can pocket that money instead of leaving it in Europe.

I was a very small child when my father went to Philadelphia to visit the Exposition in 1876. While he was there he picked up a few walnuts which had dropped from a tree in front of his lodging house and brought them home and planted them. A very few years after he amazed us all by taking a load of nuts to Buffalo and obtaining more money for them than the hired man and I did for a large load of fruit.

At one time I put out some English walnuts in a cemetery as a memorial orchard and the trees are now doing fine. The other night my wife and I strolled over and looked at them and when we were on our way back we passed a neighbor's house where there were a number of maple trees on the lawn. I said to my wife, "Those maple trees are fifty years old, and there by the side of his lawn is a chestnut tree that is forty-four or five years old." She made the remark, "Those English walnut trees over there cast a much more beautiful shade than those maples," and it was true. I think Mr. McGlennon saw them.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes; that's so. I thank you very much, Mr. Pomeroy.

Mr. G. H. Corsan, of Toronto, Canada, is known as the "Canadian Johnny Appleseed." Mr. Corsan goes about the country and when he can find nuts and seeds of what he thinks are good trees and plants he gathers them up and arranges to distribute them. If Mr. Corsan will give us about ten or fifteen minutes I should certainly appreciate it very much.

MR. CORSAN: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: Our friend here called me Johnny Appleseed, I suppose because I went around among my friends who had gardens and said, "Let me plant this," and I would plant a nut tree. I said, "Why don't you plant something with a utility value as well as a thing of beauty?" I said, "Why not plant something that will not only grow rapidly and cast a splendid shade but that will also return you something in the way of food?"

I first devoted twelve acres to the culture of nut trees. I afterwards added four more. I just planted seedlings. In the year 1912 I joined the Nut Growers' Association and I set out a hundred chestnut trees. When I found the blight was in them and I cut them all down but two. I have those two now and last year I gathered a peck of very large chestnuts from them which caused the Ontario government to take notice of what I was doing.

I bought a great many other trees, among them some of Mr. Pomeroy's. I had a hard fight with Pomeroy's trees. They would die down one year and grow a foot or a foot and a half the next and then die down again. But each year they increased a little in size and now they are over my head and are not dying down at all.

I tried a lot of others, among which were seedling English walnuts from St. Catherine's. They did not freeze down at all, but whether they will throw as good a nut as Mr. Pomeroy's I don't know. They are certainly a different nut.

Then I got a Chinese walnut of Black's nursery, Hightstown, New Jersey, and it is growing remarkably well. All three types of trees are doing very well and are all over my head, sometimes growing three or four feet a year, very rarely less than a yard from each terminal branch, and I have had no winter killing.

It may be interesting to recount a few other things about my place. I had an awful fight with mice. My land is in a valley and the spring floods come down and I can't plow the land or it would all be washed away. I put a tree in and protect it with a certain amount of space around it. I found that the mice would chew down the trees almost as fast as I could get them in, so I got some cats. The cats soon learned to prefer birds to mice so I killed the cats. Then I bought a flock of geese and the geese cropped the grass short and prevented it from growing so powerfully as to smother out the trees. But the geese had hard bills and when the trees were small they clipped off pieces of bark with their bills, so I traded the geese for wild geese. I learned that they are more discriminating in their choice of food and that though their wings are more powerful their bills are not as strong. They have kept the grass down for me and destroyed the homes of the mice. Then I got pheasants in order to rid myself of the insect pests. I feel that in another ten or twenty years we will have a very beautiful place.

I need not refer to the fact that nuts are very valuable for food. Dentists would all go out of business if we ate nuts.

Pennsylvania is a state which should certainly take up with its agricultural authorities the possibilities of nut growing because that is a state that can be ruined utterly by trying to grow grain on the hillsides. The water comes down and washes all the rich top soil off into the creeks and it is lost to us and our children.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Will the secretary please read Doctor Kellogg's paper?

THE SECRETARY: Mr. President, this is a very long paper and I have not read it over. It seems to me that perhaps we have devoted so much time to genealogy and reminiscences that the time is short for the papers which are to be read by members present. Would it not be well to defer the reading of this paper of Doctor Kellogg's to a later time, or, possibly, merely print it in the proceedings?

DOCTOR MORRIS: I move it be laid upon the table and printed in the proceedings.

The motion was duly seconded and carried.

(See Appendix for Dr. Kellogg's paper.)

THE PRESIDENT: One of our important visitors is Professor James A. Neilson, Guelph, Canada. The title of Professor Neilson's paper is, "Nut Culture in Canada." This is an especially interesting subject to me.

PROFESSOR NEILSON: Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: I want to express my appreciation of your kind invitation to attend your convention and for the opportunity of talking to you for a while on the subject that is more interesting to me than any other branch of horticulture. I had looked forward to coming to this convention but wasn't just sure that I would be able to be here. Therefore when I got a wire from your president I immediately got busy and pulled the wires at the college and asked them to authorize me to come here at college expense. I am very glad to be here. It has been most interesting to me, and I am very pleased, indeed, to meet so many whom I knew already by reputation.



NUT CULTURE IN CANADA

J. A. NEILSON, B. S. A.

Lecturer in Horticulture, Ontario Agricultural College Guelph, Canada

The conservation and improvement of our native nut trees and the introduction of suitable species from foreign countries has not received much attention by horticulturists in Canada, except in British Columbia and in Ontario. In British Columbia, Persian walnuts, Japanese walnuts, filberts, almonds and European varieties of chestnuts have been planted to a limited extent in the fruit districts and small plantings have been made at the Dominion Experimental Farms located at Aggaziz on the mainland and at Sidney on Vancouver Island.

In Ontario very little had been done by the Provincial Experiment Stations to test the different varieties of nut trees until about one year ago when the Vineland Station undertook to establish experimental plantings. A few enthusiasts like G. H. Corsan of Toronto, Dr. Sager of Brantford, Dr. McWilliams of London and William Corcoran of Port Dalhousie are about the only parties who have attempted anything along the line of nut growing. These remarks of course do not apply to those people who have planted a few black walnuts or Japanese walnuts on the home grounds or along the roadsides. Of such plantings there are a few here and there in the older settled parts of the province.

For some years the writer has felt that something should be done by the Horticultural Department of the College to interest the people of Canada in planting more and better nut trees and in conserving the remnant of the many fine nut trees which formerly grew so abundantly in parts of Ontario and elsewhere. Therefore an attempt was made during the spring of 1921 to interest the public in the possibilities of nut culture. A letter and questionnaire asking for information on nut trees were prepared and sent to officers of horticultural and agricultural societies, agricultural representatives, agricultural and horticultural magazines, daily and weekly newspapers, school inspectors and other interested parties.

The following is a copy of the letter and questionnaire which were sent out:

"Dear Sir:

"We are investigating the possibilities of nut culture in Ontario and would be pleased to have you assist us by reporting the occurrence and distribution of the various species of native and introduced nut trees growing in your locality. We are particularly anxious to learn of the exact location of superior trees and if any such are found we plan to have these propagated and distributed for test purposes. We would also like to secure the names of people who are interested in nut culture. Please fill out the enclosed questionnaire and return to the undersigned at your earliest convenience.

"Thanking you in anticipation of receiving some interesting information on nut trees, I am, yours sincerely, (signed) James A. Neilson, Lecturer in Horticulture."

Questionnaire:

Q. 1. Are any of the following kinds of trees growing in your locality:

American Black Walnut European Chestnut Japanese Walnut Japanese Chestnut English Walnut Chinese Walnut Butternut Beechnut Hickory nut Hazel nut Pecans Filbert Sweet Chestnut

Q. 2. Do you know of any individual trees of the above mentioned kinds that are superior because of large size of nuts, excellent flavour of kernel, thin shells, rapid growth or high yields? Please give exact location of such trees.

Q. 3. Is any one in your section making a special effort to grow any native or foreign species of nuts? If so please give their name and address.

Name of correspondent Post Office Township County Province

I am delighted to say that I never did anything in my life that met with such hearty and general approval as this venture. From almost every quarter of Canada I received commendatory letters and offers of assistance. One encouraging feature was the keen interest shown by wealthy business and professional men in our larger centres and by some of our more progressive fruit growers and farmers. Inasmuch as my venture was an innovation there were of course some humorous comments to the effect that we had enough "nuts" in the country now without encouraging any more. I replied to my humorous friends that the "nuts" they had in mind did not grow on trees whereas the kind I had in mind did.

The information I received in answer to my questionnaire was very interesting and instructive and confirmed some of my impressions regarding the occurrence of nut trees in our province. More important still it showed that there were several superior trees of various species growing here and there throughout the country.

Geographical Distribution of Nut Trees in Canada

The chief native nut trees are the black walnut, the butternut or white walnut, the hickory, of which there are four species—the chestnut, the beechnut and the hazelnut. Of introduced nut trees there are the Persian, Japanese and Chinese walnuts, the European, Japanese and Chinese chestnuts, the pecan and the European filberts.

THE BLACK WALNUT (Juglans nigra).

The black walnut is one of our finest native nut trees and is found growing naturally along the north shore of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and around Lake St. Clair. It has been planted in many other parts of Ontario and does well where protected from cold winds. The tree grows to a large size, sometimes attaining a height of 90 feet and a trunk diameter of 5 feet. When grown in the open it makes a beautiful symmetrical tree, having a large, rounded crown with drooping lower branches.

The black walnut is not found growing naturally outside of Ontario. It has been planted in Manitoba but does not do well there because of the cold winter. In 1917 the writer observed a few specimens near Portage la Prairie which were about five feet tall. These trees made a fair annual growth but most of this froze back each winter.

Many people in Canada believe that the black walnut is a slow grower. This impression is not correct as some trees grow very rapidly. About eighteen years ago I planted a number of nuts along the line fence and along the roadside on my father's farm near Simcoe, Ontario. Most of these nuts sprouted and grew and some have done exceptionally well. One of these trees is now thirty-seven feet tall and has a trunk circumference of forty-one inches at the ground. It has borne nuts since it was six years of age and this year has a very heavy crop. Some of the first crop of nuts were planted and these in turn have developed into trees which have produced nuts. Nuts from the second generation have been planted and will likely make trees which will yield nuts in a few years. An interesting feature of the original planting is the great variation in the size, shape of nut, thickness of shell and yield. Some are large, some are small, some are round and others are pear-shaped. The majority of the trees yield well but a few, however, are light croppers.

THE BUTTERNUT (Juglans cinerea)

The butternut is much hardier than the black walnut and has a much wider distribution in Canada. It occurs throughout New Brunswick, in Quebec, along the St. Lawrence basin and in Ontario from the shore of Lakes Erie and Ontario to the Georgian Bay and Ottawa River. It has been planted in Manitoba and does fairly well there when protected from cold winds. West of Portage la Prairie the writer observed a grove of seventy-seven trees. Some of these trees were about thirty-five feet tall with a trunk diameter of ten inches and had borne several crops of good nuts.

The butternut in Ontario sometimes attains a height of seventy feet and a trunk diameter of three feet.

THE ENGLISH OR PERSIAN WALNUT (Juglans regia).

The English walnut, or the Persian walnut, as it should be called, is found growing in the Niagara district and to a lesser extent in the Lake Erie counties. It is stated on good authority that there are about 100 of these trees growing in the fruit belt between Hamilton and Niagara Falls. There are several quite large trees in the vicinity of St. Catharines, which have borne good crops of nuts. One of these trees produced nuts of sufficient merit to be included in the list of desirable nuts prepared by C. A. Reed, Nut Culturist of the United States Department of Agriculture. This variety has been named the "Ontario" and is now being propagated, experimentally, in the United States. In the vicinity of St. Davids, on the farm of Mr. James Woodruff, there is a fine English walnut tree which produced ten bushels of shelled nuts in one season. This tree is one of the largest of its kind in Ontario, being about sixty feet tall with a trunk diameter of three feet at one foot above the ground and a spread of branches equal to its height.

The English walnut is not as hardy as the black walnut and is adapted only to those sections where the peach can be grown successfully. At present this tree cannot be recommended for any part of Ontario except the Niagara district and the Lake Erie counties and even in these areas it should not be planted unless it has been grafted or budded on the hardier black walnut.

JAPANESE WALNUTS.

The Japanese Walnut is known to occur in Canada in three different forms—Juglans cordiformis; Juglans Sieboldiana; Juglans mandschurica.

Juglans Cordiformis.

This species is cultivated extensively in Japan and is the most valuable one for Ontario. The tree is very beautiful, comes into bearing early, bears heavily, grows rapidly and is reported to live to a great age. It is believed to be as hardy as the black walnut and ought to do well wherever the native walnut grows satisfactorily. In the best types the nuts are distinctly heart-shaped, have a thin shell, crack easily and contain a large kernel of good quality which can often be removed almost entire from the shell with a light tap from a hammer.

There are two fine heartnut trees growing near Aldershot which is near Hamilton on the road to Toronto. These trees are eight years of age and are about twenty-eight feet tall with a trunk diameter of eight to nine inches. In the seventh year one tree produced about a bushel of fine nuts with thin shells.

Juglans Sieboldiana.

This type was first introduced into the United States about 1860 by a Mr. Towerhouse in Shasta County, California. Since then it has been widely distributed and is now found in many parts of the United States and Canada. It is much the same in appearance as the one first described and grows just as rapidly and bears just as early but does not produce so valuable a nut. The nut has a smooth shell of medium thickness with a kernel of good quality. It does not usually crack easily and the kernel cannot be taken out entire, therefore, is not so desirable as the cordiformis type. In rapidity of growth the Japanese walnut is only excelled by the willows and poplars. In the vicinity of Grimsby there is a tree eight years of age which is about twenty-five feet high and has trunk diameter of seven inches at the base. It began to bear nuts in the third year and in the sixth year produced one bushel.

Juglans Mandschurica.

The general growth characteristics of this species are somewhat similar to the other two types but the nut, however, is quite different, being somewhat like a butternut. Because of this it is sometimes called the Japanese butternut. It is the least desirable of the Japanese group and should not be planted except where the cordiformis type will not grow.

CHINESE WALNUTS (Juglans regia sinensis).

The Chinese walnut is being grown experimentally in the northern part of the United States and has been tried at only one place in Canada, e. g., in the grounds of G. H. Corsan, Islington, Ont. The tree is reported to be fairly hardy at the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plains, Mass., and should be sufficiently hardy for southern Ontario. It is believed that the Chinese walnut will prove to be hardier than the English walnut and it may have an important place amongst the trees in the northern part of the United States and in Southern Canada. The nuts are quite large and have a shell which is thicker than the English walnut but not nearly as thick or hard as the native black walnut. The kernel generally has a fine flavour, being almost as good as the English walnut. Nuts of this species have been planted at the Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, and at the Experiment Station, Vineland, Ont., and it is expected that trees will be hardy enough for our climate and produce nuts which will be as good as the Persian walnut.

THE SWEET CHESTNUT (Castanea dentata)

The sweet chestnut is found growing naturally on sandy ridges in that part of Ontario extending from Toronto to Sarnia and southward to Lake Erie. At the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, there is a fair sized tree and near Newcastle there are a few fine specimens.

It grows to a large size, sometimes reaching a height of one hundred feet and a diameter of five feet at the base. When grown in the open it forms several heavy branches and makes a broad rounded crown, but when grown in a dense stand it makes a tall, straight tree.

The native chestnut is subject to a fatal disease called chestnut bark disease. This disease is not known to occur in Ontario, but there is no assurance that it will not appear and, therefore, the planting of this tree is attended with some risk.

A dwarf type of chestnut has been reported from east of Ottawa in the Ottawa valley. The tree is about fifteen feet tall and produces a small burr containing only one nut. I have not seen this tree so cannot vouch for the accuracy of the above statement.

EXOTIC SPECIES OF CHESTNUTS.

Inasmuch as very few of the Chinese, Japanese and European chestnuts have been planted in Ontario very little can be said regarding their behaviour. Dr. Sargeant reports the Chinese chestnut (Castanea Mollissima) as being hardy at the Arnold Arboretum and therefore it should be adapted to southern Ontario. The Japanese chestnut is also quite hardy but is susceptible to chestnut bark disease. A few Japanese chestnut trees are growing near Fonthill, Ontario, and have borne some good crops. The tree is a small, spreading grower, comes into bearing fairly early and bears quite heavily.

THE HICKORIES.

There are four species of Hickory native to Canada. The shagbark, the bitternut, the pignut and mockernut.

The shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) is the chief one of value for the production of edible nuts. It is confined to the St. Lawrence valley from Montreal westward and along Lakes Erie and Ontario for a distance of 40-50 miles back from the shore. It reaches a height of fifty to ninety feet and a trunk diameter of one to three feet and grows best on deep, fertile loams.

BITTERNUT HICKORY (Carya cordiformis)

This species has a wider range than the shellbark and is found in southwestern Quebec and throughout Ontario from the Quebec border to the Georgian Bay district. It grows best on low wet soils near streams but is also found on higher well-drained sorts. There are two fair sized trees on such a soil on the O. A. C. campus. This species may prove to be of value as a stock for grafting with the shellbark kingnut and some of the good hybrid hickories.

The mockernut (Carya alba) and the pignut (Carya glabra) occur along the north shore of Lake Erie and along Lake St. Clair.

The mockernut is not of much value as a nut tree but the wood is considered to be superior to other species of hickory.

The pignut is generally a small tree which produces nuts of variable size, form and flavor. The kernel may be bitter or it may be sweet and the nuts vary from round to pear-shape.

THE HAZELS.

There are two species of hazels native to Canada—the common hazel (Corylus Americana) and the beaked hazel (Corylus cornuta). The hazels have a wider range than other nut-bearing plants in Canada, being found in almost every province from Nova Scotia westward to British Columbia and as far north as Edmonton in Alberta and Prince Alberta in Saskatchewan. In Ontario the beaked hazel grows as far north as Hudson Bay and in many other parts the common hazel grows very abundantly and bears heavily. In Norfolk County it is very common and in places almost covers the roadside in the little traveled sections. Dr. N. E. Hansen of Brookings, South Dakota, has made a few selections of the common hazelnut found in Manitoba and is now propagating the best of these for distribution.

A few filberts have been planted in Ontario but have not done very well. The growth of wood has been good but little or no nuts have been produced. In Guelph there is a filbert about fifteen feet tall growing on the grounds of J. W. Bell, but like most other filberts in this province it has not yielded nuts.

THE BEECH (Fagus grandiflora)

This tree grows in the hardwood region from Nova Scotia westward to the western end of Lake Superior.

On suitable soils it attains a height of eighty or ninety feet and a diameter of four feet. The nuts are much appreciated by old and young, but on account of the slow rate of growth and the irregularity of bearing very little has been done to plant this tree.

THE ALMOND (Prunus amygdalus).

Almonds have been tried to a limited extent in the warmer parts of Canada but only with indifferent success except on Vancouver Island. It is possible that a satisfactory strain will eventually be found that will extend the range of this desirable nut-bearing tree.

Introduction of New Species

In addition to the efforts to gather data regarding nut trees I decided to introduce some good exotic species for trial with the hope that some of these might prove hardy enough for our climatic conditions. I thought that northeastern Asia would be the most promising region from which to obtain nuts for planting. Therefore, I wrote to the Mission Boards of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Anglican Churches and obtained the names of their missionaries in those fields. I then wrote to several of these missionaries and outlined my programme and asked them to send me samples of the best nuts growing in their respective sections. Here again I received great encouragement and assistance. Several packages of fine chestnuts and walnuts were received from China and Japan. Some of these nuts were planted at the College and the remainder were distributed throughout the province to interested parties. Owing to the length of the period between the gathering of the nuts and their arrival at Guelph many had lost their germinating power, consequently I only succeeded in getting ten walnuts to grow and failed entirely with the chestnuts. However, we may succeed in germinating a few more walnuts after a winter's frost.

I am aware that we might not get as good nuts from these plantings as the parents were, but it is also possible to get a real good tree which would be hardy enough for our climatic conditions. Should we succeed in this endeavor it would be a desirable acquisition and a great improvement on our native black walnut.

Improvement of Native Trees

Attempts were made to improve ordinary black walnut trees by grafting. Scions of the Persian walnut and the Japanese walnut were obtained and grafted onto some of the seedling black walnuts planted by myself years ago. I regret to state that in this phase of the work I was greatly disappointed. Not one scion grew but the stock trees grew amazingly after being cut back and would have been fine for budding this summer if I had been able to get the buds at the proper time.

Educational Work

An attempt has been made to bring before all our students at the O. A. C. the advantages of paying more attention to nut culture. These lectures have always been well received and almost invariably have aroused special interest in the minds of those who are horticulturally inclined.

Addresses on nut culture have been given to Kiwanis Clubs and Horticultural Societies and articles have been written for the agricultural and horticultural press.