Along the roadways of California, we not uncommonly find the native black walnut used as an avenue tree. It is very refreshing and cooling on a hot day to drive under trees of the sort illustrated in the picture before you. This avenue of trees is along the Lincoln Highway less than a mile west of the University grounds at Davis.

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THE PRESIDENT: The next speaker on the program will be presented by Dr. Morris.

DR. MORRIS: They say that a biographer unconsciously writes his autobiography. That is not tautology. Some one writing of the late Frank N. Mayer said: "The plant hunter and explorer is the unsung Columbus of horticulture." Our next speaker was the one who wrote that in Mr. Meyer's biography. We all recognize it as autobiography. Emerson tells us that every successful institution is the lengthened shadow of one man. There were heroes before Agamemnon and botanists before Dr. Fairchild, but with the beginning of the new century there came into existence the development of a new idea, that of exploration in foreign countries for the purpose of bringing to us their valuable plant products. It was one of those things which we may say makes the whole world kin because the economists tell us that basically the food supply is fundamental to all subsequent human activities. Dr. Fairchild organized the machinery of exploration for purposes of introduction into this country of valuable plants from foreign lands. There is perhaps at the present time no one who serves better as peace maker than does the one who gives the world more food. From the economist's standpoint the food supply subtends all advances in civilization. Now the hour is late and we all know what Dr. Fairchild has done. Any remarks on my part are made because they belongs to the form of polite procedure rather than because of need for telling of things which Dr. Fairchild has accomplished.

DR. FAIRCHILD: Ladies and Gentlemen of the Northern Nut Growers Association. When I face men and women who are doing things in agriculture I feel a peculiar degree of embarrassment. I do not know why but I suppose it is because what I have done, what little I have done in bringing in these new things, has never enabled me to get to the bottom of any of the things that I have brought in. In other words I feel that I am in the presence of a number of men who know down to the very smallest minutiae the business that they are engaged in. Now I do not know these minutiae about plants. I wish I did. There is nothing more fascinating in the world than to take one crop and learn to know it "down to the ground." It is coming to be one of the greatest things in the imagination of man, this grappling with the fundamental problems of agriculture which are wrapped up in the varieties of the plants that we grow. I have had a very severe education in that matter of varieties and I want to congratulate you as a body of men and women who are individually going to find out what these best varieties are.

I suppose that the talk that Mr. Reed and I had in a bamboo grove out in Chico., California, when we were trying to find out uses for the bamboo and Reed said: "Well, the pecan and almond growers want to knock the nuts off their trees with these bamboo poles," is what led up to this talk, and I want to thank Mr. Reed for the opportunity to show slides of a few of the new plants which we are working on in the Department of Agriculture.

We brought in so many of them, (47,000 different kinds) in these 22 years that the office of Plant Introduction has been in operation that Mr. Reed suggested that the nut growers would like to have thrown on the screen pictures of the nuts of foreign countries. I said that we did not have any. Then I began to dig into our own literature, project reports, experimenters cards, correspondence and the other recording machinery that we have and I found that we had a good many. I want to make it perfectly plain to you that what I am going to do tonight is simply to open a door and show you the possibilities of some of these foreign nuts. There are a great many more that we have not succeeded in landing on the shores of America, and if any one of you will come to my office on 13th and F streets I will throw all the correspondence and photographs on the table and let you look through it.

It has been said that the Department's work is badly organized. Yes, it is badly organized. But I do not know how you are going to very well organize with a small body of men a group of projects every one of which is a life job for a man, especially when you cannot get the men, and when you do get them they do not stay on the job for life. So there is the great difficulty. Mr. Littlepage has hit the nail on the head. The Department of Agriculture is not well organized but it is not an easy thing to organize experimental work on at least 150 different kinds of industries with the money and the men we have. The fact that the investigations require the men to be on the land close to their work and that we are all in city buildings, is a great handicap. We have scarcely a tree or shrub or plant of any kind that bears on our work within two or three miles of the Department of Agriculture building. We need the land. We need a great many more men, and we need more money.

I landed in Greece in 1901. In Athens I saw them selling on the streets these pistache nuts which I opened with my fingers. The kernels are a brilliant green. I had never seem them before. I had heard of them. They were sold around the streets by the Greek peddlers and called pistachios. The pistache or pistachio industry is one which I wish some young, energetic man of seventy would take up. I say 70 because it requires a young man of seventy to take up one of these nut industries, the boys of 26 are too old. Some young fellow of seventy should go into the pistache industry and find out what there is in it and develop it into a great industry. The American Consul in Palestine told me six or eight years ago that there was no plant culture in all Palestine that paid so well as a pistache orchard. Trees have been known to yield as much as 40 to 50 dollars apiece. The Grecian pistaches are different from those of Tunis and Algeria and others of the Mediterranean countries. There are a good many different varieties.

This picture shows a piece of praline made of pistaches. This is sold on the streets of Athens and compares very favorably with our pralines made in New Orleans from the kernel of the pecan.

Mr. Chisholm, who was connected with the Consulate in Athens and who spoke Greek very well, took me out and showed me what these pistache trees looked like and when I found this miscellaneous lot of grafted pistache trees I made an arrangement to purchase the whole collection and send it to this country. I had great difficulty in getting the American Consul in Piraeus to help me ship them. I could not wait indefinitely and it took a good while to have them dug and packed. I asked him if he would send them and he said he was very busy. I told him this was a matter which concerned the people of the United States and if he did not have time to do it I would telegraph to the Secretary of Agriculture and tell him that the Consul in Athens was too busy to ship these plants. Finally he consented to ship them and this was the first shipment of grafted pistache trees to arrive in America. They were badly grafted, badly packed and badly prepared and I think only one of this whole collection survived and is now growing in the Gallespie grounds at Montecito, California.

Mr. Kearney ought to be here tonight and Mr. Swingle and Dr. Rixford. These three men have given more attention to the pistache than I have. Mr. Kearney was studying the date palm industry of Southern Tunis and in connection with it he made a study of the pistache industry of the desert region of the coast of Tunis. This picture represents an Arab standing beside an old pistache tree that probably is forty or fifty years of age. It represents the pistache in its winter dress. They are deciduous trees. They plant one male tree to about twenty females. We have had a great real of difficulty in propagating these pistache trees. We have five different species of stock on which to grow them, and we ought to learn all the best varieties in the world. But unfortunately some of the best varieties in Sicily are infested with a moth which lays its eggs in the twigs just below the leaf scar and it is impossible for the entomologist to detect these eggs without destroying the buds. That apparently trivial circumstance has made it impossible for us to get these cuttings in from Sicily without sending a trained horticulturist there for them. We never have had the money to send a man there who could do it, a man who had had the necessary experience. As a consequence we have not as big a collection of these pistache varieties as we ought to have.

These men in the photograph are getting the scions for Mr. Kearney, and I am glad to say that these particular scions which they cut are now growing in California. Mr. Kearney also on this same trip visited the Duke de Bronte estate on the slopes of Mount Etna. It was an estate bequeathed by the King of Italy to Lord Nelson, who was made the Duke de Bronte and it is still the property of the Nelson family. Mr. Beck, who was the manager for this estate and with whom we have had correspondence for nearly 18 years, gave us perhaps more information than we have gotten from any other foreign source on the cultivation of the pistache. The Trabonella, which was one of the best commercial varieties, came from the Bronte estate on the slopes of Mount Etna, where pistache growing is a paying industry. In Europe the nuts are very largely used, outside of the Mediterranean region for making the pistache ice cream because of the green color in the seed itself, and in the Mediterranean region both the yellow and green varieties as we are coming to use them in this country, as table nuts. The highest price is paid for the green pistache nuts which are used in ice creams and confectioneries. Here are two Sicilian horticulturists, one of them holding a bundle of bud sticks. This Trabonella variety is now growing in America. We have collected pistache nuts from many parts of the world. A very interesting man by the name of Jewett who became acquainted with the late Ameer of Afghanistan procured for us the Afghanistan pistache. I got in correspondence with him through the Consul in Calcutta. Through a mistake made in sending some of this correspondence direct instead of to Calcutta it nearly cost him his life. I did not know the conditions there and asked Jewett in my letter what the possibilities were of sending an Agricultural explorer there. The letter fell into the hands of the Ameer and aroused his suspicions. Jewett was one of the two English speaking persons at that time in the country. One Sunday morning my door bell rang, and Jewett came to my house in Connecticut Avenue with two big saddle bags filled with seed sent by the Ameer. This collection of pistache seeds with its Afghanistan label composed part of the collection of seeds. Very few of the seeds grew however and the seedlings, which like many nut trees do not come true to seed, have not produced any varieties of particular value.

A year ago I had the pleasure of making a motor tour through California. I went to see Leonard Coats, one of those real pioneers of 65 or 70 years of age, who has perhaps done as much for California horticulture as any other one nurseryman, and he took me up into his orchard on the hill side overlooking his nursery where no drops of rain had fallen between the months of March and October when I was there and where they only have 22 inches of rainfall anyway, and I found growing there this collection of pistache trees which we had sent him about ten years ago. The nuts are borne towards the ends of the branches. The tree is able to withstand any amount of drought and as I sat there and he told me how prohibition had wiped out the vineyards of the surrounding country, how the Italians had deserted them and gone back to Italy, I could not help feeling that in this beginning on his hillsides we had the possibility of covering those thousands of acres of hillsides which exist in California today, from which the grape vines have been taken out, with a nut crop of the very first importance. These little beginnings are really the most interesting things in life. I read in the paper today that this is the ninety-fourth anniversary of the first railroad in America and my mind went back to a conversation I had with Edward Everett Hale when he told me that his father was the first man to bring over an English locomotive to America. What do you suppose was the principal objection that the people had to railway exploitation in this country? They could not see how two trains could pass each other on the same track. So his father brought over from England a little model switch and put it down in his parlor and took people in there and showed them that two trains could pass if one ran off on a siding. That story of Edward Everett Hale has helped me to understand why it is that most people hesitate to go ahead into any new industry always seeing some impossibility in its development. I could probably prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt that not a single one of these nut trees I am showing you tonight could ever be made a success. Notwithstanding that they are successful.

This is one of the Sfax varieties from Tunis growing in our plant introduction gardens at Chico. We had to establish gardens where we could grow these trees and send out the young plants to growers and in these gardens we have test nurseries or test orchards as we call them where we grow these fruits. This is an Assyrian variety brought in by old Dr. Fuller who spent some time as a missionary in Asia Minor and became convinced of the importance of the pistache industry, and has been one of the pioneers in these small beginnings. This is a six years old tree. This is 15 years old a seedling tree near Fresno. It has borne a good many crops of fair sized pistache nuts as large as the Trabonella, the Sfax, the Tunis and the Alleppo and those forms which are going to be the real pistaches of the future in this country. The pistache in fruit is a most interesting sight. The nuts are pinkish. They have the pinkness of the peach, almost, without the fuz and they are covered with a thin skin which is taken off usually with the fingers. The nut inside has a texture that makes it very attractive. When they are first gathered it is very difficult to crack them with the fingers but if they are put in the oven and roasted they open up and leave a little suture into which you put your thumb nails and pry the ends open.

This picture gives you some idea of the yield of the pistache. It is a fair yielder, as much as fifty pounds of nuts having been borne by eight or nine year old trees. Ours have not done as well as that. The price of course ranges like the price of all other nuts. They sold last year for 75 cents a pound here in Washington. The kernels sell for $1.50.

This gives you a good idea of the pistache fruit with its outer shell, the nut and the green interior. If any of you are going to California and do not like the idea of taking up hazel nuts, walnuts and pecans, if you will take up this industry we will help you all we can. It will grow in Arizona, New Mexico, and we have records of them growing in Arkansas. They will stand a temperature below zero. Trees have been known to live through several winters even in Southern Kansas.

In all these investigations we have found the stock problem is very important. Here we have the Pistachia atlantica which has much smaller seeds. It is this that we are using most commonly as a stock for the pistaches that are being grown in California. Frank N. Meyer brought back from China the seeds of the Chinese pistache, the hardiest of all pistaches, a tree which has been almost hardy even as far north as Washington and central Kansas. It is not only a nut tree but a magnificent ornamental tree and grows to a very large size. We have used it as an avenue tree leading to our plant introduction gardens in Chico because it colors up so beautifully in the autumn and the spring. In the spring the tips of these leaves and branches are a brilliant pink and in the autumn it turns a gorgeous scarlet. It is destined to be one of the best landscape trees of California in our opinion. It grows to be centuries old.

Frank Meyer standing beside a tree which has stood three centuries at least. Imagine what pleasure he would have had had he only lived to walk under this great avenue in his old age.

The question of congeniality between the true pistache and the Chinese pistache is shown here. We rather jumped to the conclusion, when we found that the ordinary pistache overgrew the Chinese pistache, that perhaps it was not so good a stock as we first thought, but I notice, looking back at my photograph taken in Greece in 1901, that the regular stocks used by the Greeks for the pistache are overgrown in the same way by the true pistache. We have much larger trees than these now in Chico and as the Chinese pistaches are very old and large trees we have come to the conclusion that in all probability the pistache will be successful on this Chinese stock.

I was walking through a market in Hong Kong in 1902 and I saw a few bushels of nuts that I had never heard of or seen before. The nuts looked like acorns but when I picked them up I found them as hard as hickory nuts. I cracked one of them with a brick and it was almost as hard to crack as a hickory nut. It was unmistakably an acorn, I thought, and I bought a bushel of the nuts and sent them to this country. It is called Pisania by botanists and it has many of the characteristics of an acorn. The kernel of this nut comes out whole and for that reason it would be very easily cracked by mechanical means. It has a sweetness which does not suggest an acorn. It does not remind you of the acorn. It is a commercial product in Southern China shipped down the West river and it seemed to me well worth while trying to grow it in the United States. We have had a great deal of trouble with it. We did not find the right place for it at first. It was hardy here in Washington, even, for a few seasons but the temperature at seventeen, eighteen and twenty below zero finally killed it out. It is now growing down in Mississippi.

Here is a photograph sent me from Honkong, the only one I have of the tree as it appears on the hills of Honkong. This tree which is now 11 feet tall on the place of Mr. Joe Williams at Langdon, Mississippi, is one of the few that is now growing in the United States. There is one in Southern California. It probably would be perfectly hardy along the Gulf coast. Just how good a bearer it is going to prove I do not know but it is very interesting even to register the fact that the plant is established in the Southern States.

The Macadamia ternifolia, or Queensland nut, is not quite so well known in Queensland as I thought it was. A very brilliant young man from Australia, by the name of Johnston, passed through my office the other day and I showed him the photograph of the Macadamia and to my chagrin he did not know much about it, although he was a very good botanist and a very keen man. He said "We do not pay much attention to these things over there." That is really characteristic of many of the foreign plants that we have brought in. They are not developed in their own countries any more than some of the fruits which we have in this country are not developed by us. Mr. Littlepage and I are going out in a day or two to see if we can find some larger papaws. Now the papaw has been just as badly neglected by the Americans as the Macadamia by the Australians and it may be that the only way to get the papaw developed is to send it to some other country and get them to develop it. We do not always develop our own possibilities.

This is a tree grown in Avon Park, Florida. It interests me very much because it looks as if it would be a good bearer, is suited to the sandy lands of southern and central Florida, seems to be quite hardy and is a beautiful nut. It will vie with any other edible nut that I know of. This tree is in the Royal Palm Gardens in Palm Beach. The trees were brought in by us about 1905 or 1906.

This is a tree in Cuba where it is perfectly at home.

This gives you an idea of the character of the nut in a bunch. This is the nut. The shells when opened are as attractive as anything I know of. This is a very thick walled variety. We have much thinner walled forms that have come from Hawaii where it is now being grown. The dark part is a maroon brown and the lighter part is a brilliant creamy yellow. Altogether it is an extremely attractive nut, an excellent eating nut and has very good food qualities. We have had them analyzed, and all the data are at the disposal of you gentlemen at any time you wish to consult our files.

One of the first pieces of foreign work I was asked to do for the government was to get and import the hard-shelled almonds of Spain. Most of you have eaten the Jordan almond and I imagine most of you think it comes from California, but there are very few Jordans grown in California and, so far as the investigations go which I have been able to make in California in co-operation with the candy manufacturers, I have discovered that the California growers are not growing the best almond in the world. That the IXL and the Nonpareil and other almonds are not considered sufficiently good for such men as Lowney to use in the manufacture of their almond candies was a surprise to me. And the reason? In the first place the skin of the kernel itself is too thick, the nut is too brittle and it has not the flavor of the imported nut. I was shocked the other day to read from cover to cover a bulletin on the subject of Almonds, and to find that not one word was said of flavor. It had to be a good cracker; but the marketable qualities did not take into consideration the question of the flavor of the kernel, its hardness or the thickness of skin.

This picture on the screen was taken in southeastern Spain. These are the almond crackers of Spain and a poorer lot of people I have never visited in my life. The little children, not over four years old, instead of playing as ours play, carry around with them in their hands little bundles of wheat straw which they braid with their hands as they play, making sombreros which are shipped to the Argentine. It is a very poor country where these grow. The soil Is very thin and very dry and these almond trees grow on the hillsides. It was with an unpleasant feeling that I took these cuttings from southeastern Spain, and brought them to America. I got them from the trees that were bearing these almonds, they were budded in California and we know where the trees are growing in California from these buds.

This is a view in one of these hillside plantations of southeastern Spain with two of the almond growers.

This is a view in the plains region near Valencia showing both the hard shelled almonds and the soft shelled ones. The soft shelled are those which are easily cracked with the fingers while the hard shelled have to be broken with a hammer or an instrument. It is these hard shelled almonds that we have been interested in getting.

I have not kept in touch with this almond situation as I would have if I had been a specialist on almonds instead of spreading my energies out over the whole field and it is time someone really got into the almond business. I once traveled fifty miles from Bobadilla, Spain to the next railway station between solid walls of seedling almonds in bloom. No American has ever been to these seedling orchards to see what they are. It should be possible to find in those rows that are now 25 years old late flowering varieties which would be adapted to the conditions in California or early flowering varieties which would cross pollinate the Jordan almond. But we have not had the extra man with which to do this and carry out the other things we have been obliged to do. The interesting thing about this Jordan almond is that it behaves differently in our country than it does over in Spain. You notice how smooth each one of these almonds is. There is no sharp keel on the Spanish grown Jordan almond at all. It is smooth all around. Here are the almonds grown in California from the scions which I brought in. You see how these "keels" are developed and the nut has also become more pointed. We have not had an opportunity to investigate this thing thoroughly, but I am convinced that this is an environmental effect. Dr. W. A. Taylor has suggested that the fact that the Jordan flowers before any other variety comes out may mean that the California nuts are the result of self fertilization and this self fertilization may be the cause of their different shape and texture. Either that or the bud wood which I brought over from Spain was not representative of the Jordan variety although I picked it from trees that were bearing these nuts and I saw the nuts and they were typical. Of course it is possible that on the bud stocks which I brought over there was this hereditary tendency to produce these keels. However, we have made importations of the Jordan almond since then with the same result. One of these was grown in California in the desert region and one in Niles where John Rock, the great pioneer horticulturist of California, had his orchards. Both of them behaved in the same way. I sent some of the best kernels from these imported Jordan almonds to Mr. Lowney, the candy manufacturer who imports large quantities of Jordan almonds from Spain, and he reported that he could not use them for his candy manufacture because they were too hard and the skin too tough.

One of the most interesting experiences of my life was in 1903 when I visited a French barber in a little town called Nevada City, California, in the foothills of the Sierras. He had come over to this country without a penny and had set up a barber shop in this little mining village of Nevada City. He had saved from his fees for cutting people's hair and shaving them, $3,000. He had bought a piece of barren hillside which everybody laughed at him for buying; and he sent an order for $2,500 worth of nut trees and fruit trees to a nursery firm in his old home in France. He did this without even having an irrigating system with which to irrigate those plants when they arrived. He told me with tears in his eyes how he had worked night and day, carrying buckets of water to save this collection of plants when it arrived from France. When I visited Felix Gillett in his plantation there, which he called the Barren Hill Nursery, I felt that I had never seen a more delightful spot in my life. It was a kind of a paradise which he had built up by his love for plants and his wonderful knowledge of the varieties which he handled. He certainly was one of the great experts of this country in the nut and fruit industry, particularly the nut industry. It is his collection of hazelnuts which Mr. Reed spoke of as having found its way into Mr. Quarnburg's hands. In fact I was at Mr. Quarnburg's place a year ago last summer and learned that he got his first start from this little French barber in the mountains of Nevada.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I thank you very much indeed for your attention.

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

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

MORNING SESSION FRIDAY OCTOBER 8, 1920

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

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



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

HONORABLE WILLIAM S. LINTON, SAGINAW, MICHIGAN

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

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

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

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

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

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

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

MOUNT VERNON WALNUT TS THRIVING IN INGHAM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My gratitude is cordially extended to each and every member.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DR. MORRIS: I second the motion.

The motion was carried unanimously.

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

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

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

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

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

MR. BIXBY: I second the motion.

The motion was carried unanimously.

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

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

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



THE PLACE OF NUT TREES IN OUR NORTHERN HORTICULTURE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

CHARLES LATHROP PACK, PRESIDENT, THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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



A NURSERY OF IMPROVED FILBERTS

CONRAD VOLLERTSEN, ROCHESTER, N. Y.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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