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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MR. VOLLERTSEN: Either way they grow easily.

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

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

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



NUTS NEEDED AS SUPPLEMENTARY FOODS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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



PROPAGATED HICKORIES

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

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

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

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

The next instance of successful hickory grafting and the one which is best known is the work of the late Henry Hales of Ridgewood, N. J. When he purchased his place some fifty years ago, he found on it a fine shagbark hickory tree. This had been standing longer than the oldest inhabitant could remember and it is supposed to have been one of the original forest trees of that section and spared on account of the excellent nuts it bore. It came to the attention of the late Andrew S. Fuller, author of the "Nut Culturist" published in 1896, and was described by him in 1870 in the Rural New Yorker. Shortly after this description, Mr. Hales received many requests for scions to which he generously responded and any propagator who thought he could propagate this hickory was given a chance to try, the conditions being that one-half of the successfully grafted trees should belong to Mr. Hales in payment for the scions sent. During the next ten years orders for scions were so numerous that the old tree was kept pretty well pruned. Mr. Hales received during the period only about two dozen trees from the thousands of scions which he sent out. According to Fuller's "Nut Culturist" these were largely grafted by Mr. J. R. Trumpey of Flushing, N. Y., now a part of New York City. Information which I received at the Hales place was that the trees growing there were grafted by Jackson Dawson of the Arnold Arboretum about 1891. Inasmuch as there appear to be trees of two different ages there it is probable that some trees were from one propagator and some from the other. The trees grafted by Jackson Dawson we know were on bitternut root and it seems likely that the others were also for one tree is not like the others and I was informed that that was a grafted tree, but the graft died and a shoot came out at the base of the graft which was thought to be from the graft but, after the tree had grown it became evident that it was not. The buds of this tree show evidence of the bitternut. The nuts, however are not pure bitternut and the tree is seemingly a bitternut x shagbark hybrid. All of the trees grafted by Jackson Dawson were bench grafted in the greenhouse on especially grown stocks. I have two trees on my place from Thomas Meehan & Sons, Germantown, Pa., propagated in the same way and, when received, the long tap roots were coiled up like springs showing that the trees had been grown in pots. These trees, however, have grown well since I planted them out though they were very small and feeble when set out. These grafted Hales trees at the Hales place bore nuts in eighteen to twenty years after grafting. They bore for about five years and then ceased bearing. I went to see them for the reason that I was informed by Miss Hales that the trees were not looking satisfactorily and she was afraid there was some disease on them. I requested the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture to allow Mr. S. M. McMurran, who has made a study of pecan rosette, to come and look at the trees for it seemed to me that they were similarly affected. He took specimens of the leaves and reported that he could find no evidence of insect or fungus trouble. He also made a careful examination of the soil, and the farm was gone over carefully looking at the pecan and hickory trees growing there of which there are a large number. Most of these did not seem to be in good condition although a few did. Tests made of the soil seemed to show that it was not the kind of soil in which hickories and pecans do their best. It was also ascertained that while Mr. Hales senior was living the trees had received an application of manure every year. Since his death they have not. This, in connection with the poorness of the soil for hickories, seems possible may be the reason for the cessation of bearing. It also seems likely that bitternut root is not a good stock for the shagbark. I have on my place two grafted Cedarapids trees, each of which when received was four years from the graft and four feet in height above the graft. One was on bitternut stock and one on shagbark. The one on shagbark stock had made about six inches the first year, a foot the second year, a foot and a half the third and two feet the fourth while in the case of the one on bitternut root the growths were reversed, two feet the first, a foot and a half the second year, a foot the third year and six inches the fourth year. Mr. Jones has also had the experience of grafting the Vest hickory on the bitternut, had it bear in two years, and then die. While the evidence we have on this subject is not conclusive as there may have been other factors which might have caused the trouble outside of the stock, it shows that the stock on which the different hickories are to be grafted is a matter of importance. Mr. Henry Hicks of Westbury, L. I., who a number of years ago became enthusiastic on the Hales hickory, has four grafted trees or those which he purchased for grafted on his place. One he has had twenty-seven years and it has not borne. It has been twice transplanted. He has two or three others which have not yet borne. Inasmuch as the buds of these trees are not all alike, it is very evident that they cannot all nave been grafted from the original Hales tree. The finest looking Hales hickory of which I know is on the place of Frederick E. Willets, Glen Cove, L. I. Mr. Willets could not tell me how many years it had been set out but it was quite a good many. It bears a few nuts but the tree has been disappointing in its performance. I examined it during the past summer and the nuts, of which there were not many on the tree, were dropping off. It was evident that some insect was attacking the husks which may account for the rather unsatisfactory bearing record.

In distinction from this rather unsatisfactory record of Hales trees we have great promise of something worth while in the only other bearing grafted transplanted hickory of which I can give information, Mr. Rush's Weiker tree. This was produced by. Mr. J. F. Jones when he was living in Monticello, Fla. A southern pecan nut was planted in 1902. It was root-grafted below the surface of the ground in 1903, sent to Mr. Rush in the spring of 1904 and planted out at that time. Mr. Jones says that the tree was not over eight inches high when sent. It bore its first nuts in 1917 and has borne a few every year since. This year the tree set full and had a good crop when I saw it last. The nuts borne by this tree are considerably larger than those of the parent Weiker tree. Inasmuch as the original Weiker tree has given us our best hickory bearing record, it seems not unlikely that this grafted Weiker tree may also be an unusually good bearer.

Against this slow record of grafted transplanted hickory trees, we have some remarkably quick results with top worked hickory trees. Mr. Jones has a bitternut tree now about five inches in diameter which was top worked in the Spring of 1916 to Fairbanks variety, ten grafts being put in, two of which blew out that summer or fall and were replaced the next spring. In 1919 all the grafts, the two year ones as well as the three year ones bore nuts, about 120 maturing. The tree set full of nuts in 1920, but caterpillers got on it, unnoted, and practically the entire crop dropped off. Mr. Jones also has a smaller bitternut tree top worked at the same time to Siers. It bore two nuts in 1919. He also has a mockernut tree top worked at the same time with Kirtland and which set some nuts in 1919 but which dropped off before maturity. It set quite a number in 1920. Mr. D. C. Snyder, Center Point, Iowa, has a shagbark hickory some twenty-five or thirty years old which was top worked shortly after it had begun to bear. In 1913 the four top limbs were top worked to Fairbanks hickory, the rest of the tree being undisturbed. In 1915 these grafts bore nuts and have borne every year since. In 1919 they bore two quarts. Inasmuch as this was a year when the hickory crop in that section was a failure it was thought to speak well for the bearing of the Fairbanks hickory. In 1916 four grafts of Dennis hickory were put in and three of Cedar Rapids. The Dennis grafts bore four nuts in 1918 and over a dozen in 1919. The Cedarapids bore one dozen in 1919 besides a number more which a squirrel got before Mr. Snyder did. Mr. William A. Baker of Wolcott, N. Y., top worked a bitternut tree to Fairbanks in 1917 and the tree bore ten nuts in 1919. Mr. Harvey Losee, Upper Red Hook, N. Y., grafted the young shoots of cut back hickories and out of three shoots so grafted had them bear in three, four and five years respectively. Dr. Morris has grafted a Taylor hickory on a small tree which bore five years after grafting. Dr. Deming on his place at Georgetown, Conn., has probably a greater collection of top worked hickories of various varieties than anybody else. These trees are growing finely and give promise of bearing early. A Taylor hickory on stock 1-1/4" diameter grafted, April 26, 1918 had ten nuts on it on June 27, 1920. A Griffin hickory grafted in 1915 which is now 2-1/2" in diameter had 81 nuts on it on the same date. There seems to be no question but that anyone who has land with hickory trees one to four inches in diameter can easily and quickly change them into orchards of hickories bearing fine nuts by top working.

We next come to the relative merit of the various hickories of which we know. I was fortunate in securing for the 1919 contest enough specimens of the greater portion of those hickories which have been propagated experimentally to a considerable extent so that some information on this point can be given. The printed slip which I will pass around gives the results of these tests and will give a better idea of the different nuts than can be done in any way except by passing around samples. It will be noted from the slip that the nuts run very close indeed and it is very probable that another year these nuts would not show exactly the same results for it has been clearly shown that nuts vary greatly from year to year. There are other characteristics of hickory nuts which are of great importance which are not shown in the annual contests. These are the bearing records of the tree, its ability to stand various diseases and most of all how it will work out when grown in orchard form. This can only be told by experience. From the fact that, in the 1919 contest, of the ten varieties of the experimentally propagated hickories there was only a difference of five points between the highest and the lowest, it shows that the merit of each nut is sufficient so that all of these should be tested out in orchard form. In other words we should not for example select the Vest and Manahan as the best that we have and propagate them to the exclusion of the others. It is probable that there will be great differences in the orchard behavior of these various hickories shown as this is done and that then we shall be able to select the most desirable varieties. Some tests made recently on nine standard southern pecans the Schley, Burkett, Moore, Alley, Delmas, Moneymaker, Pabst, Stuart and Vandeman show a great difference between the highest and lowest in the number of points awarded, this difference being 10 points as against 5 in the cast of the hickories. The Hatch bitternut and Stanley shellbark noted on this slip are here not because it is believed that, as market nuts, they will compare with the first ten mentioned but because they are the best nuts we now have which are not shagbarks or of which the shagbark is not one parent. It is believed that those nuts will be valuable for hybridizing purposes.

There is one matter suggested by the slip on which I will touch although it is not properly within the scope of the subject set for this paper and that is the possibilities of hickory breeding. Of the ten hickories noted on the slip as receiving 70 to 75 points, four, it is agreed, are hybrids. The examination which I have made of the others leads me to believe that more of them are, but four out of ten with the possibility of more is sufficient to cause us to take notice. There are some nine hickory species native in the north eastern United States and they hybridize to a considerable extent. Some of these species show most remarkable differences in characteristics. The shagbark is unexcelled for quality of kernel. The shellbark bears nuts as large as the largest black walnut. The bitternut bears nuts with a thinner shell than any of the finest southern pecans and with a larger proportion of kernel. What we know about practical plant hybridization leads us to believe that we can combine the good qualities of these various species of hickories. Think of what it would mean to have hickories equal in quality of kernel to the best shagbark, of the size of the largest black walnut with a shell thinner than the thinnest shelled pecan we have even seen, and with a larger proportion of kernel.

While the hickory is the nut which has given as the most trouble in propagation and gives us the most trouble in transplanting and grows the slowest, it is certainly difficult to find one which gives more promise either in growing the fine hickories we now have or in breeding up better ones. I am convinced that as soon as we can furnish the fine hickories we now have in commercial quantities they will command prices equal to those paid for the finest pecans.

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THE PRESIDENT: I will call upon Mr. J. F. Jones, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who has the subject of "Selecting and Handling Scions."



SELECTING AND HANDLING SCIONS

J. F. JONES, NUT SPECIALIST, LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA

In the selection of scions of nut trees for grafting the propagator should keep in mind the fact that the wood selected must be full of vitality and must be of solid, well matured growth, that will stand the maximum amount of exposure and hardship after being grafted, as the grafts and stocks of nut trees callous or heal very slowly in comparison to fruit trees, and the scions must be of solid, well matured growth if good results are to be obtained. These requirements usually go together however and if we select scions of solid, well matured growth, we usually get scions in which the tree has stored the maximum amount of "starch" or vitality.

HOW TO JUDGE SCIONS

The experienced propagator of nut trees can quickly distinguish between good and poor scions for grafting, but the beginner, not knowing the ear marks of good scions, often fails to select the best scions for grafting. The common mistake made by the beginner in the selection of scions of nut trees, is in selecting the smaller growth. The smaller growth is usually more pithy and lacking in vitality and gives poor results in grafting. Poor scions are usually characterized by pithy wood and a light colored, thin bark. The buds are usually farther apart than they are on good scion wood, though this is not always true, as good scions sometimes have the buds set well apart, except near the terminals. The distinguishing marks of good scions are solid, well matured growth, and a thick, dark colored bark. The buds are also larger and usually set closer together.

WHEN TO CUT SCIONS

Scions must be cut while the tree is still dormant and, in the case of trees that the wounds bleed when the tree is cut, as do the English and Japan walnuts, under certain conditions, we must guard against cutting scions soon after severe freezing weather and before the tree has fully recuperated. This semi-sappy condition of the trees following low temperatures that freeze the wood, seems to be a provision of nature to restore the moisture or sap lost from evaporation, and although more noticeable in some species of trees, notably the English walnut, this condition undoubtedly exists in other species of trees to a greater or less extent and we always try to avoid cutting scions of any kind soon after hard, freezing weather. I have found scions of the English and Japan walnuts, cut from trees in this condition, to be practically worthless for propagation, although the scions may have been cut in late winter, long before the sap gets up in the tree, naturally.

HANDLING AND KEEPING SCIONS

Scions of nut trees for grafting should be handled carefully to avoid rubbing off the buds, although this is not so important with nut trees as with fruit trees, for the reason that the more important nut trees such as the various walnuts, pecan and hickories have compound buds and if the larger buds should be destroyed the secondary buds may be counted upon to grow. The scions should be tied in bunches of a convenient size to handle and, after being well tied and carefully labeled, should be packed in paper lined boxes that will prevent evaporation of moisture in the parking material. Any material that will absorb and hold moisture and that will not heat when bulked, will answer the purpose for packing scions, but we have found sphagnum moss to be the best material for this purpose. This material can be obtained from the local florists or dealers in cut flowers usually. Sphagnum will absorb a good deal of moisture without actually becoming wet and will also hold this moisture and give it off more slowly than any other packing material with which I am familiar. This is especially important in keeping scions of nut trees in good condition for grafting, because, if packed too damp, the scions are soon spoiled for grafting, even if kept at a low temperature.

As a precaution against fungi, we usually use bordeaux mixture, two thirds standard strength, to dampen moss for packing scions, especially if they are to remain in storage several months.

Our rule is to use moss only slightly damp to the touch and if used in sufficient quantity, say two or three times as much bulk as we have of scions, we find no trouble in keeping scions in perfect condition for months. In fact, as an experiment, we have carried pecan scions in cold storage and without re-packing for fifteen months and then get a fair stand of grafts to grow.

We usually advise putting scions in cold storage where convenient, especially if they are for use in late May or June, but this is not at all necessary if the scions are packed in moss only slightly damp. In fact scions kept in an ordinary cellar at a temperature around 50 degrees have given us better results on the average the past two years than have those from cold storage.

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The association adjourned until 2 p. m.



AFTERNOON SESSION, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1920, 2 P. M.

THE PRESIDENT: We very fortunately have with us a gentleman from the Bureau of Entomology, Mr. F. E. Brooks, who will talk to us about nut insects for a time and we will be very glad to listen to him.

MR. BROOKS: I believe your program is full for this afternoon and I shall keep you but a few minutes.

A little more than a year ago the problem of insects affecting the nut crop of Northern United States was assigned to me by the Bureau of Entomology. I wish to say the work has been very delightful to me from several standpoints. In the first place, it has brought me into association with a delightful group of workers. I want to express to you the pleasure I have had in meeting the various nut growers of the northern part of this country and noting the hearty way in which they are ready to co-operate in solving the nut insect problems. The field of work is interesting because there appear to be in sight no insect pests that promise to embarrass or overwhelm the nut grower. We have a few quite serious insect problems, perhaps none more serious than that occasioned by our old acquaintance, the "chestnut worm." That problem, however, is being solved rapidly in many localities by the chestnut blight.

Thus far in the work, I have devoted most of my time to a study of the species attacking the fruit of nut trees, and I may mention three groups that have been given special consideration. First, the group to which the chestnut worm, or chestnut weevil, belongs. There are two very similar species of these weevils which attack chestnuts, one which attacks hickory nuts and pecans, one which attacks hazel nuts and numerous species which attack acorns. The adults of these weevils are medium-sized beetles, yellow, brown or gray in color, and all have enormously long snouts. The mouth is located at the point of the snout and the beetles use these snouts to bore through the covering of the nuts after the kernel is partially or fully formed. When the puncture into the nut is completed one or more eggs are inserted by means of an extensile, thread-like tube, or ovipositor, of the same length as the snout. The eggs hatch into the familiar worms found in ripe chestnuts, hickory-nuts and hazel nuts. The large hole in the shell of the nut is made by the full grown worm as it escapes to enter the ground, where it completes its transformation into a beetle. An interesting thing in connection with these weevils is that each species confine its attacks to one particular kind of nut. Even those species that attack acorns show a decided tendency to distinguish between oak species and confine themselves as groups very largely to particular species or botanical groups of oaks. There is, therefore, no danger that any of these weevils will multiply, for example in an oak forest, and then migrate into nearby plantations of chestnut, hickory or hazel. Hazels might be used for interplanting among chestnut or hickory trees with no danger that the hazel nuts would become infested by the weevils that develop in the chestnuts or hickory nuts. This habit of the weevils is greatly to the advantage of the person who would plant a particular kind of nut outside its natural range, or at a considerable distance from any other trees of its kind. He could do so with reasonable assurance that the weevil attacking his species of nut would not occur upon his trees until brought into the locality by artificial means.

There is another group of weevils, nearly related to the common plum curculio, the species of which attack immature nuts. In this group the snout is much shorter than in the group just described, and the insects are considerably smaller. There is one species, Conotrachelus juglandis, that confines its attacks to the young fruits and shoots of walnuts of the butternut group, another, Conotrachelus retentus, that seems to attack exclusively the black walnut fruits from the time they set until they are half grown, still another, Conotrachelus affinis, that appears to attack only half-grown hickory nuts. Another species, Conotrachelus aratus, feeds abundantly in some localities within the leaf petioles of hickory. At least two other species of the group commonly attack acorns. Those injuring walnuts lay their eggs on the concave side of crescent-shaped punctures which they eat in the husks of the young nuts. The larvae developing from the eggs cause the nuts to drop within a few weeks and the larvae enter the ground to complete their transformation. There is a divided tendency with some of these species to attack the young wood and leaf stems of the introduced species of walnut. Dr. Morris states that he has had young Japanese walnut trees killed by C. juglandis feeding in the grub stage within the branches. He has, however, found that the pest succumbs to an arsenate of lead spray.

Species of this group are apt to have alternating periods of increase and decrease and a year of great abundance may be followed by a year of comparative scarcity. This variation is due, at least in part, to the fact that the larvae, as they feed within the tissues of their host plants, often become rather heavily parasitized by certain two-winged and four-winged flies, the parasitized larvae dying before they reach the adult stage. Nature in this way does considerable toward holding the pests in check, but artificial means of control will often need to be considered.

The third group referred to is represented by a two-winged fly, about the size of the common house fly, known technically as Rhagoletis suavis, and commonly as the walnut husk-maggot. The fly is light brown in color, with broad, irregular, dark brown bands on the wings. It appears when walnuts are nearly grown and deposits clusters of small, white eggs within punctures in the husks. Maggots hatch from the eggs and at the time the walnuts drop these maggots are often found converting the inner parts of the husk into a blackened, pulpy mass. Infested nuts are disagreeable to handle and the husk does not part readily from the shell. I have found the fly attacking black walnuts, butternuts, Persian walnuts and Japanese walnuts, within the states of West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. It probably occurs over the natural range of the black walnut and butternut. It is proving to be a rather serious pest, especially of the Persian walnut. Some of the infested walnuts appear to drop prematurely and others adhere to the branches beyond the regular harvest time. The shell of infested Persian walnuts parts poorly from the husk and the nut is discolored, soiled and unmarketable.

The fly has rather interesting habits. I found that by pricking a nearly mature black walnut with a pin, the wounds would almost invariably be used in a little while by the female flies for depositing their eggs. In one such wound, 180 eggs were laid within 24 hours. When the husk was pricked a slight flow of juice would take place and the male flies would soon find the spot, and, recognizing, I suppose, a suitable place for the females to come to oviposit, they would stand guard at the puncture awaiting the coming of the female. On one occasion I made minute punctures in the husk of eight black walnuts and in a little while a male fly was located at each puncture. Pairing took place usually as soon as the female came and began to lay eggs. Sometimes a male would be found at a puncture in the early morning and would hold its position against all coming males throughout the entire day. When another male would come to the nut the two flies would rear up facing each other and engage in a brief sparring bout with their front legs. Usually, the original occupant of the nut would be the victor. In some experimental spraying of Persian walnut trees in Maryland and Pennsylvania the past season with a sweetened arsenate of lead spray apparently good results were obtained. In one case it seemed that the spraying was about 75 per cent efficient in controlling the pest. In in another case, whereas last year 75 nuts in 100 were infested, this year, after spraying only four nuts in 100 contained the maggots at harvest time.

I desire to state to the nut growers that I am interested in any nut insect problems that you may encounter and shall always be glad to receive reports and specimens. Your co-operation in this work is greatly appreciated and I hope we may continue to work together and that before long we may have more definite knowledge of the means of preventing, to some extent at least, the various forms of injury by insects to the nut crop.

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MR. RUSH: I cannot help but express a word of gratitude and appreciation to my friend Mr. Brooks in helping me out of a serious difficulty that I had in connection with walnut culture at Lancaster. A year ago I was ready to throw up the sponge. In fact I might say that my whole crop last year was destroyed by this husk-maggot. This year I have a very fine crop. Last year it was practically worthless. This year I have very few walnuts that were affected by the maggots, largely owing to the successful spraying that he gave the trees at the proper time. I think the future has a bright prospect for making walnut culture more profitable.

THE PRESIDENT: We are certainly under obligations for the very interesting talk and glad that Mr. Brooks could be with us.

The first thing on the program for the afternoon session, according to the published program, I know will be of a most interesting character, Top-Working Hickories, by Robert T. Morris.



TOP WORKING HICKORIES

ROBERT T. MORRIS, NEW YORK

At the present time when our views on the subject of top working trees are based upon incomplete knowledge and experience perhaps it is unwise to present a paper upon the subject which might be taken as authoritative. On the other hand my experience to date is worth recording for its face value, subject to change of view subsequently.

Different species of hickory act differently when subjected to top working methods. The bitternut may be cut back severely without giving evidence of any great degree of shock. The shagbark on the contrary makes slow recovery and many years are required for a cut-back shagbark hickory to regain normal equilibrium between top and root. The pignut and mockernut apparently stand midway between the bitternut and the shagbark in respect to the trimming of the top. My experience with shagbark includes the top working of trees ranging from a few inches in diameter up to fifteen or twenty inches in diameter, and the cutting back has included all stages from actual felling of the tree to cutting off half of the top or less than half of the top. The idea of felling trees completely was to graft stump sprouts or to insert the slot bark graft into the stump near the ground. When this has been done the larger hickories do not send up stump sprouts at all and the root dies excepting in cases in which a slot bark graft has been introduced. The graft grows slowly without a great degree of vigor and requires so many years for balancing the root that the method has not been practical up to the present time. The same statement is true of the shagbark hickory which has been trimmed back very severely leaving nothing but the stubs of large branches to be grafted immediately or for the purpose of grafting sprouts in the following year. The bark of the shagbark hickory is so hard that new shoots are choked severely and many years are required before they have a secure hold upon the stock. My final conclusion is that we may cut shagbark limbs having a diameter of three inches or less for the purpose of leaving grafting stubs. If a large number of grafts are inserted in such a topworked tree or in stock sprouts which start and are grafted in the following year the work is successful. In order to avoid the labor of topworking a large shagbark tree in its entirety we may graft only one or two limbs and allow stock sprouts to grow on other limbs until both stock sprouts and graft sprouts have become well branched. Branches carrying stock sprouts may then be removed a few at a time year after year, leaving the graft sprouts in charge finally.

By means of the bark slot method of grafting grafts may be inserted in any part of a hickory tree. The bark slot method consists in using a chisel and mallet for cutting parallel lines the width of the scion in the bark of the stock. The tongue of bark between the parallel lines is pried outward with the point of the chisel until the scion has been inserted next the wood and the tongue of bark is then allowed to return to place, leaving the scion interposed between the tongue of bark and the wood. Rules which apply to the shagbark may be applied to all of the hickories with which I have experimented. When cutting back the limbs in preparation for topworking it is well to leave as many as possible of stubs or branches of small diameter. Branches of small diameter may be grafted by ordinary cleft grafting methods but branches of larger diameter should be treated by the bark slot method. At the present time and in the locality of my country place at Stamford, Connecticut, melted paraffin suffices in place of grafting wax and melted paraffin is brushed over the entire scion, buds and all, as well as over the wound in the stock.

The time for cutting back hickories in preparation for topworking is probably important and in my experience to date, autumn cutting is preferable. The reason is that a good deal of activity is going on in the tree before it enters into a state of winter rest and wounds are pretty well repaired. In winter cutting there is some danger of incomplete repair and in the springtime the free flow of sap invites the entrance of various enemies, bacterial and fungous. Summer cutting according to the laws of plant physiology would cause more shock to the tree than cutting at any other time, although practically I have done this successfully. Without regard to season for cutting in preparation for topworking it is very important to trim cut ends very smoothly with a sharp knife in order to remove ragged tissue left by the saw. It is difficult to persuade employees to do this and it will not be done as a rule unless the owner looks after the matter personally. The smoothly trimmed end of the cut branch should immediately be protected with white paint, melted paraffin, or some other protective covering.

What are the disadvantages of the slot bark method of topworking hickories? The scion does not have such a secure hold upon the stock as it does in cleft grafting and it will blow out in a high wind unless it is protected by braces. I have found it not harmful to a tree to fasten laths to the stock for holding the growing scion, driving galvanized iron nails through the lath directly into the stock. Unless growing grafts are well braced by some method the entire season's work may be lost in two minutes of a gale preceding a thunderstorm in summer. By the slot bark method, in other words, we may catch more grafts and lose more grafts than by any other method with which I am familiar, but the loss may be avoided by proper attention.

The best time for grafting varies with the locality. At Stamford I have grafted hickories from February until September. Very early grafting is largely a failure because of incomplete repair of the wound in the stock and scion. Late summer grafting is not practical because the scions which make a start do not lignify their new shoots sufficiently to withstand the winter cold. In late April or early May when the sap is running very freely we also have a considerable loss of scions because an excess of water causes the scion shoots to grow too rapidly before wound repair has taken place to the point necessary for conducting nutrition for the growing shoots. Grafting after the leaves are pretty well out on the tree has given me best success. Grafting from then up to the last week in July has been found to be practical. Scions for topworking hickories have been employed for what I call "mediate" and "immediate" grafting. By mediate grafting is meant the employment of scions which have been cut while they were dormant and which have been stored in any appropriate way. Immediate grafting means the transference of scions cut from one tree and used upon another in the same hour or day. Mediate grafting is the sort which belongs to all history of the subject and immediate grafting relates more particularly to my recent experimental work.

* * * * *

MR. BECHTEL: What kind of wax did you use if any besides paraffin?

DR. MORRIS: I have given up everything but that. The paraffin has a number of special advantages. In the first place, it seals any wound against infection from bacteria or fungi. It prevents moisture from rain carrying bacteria into the wound. It prevents evaporation from the cut surfaces.

MR. BECHTEL: Doesn't it melt too much in the sun?

DR. MORRIS: It might with you and you might need to use a harder paraffin. There are a great many kinds of paraffin. The paraffin series is a large one in chemistry. The one I find best for our locality is the common parowax that you can find in any grocery store. I use just the pure straight thing but in your country you are further south and may need a different one. It does melt some in the middle of a hot day and will be nearly fluid sometimes but it hardens up when the sun goes down.

MR. FOSTER: Were the grafts kept in cold storage?

DR. MORRIS: I have used two ways of keeping grafts for top working. Some have been kept in cold storage, others have been kept in the ice house. I have been in the habit of kicking up the sawdust and dropping scions in the hole not very far above the ice. Last year I could not get any ice and two years ago I could not get any but the scions kept just as well in the sawdust near the ground. Then I have kept them packed in leaves with two feet of leaves on top of the scions. I have also kept some as Mr. Jones has but the difficulty is in keeping them at the right degree of moisture. The enzymes go to work the minute the cells of the scion have a full charge of water despite low temperature unless it is actually below freezing. Scions of another kind are the ones that I cut off from one tree and put on the next tree the same hour or day. That has only been possible by this method that I now employ. Almost any time in the summer we can do that without keeping the scions in storage at all. I gave some of them a resting period experimentally for a day or two but to no advantage.

PROF. CLOSE: Don't you have to be pretty careful with the melted paraffin so as not to injure the tissue?

DR. MORRIS: Yes we need special apparatus. I took a lantern, cut out the top and sunk a spun cup down in the lantern. On a cold day I turn the alcohol flame higher than in a warm day. I have been trying to have this lantern made so that it could be got on the market. There is nothing else to my knowledge that will allow the grafter to regulate the temperature of melted wax according to the weather. I am going to get it manufactured so you can each have one.

MR. BIXBY: There is a series of paraffines pure paraffines which are known only in chemical laboratories and also a number which can be obtained without much difficulty. The common parowax I think is the grade that is known in the trade as 120. That is it melts at 120 degrees F. but paraffin can be obtained without much difficulty that melts at 125 deg., 128 deg. and 130 deg., so if the parowax is too soft for Mr. Bechtel's district I am sure he can get something that will be all right. He might have to send to New York to get it but it is readily obtained there.

MR. BECHTEL: I have used bees wax and find that that melts at a higher temperature.

DR. MORRIS: I want complete transparency.

MR. FOSTER: Would it be out of order for a beginner to ask what type of grafting Dr. Morris uses in his work on these trees.

DR. MORRIS: I think that somebody who was not a beginner might ask that quite as well. I have tried almost all the methods employed by the experts and have gotten down to very simple principles. If I am going to get fifty, sixty, eighty or ninety per cent of catches in hickory as we sometimes do I have to use methods that are very simple. For limbs that are small not larger than one's finger the plain cleft graft is good enough and I like as far as possible to choose a branch that is about the diameter of the scion. If the limb is larger in diameter than the scion I make my cleft to one side so that the cambium line of stock and scion will correspond. It is important to have cambium layers together. By all means the best feature of all in my grafting work is what I call the bark slot. This bark slot consists in making two parallel lines in the stock bark the width of the scion. I turn down that tongue of bark and stick in the scion. I turn back the bark again and bind all with raffia. That is the bark slot graft. The bark slot is by all means the most successful method that I have ever employed. What are the objections to it? Not so firm a hold on the stock as you will get in a cleft. What are you going to do about it? Put on good strong braces for the growing stock. I find it does not do much harm to drive galvanized nails right into the tree to hold the brace, three or four nails right into the limb, and then tie the rapidly growing shoot to the brace. If I do not do that the new shoot blows out very readily when I use the bark slot. In other words you will catch more by this method and lose more unless you give the grafts a good deal of attention.

PROF. CLOSE: How do you trim the scion?

DR. MORRIS: I trim it mostly with one good long cut on one side and sometimes turn it over and make a little nick on the other, but one good long cut is usually all that it needs.

PROF. CLOSE: Supposing the bark does not peel?

DR. MORRIS: If it does not I think the chances are against its catching your graft. I have done all my grafting until this year at times when the bark peeled but this year I carried it up into September after the bark had set and I am trying to see if I can get a catch then. In that case I take a chisel and chisel off the bark where it is hide-bound. The experiment may be a failure but I have had so many failures that they are sort of a pleasant experience.

MR. FOSTER: In the cutting back I understand that you prefer to do so when the tree is dormant. Then in the spring when you start your grafting do you leave that cut just as it is or do you cut it off again?

DR. MORRIS: These are very important questions that are coming out. When you have sawed off the limb trim the end neatly with a sharp knife. An employee will almost always leave the cut end ragged but if you do it yourself and have smooth ends and cover them with paraffin you can graft right squarely on that end. Turn down your bark for a slot and stick in the scion at any time. If the cut end was made by someone who was not careful make a cut down through any living bark with a chisel or a knife until you get down to the wood, then make parallel lines from that point and turn down the tongue of bark. I have put in scions where I had to use a heavy chisel and mallet to turn down the tongue. It was not necessary to put on any binding there where the tongue of bark was so thick.

PROF. CLOSE: I understand you to say that if the end has become dried you go down below the dried part?

DR. MORRIS: When I find the end of the stub dry I go below that point to get live bark for grafting purposes. After my scion is well under way a year or so then I saw off any projecting stub beyond the graft and put paraffin over the cut end. That form of graft works very well except that it makes more work.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: I have been very much interested in what Dr. Morris said. I found it no trouble whatever to get a hickory from four to six or eight inches to grow a great big graft, but I have never seen one live three years. I have my woods full of dead ones. I have one in front of my house now which I slip-bark grafted about the diameter of two inches and it is still growing but I expect an invitation to its funeral next spring. I have never seen a hickory tree successfully grafted over five inches in diameter. I found in my woods that the trees would sometimes die down to the ground. If they lived they would drag along for two or three years. If those of you who were out there yesterday had had a little more time I could have shown you those dead hickories. I would like to know what your experience is in grafting hickories over an inch in diameter.

DR. MORRIS: That is an important point and it relates to the matter of cutting back to such an extent that it causes too much shock to the tree. In very large hickories I have cut them hack to short stubs and have had a number of them die. On the other hand where I have cut back so that the largest limbs cut were not more than three inches in diameter those trees would do very well. I have living shag bark grafts now on trees that are from five inches to more than fifteen inches in diameter.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: Do you cut these back in the winter or spring?

DR. MORRIS: I do not remember about all. Some, were cut back in both seasons. Winter is probably better. Autumn better yet.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: I cut mine in the spring.

DR. MORRIS: That has a lot to do with it if the trees bleed too much.

MR. FOSTER: Are your pignuts native?

MR. LITTLEPAGE: I think most of them are worse than that.

MR. FOSTER: They are familiarly known in my state as pig nuts.

PROF. CLOSE: You could top-work them.

THE PRESIDENT: We will proceed with the next number. We are honored in having with us the President of the National Nut Growers Association who has come to us all the way from the southland to tell us about selection and propagation for the improvement of the pecan. I now have the honor of presenting to you Mr. Theodore Bechtel, President of the National Association.

MR. BECHTEL: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: After having listened to so many good papers and addresses it seems to me that as far as imparting any knowledge to this audience my trip may have been in vain. However I assure you as this is my first visit to Washington it lacks a whole lot of being in vain from what I have already seen and enjoyed. I may be able to add a few points to what has already been said.



SELECTION AND PROPAGATION FOR IMPROVEMENT OF PECANS

THEODORE BECHTEL, OCEAN SPRINGS, MISSISSIPPI

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is indeed a great pleasure to meet you all here in the interest of Horticulture, one of the greatest, and, by the way, the oldest industries of which we have any record, since Adam and Eve were engaged in it, and in the interest of one of the greatest branches of that industry, Nut Culture, and this in the greatest city on Earth, because it is the seat of Government of the greatest nation on Earth. We are all here, primarily, in the interest of Nut Culture and I venture to say that these meetings will not be in vain, as a congregation of such intelligence, interest and determination as I see displayed here is certain to accomplish much in the course of time. The very fact that there are many problems in Nut Culture to be worked out makes the industry the more interesting for those who are not looking for an easy get-rich-quick scheme. We have accomplished some things in the line of propagation of pecans which were said to be impossible only a few years ago, and they now seem easy. The problems you will have to work out in the Northern pecan section, as it appears to me, are selection and development of suitable varieties for your climate. This will no doubt be done by using the best hardy varieties you already have, some of which are showing good results, and crossing these just as is being done in the South now by our Government officials and by several private individuals. This great Government of ours has an Agricultural Department which is capable of performing tasks in the way of experimental work in this line on an extensive scale, which would be too great an undertaking for an individual, and we should use every effort to induce this work to be extended to the Northern sections, if it has not already been begun.

The results obtained by Mr. C. Forkert, of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, who was one of the first to take up the work, are highly interesting and give satisfactory evidence of what can be done by way of combining the good qualities of two varieties by a systematic scientific method of cross pollenizing and the work of Dr. Van Fleet, whose place we visited yesterday certainly was convincing of the great possibilities along this line of work. The fact that you have not the best now does not indicate that you will not in time surpass in results some of the sections where pecans now abound. Jackson County, Mississippi, had no native pecan forest to start with and yet we now have some of the best and most profitable orchards in the world, and it is the place where most of the standard high class varieties have originated.

In the selection of varieties upon which to build up your pecan industry be careful to choose varieties showing as many of the following qualities as possible: Productiveness, hardiness, early maturity, plumpness of kernel, good flavor and cracking qualities. The varieties selected for cross pollenization should combine as many of the desirable qualities as possible. By grafting from the young hybrids into the top of old bearing trees you may have samples of nuts in a very few years. The propagation of pecans in the Northern nurseries seems to be well under way and will no doubt be stimulated as orchard planting increases.

I might add as a suggestion that seedlings to graft upon be raised from seed obtained as near by and as nearly in the same latitude as possible as these will usually be found best adapted to local conditions of that section.

Whether grafting or budding is the best method of propagation will likely depend upon local conditions. We find in the far South that budding succeeds best in some localities while grafting is best in others. Ultimate results of the two methods in the orchards are equal. In sections where there are native pecans growing in suitable places these should be top worked to the best hardy varieties possible for quick results. The best method to do this work will also depend upon local conditions and seasons. The slip mark method of grafting as early in the spring as the bark will slip, will no doubt be one of the most expeditious, as it is quickly done, and in many sections is very successful, providing the scions are kept perfectly dormant and the waxing and tying are carefully done.

As commercial orcharding is still in the experimental stage in the Northern section of our country it will be well to sound a note of warning to prospective planters that they may avoid some of the mistakes that we in the Southern pecan belt made at one time. Next to the neglect, which some of the planters allowed their orchards to undergo, probably the selection of the wrong kind of land has been the cause of more disappointment than any other one source. A fertile soil deep, mellow, well drained sandy or gravelly clay subsoil should be ideal for pecans anywhere in the latitude in which they are hardy. However, many other types of soil are producing pecans, and if your home happens to be located where the soil is not ideal, you can still grow them by furnishing the elements which nature has failed to provide, if your soil is well drained and free from hard pan. The planting and cultivation, to be sure, must be carefully and thoroughly done to insure success anywhere.

I will say in conclusion that I believe there are wonderful possibilities in Nut Culture in this country of ours. We know it is an established fact that nuts are entered into the dietary of our upwards of one hundred and ten million inhabitants of the United States of America more and more from day to day. We have evidence of this in our importations of nuts, which have increased from year to year until they have nearly reached the enormous value of $57,000,000 for the year 1919 as stated by the American Nut Journal. Then, too, there certainly can be no more fascinating branch of horticulture combined at the same time with financial reward.

Now, let me thank you for your attention and say that I only wish that every one of you might join us in our big meeting of the National Association at Austin, Texas, next week.

* * * * *

MR. FOSTER: A thought occurs to me in connection with Dr. Morris' idea of paraffin for use in warm climates. I happen to know as a patent attorney that in the manufacture of candles in order to give paraffin heat resisting qualities they introduce stearic acid. I have no doubt that it would be just as successfully employed in paraffin for the purpose of grafting. I think in candle making they add something like ten or fifteen per cent to the ordinary paraffin.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: I think we are very fortunate to have with us Mr. Bechtel and Mr. Perry from down South who are really in the nut business. The problem before us is varieties. If you want to plant black walnuts what walnut do you want to plant? Just because I happen to say that Stabler is a first-class walnut does not make it so. If you want to plant English walnuts what variety? I said to Dr. Van Dazce a few years ago, "I wish I knew more about that variety." He said: "Don't bother about that. You will be top working them all in a few years." (Applause.) I have found a bigger pecan down in Indiana than the Major. It is a big type and I wish we knew more about it. I wish the Department of Agriculture would make an investigation and find out. What nuts to plant and what soil to plant them on and what varieties to plant it seems to me ought to be the trend of our talk here at these meetings, and I am glad that Mr. Bechtel has taken up that question.

MR. OLCOTT: I think the members of the association would be interested in hearing a brief account from Mr. Bixby of the only commercial nut planting proposition in the North at present,—a very successful one. He has visited it within a week and I think he could tell us what varieties they have planted.

THE SECRETARY: About a week ago I was at Alton, Illinois, at the place of Mr. E. A. Riehl. He has been a pioneer in many things, in fruit culture and what interests us more today in nut culture. He is outside the native chestnut belt and many years ago he planted some native American chestnuts. When the Rochester chestnut came out he planted it and he obtained from the late J. R. Parry of Parry, N. J., his best Japan chestnuts including the Reliance. He also obtained Boone trees from the originator the late Geo. W. Endicott, Villa Ridge, Ill. He has raised many seedling trees from the above varieties and planted a small hillside to them. Out of those he has selected the best and is propagating from them. He has chestnuts there that I wish I might show here, some that are fifty per cent larger than Paragon and with a better flavor. Furthermore they will drop out of the husks so that it is not necessary to pick up an unopened burr and heat it or pound it to get the nuts out. He has now between one and two thousand chestnut trees. Most of his chestnut trees however are seedling trees which do not bear nearly as well as his best trees. The greater part of his trees are in land that has never been cultivated. Many of his trees are not yet in bearing. Some of his trees however are now 25 to 28 feet spread and bearing heavily. He is certain that the yield of his orchard could be greatly increased by top working the poor bearers and that he is doing. Still he told me be obtained not less than 35c per pound for any of the crop and for some as high as 40c and 50c wholesale. In 1920 he produced over 4000 pounds.

In this connection a short history of the Boone tree will be of interest. In the spring of 1895 Mr. Endicott fertilized blossoms of Parry's Japan Giant chestnut with pollen of a native American chestnut and planted the nuts. This cross was made with difficulty for the American and Japan chestnuts do not bloom at the same time and it was several years after he had made up his mind to make the cross before he was able to do it. In the fall of 1897 one of the trees produced six burrs filled with nuts and was named the Boone. Since then it has borne as follows: 1898, 1 lb.; 1899, 3 lbs.; 1900, 5 lbs.; 1901, 6 lbs.; 1902, 8 lbs.; 1903, 12 lbs.; 1904, 17 lbs.; 1905, 25 lbs.; 1906, 31 lbs.; 1907, 43 lbs.; 1908, 50 lbs.; 1909, 56 lbs.; 1910, 5 lbs. (small crop due to hard freeze in April); 1911, 80 lbs.; 1912, 76 lbs.; 1913, 140 lbs.; 1920, 153 lbs. I am not informed as to the crops in 1914 to 1919 inclusive. Two other trees of the same parentage planted at the same time bore 128 lbs. and 168 lbs. respectively in 1920. If we consider that chestnut trees are set 40 feet apart each way, which means 27 trees to the acre, and estimated the crop at a fraction of that borne by the Boone tree we shall still have figures sufficient to show the wonderful possibilities of the chestnut in those sections outside of the native chestnut area of the country where it will succeed.

Mr. Riehl also has black Walnuts. He procured a Thomas black walnut from Joseph W. Thomas & Son, King of Prussia, Pa., fifteen or sixteen years ago. From that original Thomas tree he has top worked a lot of seedling black walnut trees and he has I should think between one and two hundred in bearing at the present time many of them bearing heavy crops. It is very evident that Mr. Riehl has in his chestnuts and in his black walnuts gotten northern nut culture down to the point where it pays. I wanted to get Mr. Olcott to go there on his trip and get some facts from Mr. Riehl to present at this meeting. When I was there I had another mission in mind and I spent the time in getting what I went for. Consequently I did not get all the practical details and results in dollars and cents which we ought to have to demonstrate that it has been a commercial success. But I am satisfied that it is because he is constantly increasing his plantings.

MR. JONES: Two years ago he favored black walnuts.

MR. BECHTEL: What has he done with pecans?

THE SECRETARY: The pecan is native with him but he is probably pretty near its northern limit even though I have found it bearing good crops further north. The pecans I have seen at Alton do not seem to be bearing much. He has one or two northern varieties top worked on native pecans one eight years old and another one five neither one of which is bearing.

MR. BECHTEL: He had a very small choice nut that he prized very highly and sent me some scions to propagate for him I think about 12 or 14 years ago. I grew them on our native stock shipped them to him. I never followed it up to see what results he had. I think probably those roots may have frozen out if he had severe winters.

THE SECRETARY: What he showed me were two of the standard northern varieties, I think Busseron and Indiana, which he had grafted on young trees. In southern Indiana they are doing much better. Grafted varieties are bearing but with Mr. Riehl it is the black walnut and the chestnut with which he is making a success.

THE PRESIDENT: The next speaker has for his subject the southern pecan and how its commercial development came about. He comes from the one state in the Union of which I may be somewhat jealous. It is the only state east of the Mississippi River with a larger area than Michigan. (Applause). I take pleasure in presenting Mr. A. S. Perry, of Cuthbert, Georgia, Secretary of the National Nut Growers' Association.



GEORGIA'S PECAN INDUSTRY

A. S. PERRY, CUTHBERT, GEORGIA

My heart thrills with pride and pleasure as I stand in the Capital City of our great nation and bring greetings to the Northern Nut Growers Association from the fertile fields of the far South.

I am a southerner to the manner born. For six generations my people sleep in Georgia soil and for an hundred years my family have lived in the Albany district the queenliest section of the far south that rests resplendant as a jewel upon the snowy bosom of her royal mother Georgia and as beautiful as a cluster of fragrant flowers that nestles in the girdle of a lovely woman.

My imperial mother Georgia is a land of surpassing loveliness and thus has for ages been the inspiration of poets and painters too.

The southerners dream of beauty is the magnolia and who can tint her roses or paint the morning glory that points its purple bugle towards the sky as though to sound the revelie for a waking world. No prima donna has ever yet entertained the crowned heads of Europe with such music as that divine melody with which the mocking bird greets the coming dawn.

Ours is a land where skies bend blue and all nature seems to smile; where mosses veil the infirmities of decrepit oaks and vines spring unbidden from the ground to hide the scars of grey old walls; where the grape-vine staggers from tree to tree as though drunk with the purple juice of its own luscious fruit; where flowers lie at your plate on a winter's day and the humblest laborer carries in his dusky hand flowers fit to grace a May queen's crown.

As proud as I am of the beauties of Georgia I am prouder still of her material and natural resources. We have a vast undeveloped empire within whose borders there awaits the prospector such potential treasure as would make the fabled wealth of Lydia's ancient king seem but a beggar's trifle, and the consuming ambition of my life is to see these resources developed to the fullest degree and then shall my imperial mother Georgia shine as the brightest star that gleams in Columbia's diadem.

But of all the natural resources of Georgia there are none to be compared to the possibilities in the development of our NATIONAL NUT the Paper Shell Pecan.

The history of the paper shell pecan is but another example that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country," for native Georgians failed to avail themselves of the opportunity at their door and the credit for the development of Georgia's pecan industry belongs to the far sighted men and women of the North. Then why should I not feel grateful to such men and women as you believing as I do that the paper shell pecan industry is destined to lead Dixie out of her industrial bondage and restore her to her rightful place among the sisterhood of states.

"History repeats itself" says the soldier and there is pictured in his mind vision of other Shenandoah Valleys swept by the fiery broom of war and other Atlantas and Savannahs given to the flames on some other Sherman's March to the Sea.