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



NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION

REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS AT THE ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING

WASHINGTON, D. C. OCTOBER 7 AND 8, 1920



CONTENTS

Officers and Committees of the Association 4

State Vice-Presidents 5

Members of the Association 6

Constitution and By-Laws 11

Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Convention 13

Report of the Secretary-Treasurer 13

Chestnut Work at Bell Experiment Plot, Dr. Walter Van Fleet, Glendale, Maryland 16

Report of Prof. Close and Discussion 22

Constitution and By-Laws Amended 26

Report of Committee on Importation, Mr. Littlepage 27

Excursion to Dr. Van Fleet's and Mr. Littlepage's Places 29

Nut Culture in the United States, C. A. Reed, Washington, D. C. 33

Address of Dr. David Fairchild 42

President's Address 56

The Place of Nut Trees in Our Northern Nut Culture, Dr. William A. Taylor, Washington, D. C. 66

Address by Charles Lathrop Pack, President American Forestry Association 70

A Nursery of Improved Filberts, Conrad Vollertsen, Rochester, N. Y. 73

Nuts Needed as Supplementary Foods, Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Battle Creek, Michigan 83

Propagated Hickories, Willard G. Bixby, Baldwin, N. Y. 93

Selecting and Handling Scions, J. F. Jones, Lancaster, Pa. 99

Address of F. E. Brooks on Some Insects that Injure Nuts 101

Top Working Hickories, Dr. Robert T. Morris, New York 105

Selection and Propagation for Improvement of Pecans, Theodore Bechtel, Ocean Springs, Mississippi 112

Georgia's Pecan Industry, A. S. Perry, Cuthbert, Ga. 118

Appendix 131



OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION

President WILLIAM S. LINTON Saginaw, Michigan

Vice-President JAMES S. MCGLENNON Rochester, New York

Secretary WILLIAM C. DEMING Wilton, Connecticut

Treasurer WILLARD G. BIXBY Baldwin, Nassau Co., New York

COMMITTEES

Auditing—C. P. CLOSE, C. A. REED

Executive—J. RUSSELL SMITH, W. C. REED AND THE OFFICERS

Finance—T. P. LITTLEPAGE, WILLARD G. BIXBY, W. C. DEMING

Hybrids—R. T. MORRIS, C. P. CLOSE, W. G. BIXBY, J. G. RUSH

Membership—JAMES S. MCGLENNON, H. R. WEBER, R. T. OLCOTT, W. O. POTTER, W. G. BIXBY, W. C. DEMING.

Nomenclature—C. A. REED, R. T. MORRIS, J. F. JONES

Press and Publication—R. T. OLCOTT, W. G. BIXBY, W. C. DEMING.

Programme—W. C. DEMING, J. RUSSELL SMITH, C. A. REED, R. T. MORRIS, W. G. BIXBY

Promising Seedlings—C. A. REED, J. F. JONES



STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS

Alabama H. M. Robertson 2026 1st Ave., Birmingham Arkansas Prof. N. F. Drake University of Arkansas, Fayetteville California T. C. Tucker 311 California St., San Francisco Canada G. H. Corsan 63 Avenue Road, Toronto China P. W. Wang, Kinsan Arboretum Chuking Kiangsu Province Colorado C. L. Cudebec Boulder, Box 233 Connecticut Francis A. Bartlett Stamford Dist. of Columbia B. G. Foster 902 G. St., Washington England Howard Spence Eskdale Knutsford Cheshire Georgia A. S. Perry Cuthbert Illinois E. A. Riehl Alton Indiana J. F. Wilkinson Rockport Iowa D. C. Snyder Center Point Kansas James Sharp Council Grove Kentucky Sam C. Baker Beaver Dam, R. F. D. 2 Maine Alice D. Leavitt 79 High St., Bridgton Maryland C. P. Close College Point Massachusetts James H. Bowditch 903 Tremont Building, Boston Michigan Dr. J. H. Kellogg Battle Creek Missouri P. C. Stark Louisiana Nebraska William Caha Wahoo New Hampshire Henry B. Stevens, College of Agriculture Durham Nevada C. G. Swingle Hazen New Jersey C. S. Ridgway Lumberton New York Dr. G. J. Buist 3 Hancock St., Brooklyn North Carolina Dr. Harvey P. Barrett 211 Vail Ave., Charlotte Ohio Harry R. Weber 123 E. 6th St., Cincinnati Oklahoma Dr. C. E. Beitman Skedee Oregon Knight Pearcy Salem, R. F. D. 3, Box 187 Pennsylvania Elam G. Hess Manheim South Carolina Prof. A. G. Shanklin Clemson College Texas J. H. Burkett Clyde Vermont F. C. Holbrook Brattleboro Virginia John S. Parish University Washington William Baines Okanogan West Virginia Fred E. Brooks French Creek Wisconsin Dr. G. W. Patchen Manitowoc



MEMBERS OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION

ALABAMA

Robertson, H. M., 2026 1st Ave., Birmingham.

ARKANSAS

* Drake, Prof. N. F., University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Dunn, D. K., Wynne.

CALIFORNIA

California, University of, Berkeley Cress, B. E., Tehachapi Thorpe, Will J., 2198 Geary St., San Francisco Tucker, T. C., 311 California St., San Francisco

CANADA

Bell, Alex., Milliken, Ontario Corsan, G. H., 17 Rusholme Park Crescent, Toronto Sager, Dr. D. S., Brantford

CHINA

Kinsan Arboretum, Chuking, Kiangsu Province, P. W. Wang, Sec.

COLORADO

Bennett, L. E., Cory Cudebec, C. L., Boulder, Box 233

CONNECTICUT

Barrows, Paul M., Stamford, R. F. D. No. 30 Bartlett, Francis A., Stamford Benedict, Samuel L., 98 So. Main St., So. Norwalk Bradley, Smith T., New Haven, Grand Ave. Cajori, F. A., 2 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven Craig, Joseph A., 783 Washington Ave., West Haven Deming, Dr. W. C., Wilton Filley, W. O., State Forester, Drawer 1, New Haven Glover, James L., Shelton, R. F. D. 7 Hilliard, H. J., Sound View Hungerford, Newman, Torrington, R. F. D. 2, Box 76 Ives, Ernest M., Sterling Orchards, Meriden Lewis, Henry Leroy, Stratford McGlashan, Archibald, Kent * Morris, Dr. Robert T., Cos Cob, Route 28, Box 95 Pomeroy, Eleazer, 120 Bloomfield Ave., Windsor Sessions, Albert L., 25 Bellevue Ave., Bristol Southworth, George E., Milford, Box 172 Staunton, Gray, 98 Park St., New Haven White, Gerrard, North Granby

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

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

ENGLAND

Spence, Howard, Eskdale, Knutsford, Cheshire

GEORGIA

Bullard, William P., Albany Patterson, J. M., Putney Perry, A. S., Cuthbert Steele, R. C., Lakemont, Rabun Co. Van Duzee, C. A., Judson Orchard Farm, Cairo Wight, J. B., Cairo

ILLINOIS

Buckman, Benj., Farmingdale Casper, O. H., Anna Heide, John F. H., 3917 Grand Blvd., Chicago Librarian, University of Illinois, Urbana Poll, Carl J., 1009 Maple St., Danville Potter, Hon. W. O., Marion Riehl, E. A., Godfrey, Route 2 Sundstrand, Mrs. G. D., 916 Garfield Ave., Rockford Uran, B. F., Mattoon Wells, Oscar, Farina

INDIANA

Crain, Donald J., 1313 North St., Logansport Jackson, Francis M., 122 N. Main St., South Bend Reed, W. C., Vincennes Redmon, Felix, Rockport, R. R. No. 2, Box 32 Simpson, H. D., Vincennes Staderman, A. L., 120 S. Seventh St., Terre Haute Wilkinson, J. F., Rockport

IOWA

Bricker, C. W., Ladora Finnell, J. F. C., Hamburg Skromme, L. J., (Skromme Seed Company), Roland Snyder, D. C., Center Point (Linn Co. Nurseries)

KANSAS

Bishop, S. L., Conway Springs Sharpe, James, Council Grove, (Morris Co. Nurseries)

KENTUCKY

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

MAINE

Leavitt, Alice D., 79 High St., Bridgton

MARYLAND

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

MASSACHUSETTS

* Bowditch, James H., 903 Tremont Building, Boston Cleaver, C. Leroy, 496 Commonwealth Ave., Boston Poynter, Horace M., "The Farrar House," Andover Scudder, Dr. Charles L., 209 Beacon St., Boston

MICHIGAN

Beck, J. P., 25 James, Saginaw Cross, John L., 104 Division St., Bangor Graves, Henry B., 2134 Dime Bank Bldg., Detroit Henshall, H., 1276 Brush St., Detroit House, George W., Ford Building, Detroit Kellogg, Dr. J. H., 202 Manchester St., Battle Creek Linton, W. S., President Board of Trade, Saginaw McKale, H. B., Lansing, Route 6 Penny, Senator Harvey A., 425 So. Jefferson Ave., Saginaw Schram, Mrs. O. E., Galesburg, Box 662 Smith, Edward J., 86 So. Union St., Battle Creek

MISSOURI

Hazen, Josiah J., (Neosho Nurseries Co.) Neosho Mosnat, H. R., 3883 East 62 St., Kansas City Spellen, Howard P., 4505a W. Papin St., St. Louis Stark, P. C., Louisiana Ward, Miss Daisy, 2019 Allen Ave., St. Louis

NEBRASKA

Caha, Wm., Wahoo

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Stevens, Henry B., N. H. College of Agriculture, Durham

NEVADA

Swingle, C. G., Hazen

NEW JERSEY

Brown, Jacob B., Elmer, Salem Co. * Jaques, Lee W., 74 Waverly St., Jersey City Heights Landmann, Miss M. V., Cranbury, R. D. 2 Marshall, S. L., Vineland Marston, Edwin S., Florham Park, Box 72 Phillips, Irving S., 501 Madison St., West New York, N. J. Price, John R., 36 Ridgedale Ave., Madison Ridgeway, C. S., Floralia, Lumberton Westcoat, Wilmer, 230 Knight Ave., Collingswood

NEW YORK

Abbott, Frederick B., 1211 Tabor Court, Brooklyn Adams, Sidney I., 418 Powers Bldg., Rochester Andrews, W. S., Newburgh, R. D. No. 2 Ashworth, Fred L., Heuvelton Atwater, C. G., The Barrett Co., 17 Battery Place, New York City Babcock, H. J., Lockport Bixby, Willard G., 32 Grand Ave., Baldwin, Nassau Co. Brown, Ronald K., 320 Broadway, New York City Buist, Dr. George J., 3 Hancock St., Brooklyn Crane, Alfred J., Monroe, Box 342 Diprose, Alfred H., 468 Clinton Ave., South, Rochester Ellwanger, Mrs. W. D., 510 East Ave., Rochester Gillett, Dr. Henry W., 140 W. 57 St., New York City Goeltz, Mrs. M. H., 2524 Creston Ave., New York City Hall, L. W. Jr. (L. W. Hall Company), 509 Cutler Bldg., Rochester Harper, G. W., Jr., 115 Broadway, New York City Hicks, Henry, Westbury, Long Island Hodgson, Casper W., World Book Co., Yonkers Hoffmann, Arthur S., 36 Church St., White Plains * Huntington, A. M., 15 West 81st St., New York City Kains, M. G., Pomona McGlennon, James S., 528 Cutler Building, Rochester Meyers, Charles, 316 Adelphi St., Brooklyn Olcott, Ralph T., Editor American Nut Journal, Ellwanger and Barry Building, Rochester Pomeroy, A. C., Lockport Solley, Dr. John B., 968 Lexington Ave., New York City Stephen, John W., New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse Tallinger, J. F., Barnard Teele, A. W., 120 Broadway, New York City Vollertsen, Conrad, 375 Gregory St., Rochester Whitney, Arthur C., 9 Manila St., Rochester Whitney, Leon F., 65 Barclay St., New York City Wile, M. E., 955 Harvard St., Rochester Williams, Dr. Charles Mallory, 48 E. 49th St., New York City * Wissman, Mrs. F. deR., Westchester, New York City

NORTH CAROLINA

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

OHIO

Burton, J. Howard, Casstown Dayton, J. H., Storrs & Harrison Co., Painesville Fickes, W. R., Wooster Jackson, A. V., 3275 Linwood Road, Cincinnati Ketchum, C. S., Middlefield Ramsey, John, 1803 Freeman Ave., Cincinnati Truman, G. G., Perrysville, Box 167 Weber, Harry R., 123 East 6th St., Cincinnati Yunck, E. G., 706 Central Ave., Sandusky

OKLAHOMA

Beitmen, Dr. C. E., Skedee

OREGON

Marvin, Cornelia (Librarian), Oregon State Library, Salem Pearcy, Knight, Salem, R. F. D. 3, Box 187

PENNSYLVANIA

Allaman, R. P., Bedford, R. R. No. 4 Bolton, Chas. G., Zieglerville, Pa. Clark, D. F., 147 N. 13 St., Harrisburg Druckemiller, W. H., Sunbury Fagan, Prof. F. N., Department of Horticulture, State College Fritz, Ammon P., 35 E. Franklin St., Ephrata Heffner H., Highland Chestnut Grove, Leeper Hess, Elam C., Manheim Hile, Anthony, Curwensville National Bank, Curwensville Irwin, Ernest C., 66 St. Nicholas Blvd., Pittsburg Jenkins, Charles Francis, Farm Journal, Philadelphia * Jones, J. F., Lancaster, Box 527 Kaufman, M. M., Clarion Leas, F. C., Merion Station Murphy, P. J., Vice President L. & W. R. R. Co., Scranton O'Neill, William C., 328 Walnut St., Philadelphia Patterson, J. E., 77 N. Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre * Rick, John, 438 Pennsylvania Square, Reading Rife, Jacob A., Camp Hill Rose, William J., 413 Market St., Harrisburg, "Personal" Rush, J. G., West Willow Russell, Dr. Andrew L., 729 Wabash Bldg., Pittsburgh Smedley, Samuel L., Newtown Square, R. F. D. 1 Smith, Dr. J. Russell, Swarthmore * Sober, Col. C. K., Lewisburg Taylor, Lowndes, West Chester, Box 3, Route 1 Walther, R. G., Willow Grove, Doylestown, Pike Weaver, William S., McCungie Wilhelm, Dr. Edward A., Clarion * Wister, John C., Wister St. & Clarkson Ave., Germantown

SOUTH CAROLINA

Shanklin, Prof. A. G., Clemson College

TEXAS

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

VERMONT

Holbrook, F. C., Brattleboro

VIRGINIA

Parish, John S., University

WASHINGTON

Baines, William, Okanogan

WEST VIRGINIA

Brooks, Fred E., French Creek Cannaday, Dr. John Egerton, Charleston, Box 693 Hartzell, B. F., Shepherdstown Mish, A. F., Inwood

WISCONSIN

Lang, Robert B., Racine, Box 103 Patchen, Dr. G. W., Manitowoc

* Life member. + Honorary member.



CONSTITUTION

ARTICLE I

Name. This society shall be known as the NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION.

ARTICLE II

Object. Its object shall be the promotion of interest in nutbearing plants, their products and their culture.

ARTICLE III

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

ARTICLE IV

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

ARTICLE V

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

ARTICLE VI

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

ARTICLE VII

Quorum. Ten members of the association shall constitute a quorum, but must include two of the four elected officers.

ARTICLE VIII

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



BY-LAWS

ARTICLE I

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

ARTICLE II

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

ARTICLE III

Membership. All annual memberships shall begin either with the first day of the calendar quarter following the date of joining the Association, or with the first day of the calendar quarter preceding that date as may be arranged between the new member and the Treasurer.

ARTICLE IV

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



PROCEEDINGS AT THE ELEVENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION

Washington D. C. October 7 and 8 1920

The Association was called to order at 10 a. m. Thursday October 7th by the President, Hon. William S. Linton, of Saginaw, Michigan, in the auditorium of the New National Museum.

THE PRESIDENT: It has been something of an effort for me to reach here at ten o'clock in order to meet the obligations of the program as it was only a few days ago that I was in lower California very near the Pacific Ocean in old Mexico. As I turned about to come back toward the East the thought came into my mind that I must be in Washington D. C. at the annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association at ten o'clock on Thursday morning October 7. Traveling over three thousand miles I was fortunate enough to get here just two minutes before the ten o'clock hour so the connections you will see were close. The paper that your president is to present comes at a later place on the program so we will proceed with the business session at once. The first thing on the program is the report of the Secretary and Treasurer.

RECEIPTS

Dec. 1,1919 Jan. 1,1920 to to Total Balance Dec.31,1919 Sep.30,1920 - - - - Balance on hand date of last report, Dec. 1, 1919: Special hickory prize $25.00, Life membership $25.00, For regular expenses $106.53 $156.53 From annual members including joint subscription to the American Nut Journal $ 25.25 $368.10 $393.35 9.00 9.00 Reports 25.00 25.00 Contributions for prizes: Contribution for special hickory prize 25.00 25.00 Bulletin No. 5 57.60 57.60 - - - $ 25.25 $484.70 $509.95 509.95 - $666.48

EXPENDITURES

- American Nut Journal, their portion of joint subscriptions $ 22.00 $ 98.00 $120.00 1919 Convention 8.75 137.68 146.43 Printing Bulletin No. 5 63.50 63.50 Clasp envelopes for Bulletin No. 5 and for reports 30.20 30.20 Stationery, printing and supplies 116.45 116.45 Postage, express, etc. 46.04 46.04 Prizes 1919 contest (not all sent out before Oct. 1) 13.00 13.00 Special hickory prize Eugene J. Clark, Ludlow, Mass. 25.00 25.00 Advertising 1920 Nut Contest (not all paid before Oct. 1) 30.60 30.60 + + + $ 30.75 $560.47 $591.22 591.22 $ 30.75 $560.47 $591.22 Balance on hand Oct. 1, 1920 591.22 Special hickory prize 25.00 Life membership 25.00 For regular expenses 25.26 $666.48

Verified by

C. P. CLOSE, C. A. REED, Auditing Committee.

The above are records of receipts and expenditures for 10 months and are about 82% of those for the period covered by the previous report, 2 years 3 months. There has been an earnest attempt to carry on the work of the Secretary-Treasurer in a more aggressive manner than before. A bulletin aiming to give up to date information on nut growing, Bulletin No. 5, has been issued and has gone well. While it has been sold, no attempt has been made to make money on it but simply to make it pay its way and apparently it is going to do that and assist in spreading information about the work of the Association.

Sixty-six new members have joined the Association since the date of the last meeting, making 476 since organization, of which we have 199, and of whom 277 have dropped out. A few former members have joined since the date of the last report which apparently accounts for the strange fact that increase in membership (128 to 199) is greater than the number of new members.

Following out the plan outlined at the Battle Creek Convention, the work of the Secretary-Treasurer has begun to be divided, the undersigned taking the duties of Treasurer and the Nut Contests and Dr. Deming taking the Conventions and the work of the Secretary proper until the expected action of the present convention shall formally divide the work of the Secretary-Treasurer and create the offices of Secretary and Treasurer.

Respectfully submitted,

WILLARD G. BIXBY. Secretary-Treasurer.

THE PRESIDENT: This is a very good report, complete in every detail, and unless other action is desired, it will be received and recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

Mr. Reed, you are chairman of the committee that had in charge the tree-planting bill in order that it might be made uniform throughout the country. Have you a report to make?

MR. REED: Mr. President, the committee members have been over that individually but have not had an opportunity to discuss it together. If a full report can be had a little later I think that would be more satisfactory. So far as I have been able to go into it the law seems to about cover the ground. I could not make any suggestions as to how it could be improved. I happen to know that the author of the bill, who is our president, has been called upon by several other states to discuss such a law for those states, and I think he is in the best position to tell us if there are any holes in it. If we can have the consent of the house we will defer a full report until we can discuss the matter with our president and with our committee as a whole.

THE PRESIDENT: We will take that course unless there are objections.

The communications received by the acting secretary will be filed and printed in the proceedings. If there are no vice-presidents present who are prepared to make reports that order will be passed. At this time should come the appointment of committees but I think it would be well to defer that business until we can consult as to the membership of the committees. The next in order will be some remarks by Mr. Littlepage about the proposed afternoon excursion.

THE ACTING SECRETARY: The speakers are Dr. Van Fleet, Mr. Littlepage and Professor Close. I have here the resume of Dr. Van Fleet and I think that it would be better perhaps to read the report of Dr. Van Fleet at once as it may have some bearing on the remarks of Mr. Littlepage and Professor Close.



CHESTNUT WORK AT BELL EXPERIMENT PLOT

DR. WALTER VAN FLEET, GLENDALE, MARYLAND

Our breeding work with chestnuts began as far back as 1894 when pistillate blooms of the Paragon variety, then a novelty just coming into use, were dusted with pollen from a native sweet chestnut bearing good-sized nuts. The Paragon stigma were protected from the influence of other pollen by bagging and gave a good set of fruits. The idea was to improve the quality of the Paragon nuts even at the expense of size. The resulting seedlings were grown at Little Silver, New Jersey, and rapidly ran up into good-sized trees, coming into bearing twelve years later. In fruit and tree characters they proved a complete blend of the parent species, the nuts being double the size of the wild parent and of sweet, rich quality. The trees were very shapely and bid fair to become extremely productive but a year or two later were all attacked by the dreaded blight or bark disease, then spreading from its original starting point in Long Island. The work of destruction was very rapid and by the third year all were hopelessly crippled, but a few individuals continued to send up suckers as late as 1916.

The success of this pollination experiment encouraged the writer to attempt breeding the dwarf early-bearing chinquapin with the large-fruited foreign varieties in the hope of securing hybrids with nuts of fair size and good quality that might come quickly into bearing. As the chinquapin does not naturally grow in Northern New Jersey, and plants were rarely offered by nurserymen, recourse was had to growing them from seed and a quantity of newly collected nuts were furnished by a friend in Washington in 1899. It required three years time to bring the seedlings into fruit and it was not until 1903 that a start was actually made in the work of hybridization. A selection was made of a compact dwarf bush that bore very sweet nuts of a good size for the species and gave promise, which was later fulfilled, of becoming very prolific. The male, or staminate tassels were carefully removed each day before maturity and, to ward off undesired foreign pollen, a cloth tent was used to cover the bush in addition to bagging many of the flowering branches. Pollen for crossing was secured from Paragon and Numbo, of the European species, and of several named varieties of Japan chestnut including Parry's Giant, Killen and Hale, and in addition a few blooms were intentionally fertilized with pollen from local sweet chestnut trees. Nearly one hundred hybrid seedlings resulted from the work in two succeeding seasons, some of which came into bearing in 1908, just as the _Endothia_ blight began to invade New Jersey. The hybrids between the chinquapins and native and European chestnuts were quickly infected, but those with Japan varieties appeared far more resistant. All work with the susceptible native and Europeans ceased, but crosses with Japans and the Chinese chestnut, _Castanea Molissima_, have been continued until now there are over eight hundred in existence. In late years we have used the Southern creeping chinquapin, C. alnifolia_, as a seed parent to some extent, as it appears more resistant than the common species, _C. pumila_, though it cannot be considered immune. The southern chinquapin is hardy in the North, bears good-sized, sweet nuts for its type, but is very late in ripening.

The Rush chinquapin, and other large-fruited, tall growing varieties have also been used to some extent. The resulting hybrids make handsome trees of rapid growth and bear profuse crops of very attractive nuts, but are greatly injured by blight. As experience accumulated it was found that the extreme caution used in the earlier trials to keep out foreign pollen were scarcely needed and that merely covering the pistillate blooms as soon as they could be distinguished with cotton batting is all that is necessary, and also that hybrids may be produced with considerable certainty in open pollination if the tree or branch is kept entirely free from staminate tassels and the selected pollen is promptly applied as soon as the stigmas become receptive.

Quite a number of chance or self-pollinated seedlings from choice hybrids have been raised in the hope that their good qualities might be perpetuated and the trouble and expense of grafting largely obviated but, as with most other hybrids between distinct species, the seedlings lacked sufficient uniformity to be of especial value. A few individuals turned out superior to the parent but on the whole degeneracy, from the nut-producers standpoint, appears among seedlings of hybrid chestnuts.

In 1909 the unfruited chinquapin hybrids, 68 in number, were transferred to Arlington Farm, Virginia, and two years later Bell Experiment Plot was established near Glendale, Maryland, largely for the purpose of developing blight-resistant varieties of chestnuts as far as this can be done by breeding and testing of wild forms. There are now over 2000 hybrids and seedlings of species at Bell ranging from one to ten years of age. Of the original trees planted at Arlington about 20 remain. They have formed handsome trees twenty feet high with tops almost as wide in diameter and have borne many profuse crops of nuts mostly of good quality and from three to six times as large and heavy as those of the parent chinquapin. All have been attacked by blight, the most promising one only this spring, after thirteen years of resistance to this virulent disease. All the hybrids carrying blood of native or European chestnuts were quickly killed, but those with the Japanese species as a pollen parent are still growing vigorously and bearing well, though considerably disfigured by blight.

Of the various species used the native sweet chestnut, Castanea Americana, and the European, C. vesca, appear entirely useless in breeding for disease resistance, as the hybrids are destroyed by the blight fungus as soon as, or even before, they reach bearing age. The tall, or tree, forms of native chinquapin, sometimes grouped under the botanical name of Castanea arborea but which appear to be only natural hybrids between the sweet chestnut and the bush chinquapin, may also be regarded as useless for the purpose. The hybrid progeny show slight powers of recuperation but, in our plantings, do not sufficiently recover to make useful trees. The Rush chinquapin sometimes resists infection under natural conditions for several years but quickly succumbs when attacked, but its hybrid seedlings develop practically no resistance. The common bush or dwarf chinquapin, Castanea pumila, widely distributed over the Atlantic States, is not as readily infected by blight as the chestnut, many individuals under cultivation and in the wild resisting attack for an indefinite time, while the creeping species of Florida and South Georgia, C. alnifolia, appear practically immune in nature but succumb to artificial inoculation with the blight virus The smooth bark and shrubby forms of these dwarf chinquapins probably account to a very great extent for the limited damage caused by blight under natural conditions.

Next in degree of resistance comes the wooly-twigged Chinese chestnut, C. molissima. There are established at Bell Experiment Plot over nine hundred Molissima trees grown from nuts collected near Tien-Tsin, China, in 1911. These trees in their eighth year of growth have borne excellent nuts, rather larger than those of our native species, in some quantity for three successive years though, owing to extensive locust injury last season, there is practically no crop this year. The trees average twelve or more feet high and are thrifty growers when not too greatly afflicted by blight. No summary of disease injury has been taken, but probably over 80 per cent of the trees show infection many of which are making attempts to heal which are often very successful. This species is native to Eastern China and has long been accustomed to the Endothia fungus, developing in the course of time a very considerable degree of resistance to it. From present appearances the Chinese chestnut may be grown in orchard form with no greater loss from disease than the pear from its particular form of blight. It hybridizes well with the Japan chestnut and both of the dwarf chinquapins, but this progeny is not yet sufficiently developed to warrant judgment.

Castanea crenata, the familiar Japan chestnut, appears everywhere to show greater blight resistance than any other species that has been tried out and is therefore the most hopeful parent to be used for developing a useful race of disease-resistant hybrids and cross-breeds. It has the further merit of bearing very profuse crops of large nuts at an early age, but they are often lacking in quality, being usually harsh to the taste in the raw state though palatable when cooked. A few varieties bear well-flavored nuts, but these appear to be hybrids with our native species and are notably less resistant to blight. Pure Japan varieties grown from imported nuts are rarely injured by blight, and by many are regarded as immune, but those grown from nuts produced in situations exposed to the effects of native pollen are occasionally attacked and even killed outright by the Endothia fungus. It has considerable power to transmit its resisting qualities to its hybrids with the chinquapins, and a few individuals among the latter appear to retain resistance to such a degree that we may yet find among them some of the best nut-producing chestnut varieties of the future.

From the purely horticultural standpoint these hybrids between chinquapins and chestnut species must be considered as most striking successes. If this terribly destructive disease, probably the most virulent that afflicts any tree in the temperate climate, could be controlled there would be little need to look further for varieties suited for commercial and home culture, some of which can be as readily grown as peach trees and come into bearing as young. As the situation stands we must search further for individuals that combine good cropping capacity with practical disease-resistance.

At this writing the most promising outlook appears among selected seedlings of pure Crenata blood, or hybrids of this species that have again been pollinated with resistant Japan varieties. There are at Bell many seedlings of both these types of great attractiveness and promise.

Five successive generations of selected Crenata seedlings have been grown since 1904, quite a number producing their first nuts the year succeeding germination. This unusual precocity is no indication of merit, as it tends to stunt the trees. The most promising individuals seldom bear until three or four years old by which time the trees have attained fair size. No high quality has yet been attained among the nuts of the pure strains, but it is quite evident where there is a dash of chinquapin blood. The nuts are, however, large, attractive and excellent for cooking or roasting, and moreover, ripen uniformly in September and early October, practically without the aid of frost. As opportunities for natural infection lessen from the dying out of our stands of native chestnut the Oriental chestnuts and their hybrids will be more extensively planted and may experience little difficulty in combating disease. Owing to the readiness with which seedlings can be grown abundant new varieties will arise in time, even though they do not now exist, that will meet all reasonable requirements of the planter and it is to be anticipated that the production of edible chestnuts will at no distant day be placed on a stable basis.

Aside from its usefulness as a nut tree the value of our stand of native chestnuts, though already half destroyed, can scarcely be estimated. Every one knows the ease with which a healthy chestnut woodland reproduces itself by sprouts and the extreme value of its timber for posts, telegraph and telephone poles, for furniture and for tanning extracts, now made from both bark and wood. We scarcely have a forest tree as useful, but if some natural handicap, not yet in sight, does not stay the spread of the blight fungus, our much valued chestnuts appear to be doomed. A few small colonies of diseased, but living sweet chestnut trees, numbering scarcely fifty, have been located in New York City parks and neighboring localities in Long Island, carrying infection at least eighteen years old, where the accompanying stands have completely vanished. This affords the single ray of hope amid the otherwise complete destruction marking the spread of blight. In the hope that the marked resistance shown by these scarred veterans can be transmitted seedlings have been raised and scions established at Bell from the most promising individuals, and on this slender chance for perpetuating this prized species in its native habitat we must, for the present, rest content.

Recently there has been brought to light in the interior of China a chestnut species that may restore our timber production of this most desirable wood if it should prove immune to disease. Unlike other Old World chestnuts, which form relatively small trees, this species, known as Castanea Vilmoriniana, grows eighty to one hundred feet high with a straight, symmetrical trunk well adapted for all timber uses. The nuts, according to the scant herbarium material that has reached this country, are of little consequence, except for propagation as they are only slightly larger than those of our wild chinquapins. This species is now established at the Arnold Arboretum near Boston, Massachusetts, and scions worked on C. Molissima stocks are now vigorously growing at Bell Experiment Plot, making fine upright shoots. The reaction of C. Vilmoriniana to blight has not been tested owing to the scarcity of material in this country, but it is fervently to be hoped that the species will resist the disease. No infections have occurred in several years exposure either at Boston or at Bell. Should the much desired resistance be established rapid propagation of the species by seed and scions, and an extended test for forestry purposes, would be in order.

The breeding experiments at Bell must be regarded as about the only constructive attempt in existence to replace a most highly prized nut and timber that is being swept from the face of the earth. Unless unforseen natural conditions should stay the ravages of blight our chestnut stands will vanish, most likely within the view of the present generation. Although our progress in finding and developing blight-resistants is not as striking as might be hoped something has been accomplished, and the idea of salvaging useful nut and timber chestnuts from available material and developing better ones than now exist should not be abandoned.

THE PRESIDENT: Unless other action is desired this interesting paper will be received and recorded in the proceedings.

MR. T. P. LITTLEPAGE: Mr. President, Members of the Association. I will attempt in a few words to give you some suggestions about your afternoon rambles. There will be a special car assigned exclusively to the nut growers on the tracks at 14th St. and New York Avenue at 12:45, which will take you to Bell Station where you will see Dr. Van Fleet's roses and chestnut orchard. A short walk from there is the old place of Judge Gabriel Duvall, a former Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, member of Congress and a great friend of Thomas Jefferson. The unpublished manuscripts of Jefferson show that he took to Judge Duvall a bundle of "paccan" trees, as he called them. Jefferson was one of our great horticulturists and gave the first complete botanical classification of the pecan. Those three big trees that Jefferson gave Judge Duvall are growing out there today and from them are scores of other small trees. I was very much surprised when I read these notes of Jefferson and in looking through Washington's dairy about the same time I read where he said that Thomas Jefferson gave him a bundle of "paccan" trees. Now those of you who are to visit Mount Vernon on this trip look and you will find that three of the most beautiful trees there are pecan trees. Two of them this year have nuts on them one with a rather full crop and one with a light crop. They are undoubtedly the western or northern pecan. They show that in the character of the nuts and bark. When Jefferson was over in Paris he wrote to his friend Hopkins to send him a box of pecans and told him to send them in sand. Those of you who are going to Paris next summer look around and you may find some of Thomas Jefferson's pecan trees. It was perfectly apparent that he wanted those nuts for planting.

After visiting at Bell Station we will take the car up to my place where there really is not much to see. I have thirty acres there of northern pecan trees, twelve acres two years old and they run all the way up to six years of age. Most of the six-year old trees this year set pecans which dropped off about the middle of the summer. They were all full of catkins. One Busseron tree had fifty pecans on it and a number of Major and Butterick trees had pecans but I do not believe they stuck. I had a Stuart which had a sprinkling of pecans on it and they also fell off. I can show you how not to grow trees. Some of them had no care whatever and some had pretty fair care. You can see dead chestnut trees up there showing that the blight is as bad as Dr. Van Fleet says. We find where they stand in the woods for ten years surrounded by trees with the blight and do not blight and the next year die. So the fact that a tree stands in a nursery row and does not blight does not indicate anything. The only hope we have is the work Dr. Van Fleet is doing.

THE PRESIDENT: Upon the same subject we will be glad to hear from Professor Close.

PROFESSOR CLOSE: I will just take a few minutes in telling some of the things I have been trying to do at home. My work is necessarily on a very small scale. I am away from home so much of the time that some things I start I cannot follow through properly. In grafting, for instance, I get the grafting done as I can do it from time to time in the spring and then I have to leave on a Government trip and am not at home to take care of the growing grafts as I would like to be. While my extension work for the Government is primarily connected with fruit I look into nut work as much as possible. Dr. Van Fleet has given me a number of hybrid chinkapins and this year three of them have fruited for the first time, one being of fairly good size. I have a couple of Japan walnut trees and the surprising thing is that although they were planted in 1910 they are fruiting this year for the first time. Usually those trees begin bearing very early. They have grown rapidly, are probably twenty feet high and have a breadth of equal distance but have been disappointing in that they have been so late in fruiting.

MR. LITTLEPAGE. Do they winter-kill any?

PROFESSOR CLOSE: No, they have not winter-killed at all. One was supposed to be a heart nut but both are Sieboldianas. I think the most satisfactory and interesting thing I have is one of these large filberts or hazel nuts. It is a pretty good size for an eastern-grown nut. This is a seedling from New Jersey. I received the scions four years ago and was successful in having three or four of them live and last year they produced for the first time, three years from the graft. They are well filled and of pretty good quality. I have them grafted on some bushes of European type secured from a nursery about 1910, and which until grafted did not fruit at all. After the grafts began blooming last year these bushes have been producing nuts of small size. While the nuts are small they are right interesting.

In connection with the blight resistant chestnuts I will say that last Friday I visited Mr. John Killen of Felton, Delaware. Some of you know that Mr. Killen has been working with nuts for a good many years and has many very interesting things there. He finds that the blight has taken everything except his Japanese seedlings and here (showing specimens) are specimens of two of the Japanese seedlings. This you see is a very large nut. I presume the tree must be twenty years old or more. It is productive and he says it is commercially successful, which means that it blights a little but not very seriously. He has another seedling, a smaller one, that is up to the present time absolutely blight proof. He has planted twenty-five or thirty pounds of these nuts for growing trees for sale and he believes that the seedling from this parent tree will be absolutely free from blight. You will be interested to know that up to the time I was there last Friday he had shipped seven hundred pounds of chestnuts and was receiving twenty-five cents a pound wholesale.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: What is the variety?

PROFESSOR CLOSE: They are all seedlings. In fact all of his varieties are dead. He has nothing but seedlings.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: Has that been called to Dr. Van Fleet's attention?

PROFESSOR CLOSE: Not that I know of. I doubt if Dr. Van Fleet has seen this blight proof one. I will be glad to tell him about them when I have an opportunity. Mr. Killen has one Japan walnut tree that is interesting. It must be 25 or 30 years old. I do not know where he got it. One limb we measured extends out 36 feet. The limbs on the other side of the tree are not quite so long but the tree is nearly 70 feet in diameter. Two years ago he sold the crop for $54.00, and he thinks he will get more this year. He has contracted the crop to a nurseryman. Mr. Killen has quite a number of seedling Persian walnuts and some of them, perhaps all, blight more or less. He is very much exercised over the blight. He worries more over this than he does over the chestnut blight.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: Does the blight attack the nuts or the twigs?

PROFESSOR CLOSE: Both but mostly it attacks the nuts. At Beltsville 4 miles north of College Park there is one of the best seedling walnuts I have run across. It fruits every year and sometimes a part of the crop is injured by blight.

MR. POMEROY: The husks turn black?

PROFESSOR CLOSE: Yes.

MR. POMEROY: That is not blight; that is a fly injury

PROFESSOR CLOSE: Mr. Killen thinks that this year he partially controlled walnut blight with Bordeaux spray. One particular tree stands near where the spray tank was filled and one side of it was sprayed every time the spray rig passed it. The nuts from the sprayed side were really better than those from the other side.

Just below Dover, Delaware, at Woodside, I was at Mr. Sam Derby's place last Saturday and found something very valuable in the line of Persian walnuts, I think one of the best I have seen at all in the East. One particular tree was purchased for a Franquette but it is not. It probably is a Mayette seedling. Some of the men who tested the samples think this was one of the most desirable they had seen in the East. Mr. Derby bought about a dozen trees eight or nine years ago from some nurseryman. The trees are not alike in shape and size of nuts. They evidently are from the same bunch of seedlings but were sold for Franquette and Mayette. They are probably all Mayette seedlings.

Now, coming back to College Park, four years ago Mr. Littlepage was good enough to give me some pecan scions which I grafted into a seedling tree in a neighbor's chicken yard. The grafts practically all lived and last year, three years from the graft, about a dozen Major nuts were produced. These are probably the first Major pecans produced in Maryland. This year the Busseron and Major grafts bloomed but we had so many late frosts that the blossoms were killed and now there are only two Major nuts on the tree. My own trees are not old enough to bloom except one Mantura which bloomed this year but did not set fruit. I presume it was largely due to the late frosts.

In the fall of 1910 Professor Lake gave me some buds of Persian walnut and I put three buds into a young black walnut tree. During the following February we had a drop in temperature to 25 below zero, something almost unknown in this section of the country, but two of the buds lived through it. After growth started in the spring I cut one out and the other grew into a tree which produced three nuts in 1915. My area for nut trees is small so I am planting pecans, black and Persian walnuts, and hickory twenty feet apart with the idea of keeping them pruned. I have ten varieties of pecans and several of walnuts. Between these I have chinkapins and hazelnuts. There are eight or ten varieties of hazels and about sixty seedlings for grafting later on.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: Did the young pecan trees bloom.

PROFESSOR CLOSE: Only the Mantura and it must be about ten years old.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: What kind of bloom?

PROFESSOR CLOSE: Both kinds.

DR. MORRIS: Which hazels are these?

PROFESSOR CLOSE: They were undoubtedly European.

DR. MORRIS: I think that is a very important point. Some time ago I said that our wild hazel drove the cows out of the pasture. It is a worthless weed with us in Connecticut and it is an important thing for us to transform our hazel pasture lands that are full of thickets of this weed over into good bearing propositions. I grafted a lot of hazelnut bushes with European scions. There are Chinese hazelnut trees that grow to be more than a hundred feet in height and six feet in trunk diameter. The Jacquemont goes to one hundred feet, and the Colurna frequently grows to fifty feet. I believe it is going to be a very important matter to top work these large kinds of hazel trees which do not send runners out from the root and which are not inclined to send large suckers up from the stock. So the kind of stock upon which hazels are to be grafted is a very important matter for nurserymen. But we can also use the worthless pasture bushes profitably.

THE PRESIDENT: In order that we may keep the business of our program up to the minute we should complete the naming of the Nominating Committee. In order to quickly bring it about and in order that all may have a voice in the matter I would suggest that five be nominated from the floor for the positions, that the nominations then close and that the Secretary cast the ballot for the members of the nominating committee.

The names suggested were: Mr. Olcott, Mr. Littlepage, Dr. Morris, Mr. Reed and Professor Close.

The nominations closed and the Secretary cast the ballot for the above named persons.

THE PRESIDENT: We still have a few minutes and might take up the proposed changes in the constitution that were suggested at the Battle Creek meeting almost one year ago. I will request Mr. Bixby to state to you what the proposed changes are.

THE SECRETARY: At the meeting at Battle Creek last November notice was given for proposed changes in the constitution, as follows.

At this meeting it was voted that Article IV, OFFICERS, be presented to the members at the next meeting for the purpose of voting on a change to read:

There shall be a President, a Vice-President, a Treasurer and a Secretary, who shall be elected at the annual meeting; an Executive Committee of six persons of which the President, the last two retiring Presidents, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary shall be members. There shall be a state Vice-President from each state, dependency or country represented in the membership of the Association who shall be appointed by the President.

Article VII. QUORUM, to be changed to read:

Ten members shall constitute a quorum but must include two of the four elected officers.

By Laws:

Article III. MEMBERSHIP—All annual memberships shall begin either with the first day of the calendar quarter following the date of joining the Association, or with the first day of the calendar quarter preceding that date as may be arranged between the new member and the Treasurer.

THE SECRETARY: I make a motion that the changes in the constitution as read be acted upon now.

PROFESSOR CLOSE: I second the motion.

MR. FOSTER: May I offer a suggestion in connection with the proposed change. It is relatively an immaterial one and I presume will be included. As a member here from the District of Columbia I think the District of Columbia should be included with the states.

THE SECRETARY: I think that has been done. Grouped among the states appears the District of Columbia.

THE ACTING SECRETARY: That is, you would have the words "District of Columbia" inserted in connection with state, dependency or country?

THE SECRETARY: I accept that.

The change in the constitution, as recommended, was carried.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: As we have another minute or two there is one matter that we might dispose of. There was a committee appointed once upon a time on incorporation. It was thought by some of the members that if this association were incorporated, making it thereby a perpetual, tangible organization, it might be to its advantage. There might be some man who would be good enough to bequeath some funds to the Association for investigational work. As we are just a voluntary organization without any particular responsibility, it was thought by some that an incorporation would be desirable. I was appointed as a member of the corporative committee. The committee consisted of Mr. Webber of Ohio, and I do not recall the other member but Mr. Webber and I had several conferences. It seems to me that perhaps the best and most feasible way would be to incorporate under the laws of the District of Columbia. The code of the District of Columbia provides for incorporations of this kind for educational, scientific and benevolent purposes at a very nominal expense. For commercial corporations they must, of course, have a capital stock and ten per cent of it must be paid in in cash, but there is no such requirement under the code of the District of Columbia for scientific and benevolent corporations. There is a provision in the code for an incorporation of this kind by having the proper articles drawn up, setting forth the purpose of the organization, its line of work and its membership, naming for the time being three trustees, two of which at that particular time must be residents of the District of Columbia, and filing those articles with the Recorder of Deeds. It is approved and that becomes the charter. The Association is then a body corporate with all of the rights and privileges of any other organization of that kind.

A great many organizations have been formed in the District of Columbia under that provision of the code. It seems to me about as simple and as comprehensive as any of the laws of any of the states, and about as free from any burdens or obligations of reports or matters of that kind. If it is the sense of this meeting, and I think you have quite a representative membership here, that this organization be so incorporated I shall take pleasure, after this meeting, in drafting proper papers, presenting them to some of the members for signature and perfecting a corporation.

THE PRESIDENT: That seems to be an excellent suggestion.

DR. MORRIS: I move that this recommendation be adopted.

MR. FOSTER: I second the motion.

The motion was carried.

The convention adjourned at 12 o'clock.



AFTERNOON EXCURSION OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION

OCTOBER 7, 1920, 12:45

The members of the Northern Nut Growers' Association, in convention at Washington, D. C., October 7, 1920, made an excursion which included visits to the thirty-acre bearing northern pecan plantation of T. P. Littlepage; Dr. Walter Van Fleet's Government Station for the production of blight-resisting chestnuts and chickapins and other new hybrids, at Bell Experiment Plot, Glendale, Maryland; and the old Jefferson pecan trees at Marietta. The following notes were taken at points along the route:

DR. VAN FLEET: These are hybrids between the chinkapin and the Japan chestnut showing the blight even after thirteen years immunity. We do not do anything to check the disease at all.

There is a Japan variety said not to take it but you see how it affects it. It girdles it and the new wood builds it up. The tree is doomed. It is gone now but it has made a tremendous attempt to recovery. You see the new growth that has tried to come out there trying to bridge it and make it up. Of course even that is hopeful. In view of that we feel justified in breeding. The Chinese resist it much better. They take it more readily but they resist it far better. The efforts at self-bridging are quite successful.

This is one of the hybrids we have at Arlington. The parent tree got along for thirteen years without a sign of blight. By artificial inoculation we have given it the disease but it does not get it in the trunk. This is a Chinese chestnut seven years old and has had three crops. We took the most virulent virus and made a few inoculations and with absolutely no care the wound is closing up. The tree is apparently quite healthy. This is the Chinese Molissima, not of real good quality. These are only seven years old and have already borne three very good crops. The nuts are somewhat larger than the wild native and ripen about six weeks earlier.

There are 1,100 trees here and I think about a hundred have been killed outright and probably 75 per cent of them show infections but there are a few individuals that do not seem to get it. It seems almost impossible to inoculate them. We are letting the disease run its way purely through elimination. It is only those that can stand it through a series of years that are supposed to be worth anything at all.

Probably no species is immune from it; I do not think we can use the word "immunity" in connection with it.

The party then visited the old Jefferson place at Marietta, and viewed the immense pecan trees which were given to Judge Duval by Thomas Jefferson. Thence to Mr Littlepage's plantation.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: These trees are set 100 by 120. The Butterick is a good grower. There is a great difference in the growth of the cultivated and the uncultivated ones. I would quit working about the first of August. The first of August here they are growing actively.

Question: Is that the habit of the pecan to set a crop and then drop off?

MR. LITTLEPAGE: Yes, young trees will do that. This is a typical Busseron. They were all sprinkled with nuts; this tree had fifty nuts on this spring. There are some caterpillars on the Stuart. This is the work of the caterpillars on the Stuart. It set a number of nuts. This Greenriver is a little larger than the Major. It is one of the prettiest nuts, one of our medium sized northern pecans. The Greenriver grows in a forest in the Green River district in Kentucky. This is the first transplanted pecan tree this far north that has grown nuts.

DR. MORRIS: In two or three years you will have a crop on them.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: That is a Major, they grow like the Cedars of Lebanon. You don't see a winter-killed twig on a tree. They were full of nuts this spring.

MR. MORRIS: That is so thrifty and so hardy that it might have some species of hickory in it.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: The Stabler black walnut is much better than the Thomas. All black walnuts are reasonably easy to propagate. I have them all around over the farm; I stick pecans around the fences, or wherever I have a space. This chestnut is a European variety. It bears a big striped nut. It tastes a little better than the sweet potato.

DR. MORRIS: It is good for cooking. It is the same as the Marron.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: They are the Indiana hazels, and this is an European filbert.



EVENING SESSION

THURSDAY OCTOBER 7 1920 8 P. M.

The convention was called to order by the President, Mr. Linton, at 8 o'clock.

THE PRESIDENT: The presentation of the next speaker will be made by Mr. Littlepage.

MR. LITTLEPAGE: I want to take just one or two minutes in introducing Mr. Reed, the next speaker on the program. The Department of Agriculture, as we all know, is an aggregation of many of the very brightest men in this country. Those of us who are here in Washington know that at times it is sadly in need of organization. It is perfectly apparent to anybody who has judgment enough to make observations that there is a great deal of very valuable material down there going to waste for the lack of organization. Perhaps it will always be so. I do not know. Institutions are not perfect because the individuals constituting these institutions are not perfect. The Department of Agriculture is, taken as a whole, a most wonderful institution. I do wish, however, that the Department officials would not always wait until they think they know exactly all the facts about a thing before they publish it. I sometimes wish they had enough nerve to say: "Now, this is what we found out today. We may change our minds tomorrow and if we do we will tell you so," the same as any other honest citizen. Why in the world they collect all the data they do, file it away day after day, month after month and year after year, and publish it after it is of no use to anyone on this earth, I never could figure out! I know it is a difficult problem because if the Department of Agriculture should say today that Winesap apples grow beautifully on Maryland hills some fellow would promptly capitalize that and go to selling the Maryland hills, the water underneath, the air above them and everything around them for the modest sum of ten times what it was worth. So that is the other side of it. It makes it necessary for the Department of Agriculture, of course, to be cautious. I know, however, that you all think as I do because you have said so to me but you do not all have the nerve to get up here and say as I do that the Department of Agriculture ought to give us more of these data; that they ought to give it to us for what it is worth today and in this lifetime, leaving it to us to have a little common sense to know that what they say must be taken as they say it. However, I did not get up here to say all of those things. My purpose is to introduce the speaker.

* * * * *

Now, I happen to know a great deal about Mr. Reed's work. I know that he is one of the most active men in the Department and one of the men who has, as much as anybody in the Department of Agriculture, the confidence of those of us who know about the project that he is working on. Mr. Reed has more work in the Department of Agriculture than he can do and I have been trying to lay out some additional work for him. For example, we have found in Southwestern Illinois a larger pecan than any propagated in the North. I saw it in a bunch of Schleys which is the premier pecan of the South. It was larger than many of the Schleys. We don't know anything more about the pecan but I would like to know about this and several others. That is one little job that comes under Mr. Reed's supervision and he ought to have more time and more help. As a matter of fact everybody in the Department thinks he should have more money for his particular project. Those of us who are interested in nut work think the nut people should have more money. The Department was very fortunate in receiving Mr. Reed who came from Michigan. I have talked to him many times and I have never found him yet to make a statement about anything in the nut world that he could not back up. In an illustrated lecture of this kind you have the good fortune to get a great many data that you cannot get in any other way. I wish the whole country that has an interest in these matters could hear it. If I could think of anything else good to say about Mr. Reed I would say it. He is entitled to it. (Applause.)



NUT CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES.

C. A. REED, Washington, D. C.

We are annually importing into the United States from $30,000,000 to more than $52,000,000 worth of nuts. In this country, production is of leading importance with but three species,—the Persian (English) walnut, the pecan, and the almond. Of these together, we are producing in the neighborhood of $26,000,000 worth of nuts. In addition to these three species, two others now bid fair to become of considerable importance within the next decade. These are the filbert of the Northwest and the Eastern black walnut. In the Northwest, the filbert is receiving intensive attention at the hands of a considerable number of skilled horticulturists. The species is making rapid strides and in a short while will probably rank fourth in importance with reference to the extent to which it has been developed horticulturally. Possibly because of the extent to which it is common over the United States, the black walnut might properly now be rated as fourth as that nut has as great, if not a greater, range and is of interest to more people in this country than is any other one species of nut. It remains, however, to be seen how rapidly it will be developed by the pomologists.

The view before you is one which some of you have seen before. It was taken in the famous Vrooman orchard of Persian walnut trees at Santa Rosa, California. This is the largest and most noted orchard of Franquette variety in the country. It is from this orchard that scions have been obtained for the propagation of a great part of the Franquette orchards in this country.

In the Willamette Valley of Western Oregon, the walnut has received a large amount of attention during recent years; its development there has made rapid strides, and in the better soils, the trees grow rapidly and ordinarily bear very well. The photograph before you was taken in February, 1920, in an orchard near Hillsboro. It was situated on low but rich land and I regret to say that it was practically wiped out of existence by an unusual cold spell occurring from the 12th to the 15th of December in 1919. During that spell, the temperatures went down in some points of the Willamette Valley to 24 degrees below zero. As nearly as could be told at the time the picture was taken the trees were all killed to the snowline which was from a foot and a half to two feet above ground. The owner has since reported that he cut the trees down to that line.

To some extent, the Persian walnut is grown in the eastern part of the United States. It was introduced here long before it was on the Atlantic Coast, but this side of the Rocky Mountains, it has nowhere become of great commercial importance. The photograph before you was taken in 1911. It shows a seedling orchard of twenty-three Persian walnut trees in Bucks County in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania. The orchard then appeared to be in first-class condition with no sign of winter-injury, but so far as we have been able to ascertain, the trees have never borne important crops of nuts.

This tree before us is the parent, or original tree of the Nebo variety from Southern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a variety first propagated by Messrs. Rush and Jones. It is one of the old historical trees of that section, and while the nut it produces is very good in many respects, for various reasons, the variety is no longer being propagated to great extent.

This is the parent Rush tree, another variety now not propagated as much as formerly, but one which, nevertheless, is a good sort and regarded as being well worthy of planting about the home grounds in sections of the eastern part of the country to which the species is adapted.

The Persian walnut is evidently quite at home from the eastern shore of Maryland up through Delaware and New Jersey to Long Island and lower Connecticut. From this strip west inland to well toward York and Harrisburg in Southern Pennsylvania, it is by no means uncommon. To some extent, it is grown in Western New York and close to Lake Erie in Northern Ohio. There are some trees in Eastern Michigan and a very few in what is known as the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario, but with few exceptions, the crops they bear are uncertain.

The tree before us is the parent of the Aurand variety named in honor of Mr. Geo. D. Aurand of Lewistown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. The gentleman in the foreground is Mr. Aurand in the act of examining a split in the bark caused by winter-injury. This trouble is fairly prevalent over a great part of the east.

Leaving the walnut industry for the time being, we will take a fleeting glance at the pecan industry. The greater part of our pecan crop comes from wild trees in the Southwest. The view before us is typical of Texas scenes especially in such towns as San Saba, Brownwood and others where nuts are brought from the country in wagon loads much the same as are cereals in the northern states. Pecan orchard development has taken place almost wholly in states east of the limits of the native range. In sections to which the pecan has been indigenous development has been very slow. The greatest and most extensive development of any section happens to be in Southwestern Georgia.

The view before us was taken in an orchard of Frotscher trees in Thomasville some 20 miles north of the Georgia-Florida state line. The trees were planted in 1905, set fifty feet apart, and last spring, because of crowding, the alternate trees were removed. The lower limbs had begun to die and the nuts from the lower branches had, for several years, been inferior in both size and filling quality.

The trees in the orchard before you were three years planted when photographed. This is an orchard in the Albany district of southwestern Georgia. It is in the immediate Albany district that more pecan planting has taken place than in any other one district of the whole South. It is possible to go from Albany in most any direction and to pass through orchards on both sides of the road with rows of pecan trees extending as far as the eye can see in each direction.

There is more or less, of a prevailing idea that the pecan is a California product but it is the exception rather than the rule to find thrifty and productive trees in that state. The tree before you is one which bore enough nuts during a recent year to bring $125 in the market, at 20 cents a pound.

Coming considerably nearer home, we find the parent tree of the Butterick variety situated on the Illinois side of the Wabash River a short distance below Vincennes, Indiana. The range of the pecan, as the most of you probably know, extends well up into Iowa along the bank of the Mississippi River and also into Central Illinois along the Illinois and other rivers and north to Terre Haute, Indiana, along the Wabash. The Butterick has been regarded as one of the most promising northern varieties. Reports which seem to be fairly well authenticated are to the effect that this fine tree has since partially died because of having its roots cut in the digging of a ditch.

Two years ago, Dr. J. B. Curtis (who is present in the audience) and myself spent a week's vacation in Eastern Maryland. At Easton we were greatly surprised to find what we agreed was the largest planted pecan tree we had ever seen. During the past summer, this tree has been photographed and its measurements taken: It has a girth measurement at breast height of 15 feet. Its spread is 129 by 138 feet. Its height was estimated at approximately 135 feet. It is not one of the largest pecan trees of the country as larger trees are not uncommon in many sections from Southern Indiana, south and west to Texas but they are native and not planted trees. We know this to be a planted tree as there are no native pecans in the state of Maryland. This tree bears with a fair degree of regularity. We are told that in 1917 it yielded approximately twelve bushels of nuts which, although small, were exceedingly good and a delight to the children of the whole neighborhood.

Taking up the almond industry, the view before you is of interest because of historical reasons rather than otherwise. It is one of the few remaining large orchards planted by the late Mr. A. T. Hatch known as father of the principal varieties of California today. Mr. Hatch planted several hundred acres of almonds in the vicinity of Suisun about midway between Sacramento and San Francisco but cold winds from San Francisco Bay prevent almond trees in that section from being commercially productive, and as result, the section has been abandoned as an almond center. Nevertheless, this picture is of interest because it was in these very orchards that were originated the famous Hatch varieties, the Ne Plus Ultra, Nonpareil, I. X. L. and the Drake. A great part of this orchard has since been topworked with prunes.

Almond orchards in bloom afford some of California's most beautiful sights during February. The two trees in the foreground are typical specimens of I. X. L. while in full bloom. The almond begins bearing at about the same age as does the peach; at 5 or 6 years from the time the trees are planted, they begin to pay a little more than the cost of up-keep, and at 8 years, they are regarded as being in full bearing.

This scene was taken in one of the oldest orchards in the state of California. The trees were planted in about 1870. The picture affords a typical illustration of one of the methods of harvesting. The nuts are being thrashed or "knocked" from the trees to heavy canvas sheets spread upon the ground which are drawn from tree to tree by horse power. The nuts are loaded loose in wagons or in sacks and taken to some central plant where they are run through hulling machines and the nuts separated from the hulls after which they are spread out in trays and left in the sun to dry. At that season of the year, there is practically no danger of dew or rain and, after being exposed for several days and nights during which they are frequently stirred, they are taken to the nearest exchange point, bleached and put forth into final shape for the market.

A very important factor in the success of almond production is the honey-bee. Bee keepers shift their hives from orchard to orchard during the blossoming period making a profit out of the honey and at the same time charging a rental to the orchard owners. The bees, of course, attend to the matter of interpollination.

In some sections, it is necessary to equip the orchards with smudge or fire pots which are kept filled with crude oil and fired at the moment the temperature goes down to below the freezing point during the blossoming period. In one district these pots were this last year fired again and again but after all the temperature went down to a point such that a great part of the crop was lost. We are told that it is possible to raise the temperature 26 to 34 degrees. It is tedious work and a dirty job. The oil is placed in the pots in the daytime and the firing usually takes place in the latter part of the night, very often after 5 o'clock in the morning.

We come now to the filbert industry. One of the reasons why filberts were planted in the northwest was because the native hazels grow there with great vigor. This picture shows a typical stool of the native hazel as it is commonly seen in the western parts of Oregon and Washington. Not infrequently it attains a height of 30 or 35 feet and when trained to single stems, the trees not infrequently develop trunk diameters of from 6 to 8 inches.

The Mr. Vollertsen of the Northwest is Mr. A. A. Quarnberg of Vancouver, Washington. In 1893 Mr. Quarnberg read an article by the late Professor H. E. Van Deman in which the latter urged the experimental planting of the filbert in the Northwest. Mr. Quarnberg ordered two trees of the Du Chilly variety from Mr. Felix Gillett, a Frenchman and then proprietor of the Barren Hill Nurseries, Nevada City, California. These were planted in February of 1894 and are believed to have been the first trees of that variety shipped to the Northwest. They are so close together that they are considerably crowded but still they have done fairly well, bearing in some years as much as 45 pounds together.

This is a view of the first filbert orchard planted in the Northwest. It consists of three hundred trees mainly of the Barcelona and Du Chilly varieties obtained from Mr. Gillett in January of 1901 by Mr. Quarnberg and planted by him for a neighbor, Mr. John E. Norelius.

In this connection, it is interesting to note that the Barcelona variety had already become fairly well established in the Northwest when Mr. Quarnberg first introduced the Du Chilly to that section. The picture before you is of one of the oldest Barcelona trees that has come to my personal attention. It shows a tree in Portland measuring 45 inches in circumference one foot above ground. It is perhaps the largest filbert tree in the United States. When visited during the past September, the limbs were bending down with nuts and an estimate was made that it would have from 50 to 70 pounds of mature nuts.

The tree before us was another Barcelona of good size. In 1919 it matured a crop of 45 pounds of nuts. However, unfortunately it was caught by the cold spell already referred to and the tree about half killed. It stands in a low place in an orchard of some fifty trees and was one of the most seriously affected.

Returning to the East, we have before us a picture of an Italian Red filbert tree in the orchard of Messrs. Vollertsen and McGlennon north of Rochester, New York. It is a young tree not over two years old. Each terminal has a cluster of nuts. Mr. Vollertsen is observing it closely and thus far regards it favorably.

Mr. J. G. Rush of West Willow, Pennsylvania has brought out a native hazel which offers considerable promise to nut planters. It is a remarkably prolific variety and the nuts are both large and thin-shelled. This picture illustrates something of its heavy bearing tendency.

We come now to the black walnut. One of the first varieties propagated was the Thomas. This picture is one of several hundred grafted trees of that variety owned by Mr. E. A. Riehl of Godfrey, Illinois. As here shown, they are very prolific and these hundred trees grown mainly on hillsides and untillable lands are furnishing Mr. Riehl with a very fair income. On the whole, the Thomas is a good variety. It cracks much better than does the average black walnut but still there are some others which are a shade better in the matter of cracking quality. The picture before you shows the parent tree of the variety first known as Rush but later changed to Herman in order to avoid confusion of names with the Rush Persian walnut. This variety has been propagated to some extent but according to recent accounts, the parent tree has been cut down. The tree now before you is the parent of a well known variety, the Stabler. It is situated in Montgomery County, Maryland, some 20 miles from the city of Washington. Reports have it that this tree bore 30 bushels of nuts in one mythical year, but the present owner states that the maximum yield of any year since he has known the tree has been 10 or 11 bushels of hulled nuts. The variety is being propagated by several nurserymen and trees are available for planting.

Another variety now being propagated by the nurserymen is the Ohio, the parent tree of which is some 20 or 30 miles out of Toledo in the state after which it was named. This picture, (showing seven nuts) illustrates a remarkable tendency on the part of young grafted trees to bear at an early age. This tree in the nursery of Mr. Jones of Lancaster, Pa., was grafted in May and photographed in September one year following. Of course early bearing is not wholly desirable but in a way it will refute the common belief that black walnuts are necessarily tardy in coming into bearing.

Col. J. C. Cooper, McMinnville, Oregon, President of the Western Walnut Growers Association has on his home grounds two black walnut trees grown from nuts obtained in the East which were 6 years old when this picture was taken. Each of these trees which you will notice are from 20 to 30 feet high bore approximately a peck of nuts during the year when photographed.

The native butternut is a species which has been quite neglected by our horticulturists but through the efforts of Mr. Bixby, a few varieties have been brought out and are now being propagated by the nurserymen. In spite of its thick shell, the flavor of the butternut is preferred by many people to that of any other nut on the market. It is our most hardy species of nut tree. It grows as far north as Maine and Nova Scotia. Two or three recognized varieties are being propagated. Probably those which will soonest be available for dissemination to the public are the Aiken from New Hampshire and the Deming from Connecticut.

One of our most decorative native trees is the American beech. As fine a specimen as is often seen is this one not far from Easton, Maryland photographed during the past summer. It is an enormous tree and very productive. It is one of forty or fifty trees on the grounds of one of the numerous large estates of Eastern Maryland and was planted, so we are told, in 1830. The lady giving this information said that her mother had the trees dug up in the forest by slaves and hauled to their present location in ox carts. Now, ninety years later, they form a magnificent avenue of trees. Fine crops of nuts are borne each year. The nuts are small and most too tedious to extract from the shell to be useful for human consumption, but they go a long way in the finishing off of the turkeys and other poultry in the fall.

Another species of nut which is quite neglected is the Japanese walnut. It has been on trial in this country for perhaps fifty or seventy-five years. It has indicated its adaptability to a wide range of the country; it succeeds on a great variety of soils and it is both hardy and early to come into bearing. It has this disadvantage, however,—the nuts are small; but in flavor the kernals can hardly be distinguished from those of the butternut. Very often it forms a most attractive tree and it should be used to a much greater extent than it is on home lawns.

In Michigan, hickory and black walnut trees have been used along the highways as avenue trees for a considerable period. In Pennsylvania occasionally the Persian walnut is used as an avenue tree. One of the beauty spots along the roadway of Lancaster County is this stretch of roadway under the spreading branches of Persian walnut trees. Senator McNary of Oregon thought so well of the beauty of the filbert that he induced his brother to plant several trees on his lawn in the city of Salem. It is no exageration to say that there are no prettier trees in the city then are these before you.

To a considerable extent, nut raising is being combined with the poultry industry in the Northwest. The poultry raisers claim that some kind of trees are essential to furnish shade in the poultry yards. They say that fruit trees are not desirable for the reason that at harvest time the chickens not only pick and ruin the fruit but themselves get internal disorders. Nut trees, they argue, fit in very well, as the chickens cannot hurt the nuts nor the nuts the chickens. Furthermore, the trees in chicken parks salvage a great deal from the chicken manure which would otherwise be lost. The use of nut trees in this way is a practice which it would seem could well be introduced to good advantage in the eastern states.

Among the ornamentals, it is difficult to imagine a species which could more effectively be used than the pecan. The picture before you was taken of a comparatively young tree perhaps 30 or 40 years old on the home grounds of a private citizen near Easton, Maryland at practically our own latitude. It is a most beautiful tree.

Rightly used, the black walnut is also one of our most effective species in the landscape. The picture before you is of a tree 51 years old. It stands in front of the home residence of a sister to United States Senator Charles L. McNary of Salem, Oregon. When photographed, this tree measured 10 feet, 6 inches in girth at breast height. It would be hard to imagine a more noble and graceful nut.