Section 2. Counties, townships, cities and villages may annually appropriate money to be used in planting, pruning and protecting, and whenever necessary in acquiring shade, nut bearing and ornamental trees to be placed along and within the respective limits of said municipalities. The expenditure of any such fund shall be vested in the highway commissioner in the case of county roads, and in the proper highway authorities of the city or village as the case may be.

Section 3. The owner of any real estate in the State of Michigan that borders upon a legal highway upon which State reward has not been paid, shall have the right to plant said approved ornamental, nut bearing, or other food producing trees along the line of said highway adjoining said land, and shall receive annually a credit of five cents upon his highway repair tax for each tree so planted by him and growing in good order, not less than six feet in height when planted and not less than twenty and not more than forty feet apart. All of said trees and their products shall belong to the owner of said land: Provided, that no bounty shall be paid or deduction allowed under the provision of this section upon any one tree or row of trees for a longer period than five years. The owner of such trees shall have the care thereof and shall have the duty and responsibility for the trimming, spraying and cultivation thereof.

Section 4. The Michigan Agricultural College and Public Domain Commission are hereby authorized to grow and acquire suitable seeds, scions or trees for planting under the provisions of this act, and to establish proper rules and regulations for distributing the same at nominal cost, or otherwise, to counties, townships, cities, villages, and citizens of the State for the aforesaid purpose, and also for State parks or other public places.

Section 5. It shall be unlawful to cut, destroy, injure, deface or break any ornamental, nut bearing, food producing or shade tree upon any public highway or place, except where such trees shall interfere with the proper construction or maintenance of such highways. It shall be unlawful to affix to any such tree any picture, announcement, play-bill, notice or advertisement, or to paint or mark such tree, except for the purpose of protecting it, or to negligently permit any animal to break down, injure or destroy any such tree within the limits of any public highway. Any person violating any of the provisions of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than one dollar or more than twenty-five dollars, and in default of payment of any such fine may be imprisoned in the county jail for a period not exceeding thirty days. Such person shall be liable to the owner of the trees for treble the amount of damages sustained.

LUREN D. DICKINSON, Lieutenant Governor, President of the Senate.

TOM REED, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Approved, March 28, 1919.

ALBERT E. SLEEPER, Governor.

MR. C. A. REED: Mr. Chairman, I move that before adjournment the chairman appoint a committee of three members of this association to carefully review this bill and either report in favor of any suggestions that they may wish to make in regard to its amendment or give approval of the bill as it stands.

MR. LINTON: I support the motion.

PRESIDENT REED: It is moved and seconded that the chairman appoint a committee of three to carry out the recommendations. All in favor say Aye; contrary, No. It is CARRIED.

SENATOR PENNEY: That law is adjusted to the laws of Michigan and any other state proposed would have to adjust it to fit their laws.

PRESIDENT REED: I would like to have Mr. C. A. Reed on that committee, Mr. Olcott and Dr. Morris.

C. A. REED: Then, Mr. President, in addition to that we are going to take the liberty of adding an ex officio member, Mr. Littlepage, an ex-president and also a good thoroughgoing nut.

MR. JONES: My understanding is the provision for six-ft. trees. Six foot nut trees unless they have been transplanted several times will hardly succeed. I would say use small trees along the highway.

PRESIDENT REED: I think that would need to be worked out. I think a six foot tree is a little dangerous in some varieties. The committee might find it wise to offer some suggestions in that line.

VOICE: If you plant a tree six feet high, you are sure of having a tree there.

PRESIDENT REED: I believe Dr. Kellogg is about ready now, and we will hear from Dr. Kellogg whom you are all acquainted with.



THE SOY BEAN

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

It is evident that the live stock industry is shriveling up. The livestock inhabitants of the country—the pigs, sheep and cattle—are much smaller in population at the present time than they were twenty-five or thirty years ago, and are getting smaller all the time. The price of meat is high and is going to continue to climb. It is away out of reach of the average laboring man even at the present time. I heard Dr. Charley Mayo say at a clinic not long ago that meat is so high he could not afford to eat it and he didn't see how anybody could; and as a matter of fact, he didn't need it anyhow, and so we could easily get along without it. As a matter of fact, as Mr. Bill said some years ago it is not really so much the high cost of living as it is the cost of high living; and the use of meat is such an extravagant and expensive thing it is very important that people should know how to get along without meat.

The experimenters of the agricultural experiment stations have shown us that it takes thirty-three pounds of dry digestible food substance to make one pound of beef—31 or 32 pounds to make a pound of beef, and 33 or 34 pounds to make a pound of mutton. Seven pounds of digestible food substance will make a pound of dry milk. So we can readily see that there is an enormous waste of foodstuff. Only about ten per cent of the corn raised is used for feeding human beings. The rest is fed to animals and a large part of it is wasted.

So it is exceedingly important, it seems to me, that this nut industry should be encouraged in every way. A half million acres of nut trees well advanced and producing would produce all of the fat and more digestible fat, and all the protein and more digestible protein, than we are now using in the entire country. We are producing more than enough food in corn and other foodstuffs to feed nearly three times our present population, and most of it is wasted in the energy which the hog, the steer and other animals use up in running around and keeping warm. That is where the great loss comes. In nuts we have a choice foodstuff as digestible as any other foodstuff, and Prof. Torrey and Prof. Mendel and others who have recently made experiments have shown that the protein of the nut and the protein of vegetables in general is not so putrescible as the protein of meats. There are good reasons for it. It does not undergo putrefaction so readily any way, and besides meat carries along with it the bacteria which produce putrefaction.

Meat is the filthiest thing that goes upon our tables. If the number of bacteria in milk was as great as the number of bacteria in meat, nobody would think of eating it. If the bacteria in water were as numerous as in milk, no one would be willing to drink the water. It is a very curious thing that we permit in milk and in meat a condition of things we would not tolerate in air or water for a moment. Every morsel of meat a person eats contains some billions of the bacteria of the very worst sort. Bacteria found in meat are those which produce colitis, appendicitis, abscesses of the teeth and diseased conditions of the tonsils. They predispose to a good many infectious diseases of the intestine, and no doubt predispose to cancer. It is pretty well established at the present time that cancer is a disease of meat eating men and animals. About one cow in fifty has cancer, whereas every seventh dog taken to a hospital sick is found to have cancer. Dr. Mayo recently gathered some statistics on this matter, and he told me and some other doctors that dogs under eight years of age, every fourth one has cancer; every third one of dogs ten years of age has cancer, and half of all the dogs over twelve years of age have cancer and would die of it if left to themselves. These statements were based on laboratory animals that were killed when they were well and not sick, so the observation ought to be fairly reliable.

I was to say particularly a few words about the soy bean. I am not going to try to tell you very much about it, because I do not know very much about it. If you want to learn all about it, you can easily do so by writing to Mr. W. J. Morse, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. Farmers' Bulletin 973, one of the very best on this subject, tells all about the culture of this exceedingly useful legume. The soy bean is really the beefsteak of China and Japan. In those oriental countries, soy beans have been used for centuries. It is more nearly like a nut than a bean. Perhaps I better show you the pictures first, and then have the curtains raised so we can get a better inspection of the beans.

The composition of the soy bean is very remarkably different from that of the ordinary bean. It contains forty per cent of fat, on the average and about forty per cent of protein—sometimes more than forty per cent. The protein is sixty per cent more than in our best ordinary foods; and the fat is five or six times as much as that found in the ordinary bean.

A thousand different varieties of the soy bean have been gathered by the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture at Washington. Five hundred of these varieties have been tested, and thirty or forty of them have been found to be adapted to this country, and very useful. You can see in this picture the great mass of pods to be found growing on the plant. This slide shows how unusually well they grow in the field. You can see the pods scattered all through the plant. A large part of the foliage is made up of pods. This is one of our own fields of the beans that we raised this year. It is rather difficult to raise the bean in this latitude, because it requires a long time to mature. It requires about 110 days for some varieties. We have, however, a variety we raised here that we got from the agricultural department of Ontario. We found it matured very well indeed in 120 days. We planted the bean here the first week in May and harvested it the first week in September; so its season was about 120 days. I found this particular bean was new to the agricultural department at Washington, and have sent them some of the seed, and I think they are going to make some trial of it.

This is a view of a field of the Hahto variety which is a particularly fine variety for use as a shelled bean. In China the soy bean is very little used as we use beans. They do not cook the bean and eat it as we do; but instead they make it into a cheese which they call tofu, and this cheese is made by soaking the beans, grinding them into a pulp, then boiling for ten or fifteen minutes with about five volumes of water; then the milky mass is precipitated with sulphate of magnesia or citric acid, a very small amount because they use it as a curd. I have here a sample of the curd which I will pass around in a moment for you to see. This picture shows this curd pressed in large cakes. The soy bean curd is stored on wooden trays in a dark room. It is also stored in large earthen jars. They cure it and make cheese out of it which very closely resembles our American milk cheese. They also use the beans for sprouting.

The bean lacks only two things. It lacks lime and the fat-soluble vitamines. It contains a considerable amount of the fat-soluble vitamines. It is one of the very few seeds that is found to contain a sufficient amount of the fat-soluble vitamine to promote growth, so that animals will grow and develop normally on the bean alone without any other sort of fat-soluble vitamine. If the bean is sprouted, a large amount of this fat-soluble vitamine is produced by the plant itself. This is also found to be a valuable means of preventing scurvy—by sprouting the beans in this way and using the sprouts as a salad. The sprouts are used as a green vegetable. It is an easy way of getting green vegetables at any season of the year. It takes the place of ordinary greens.

Here is a courtyard full of pots in which the fermented soy beans are placed. This is a very interesting scheme they have for making a substitute for meat extract. By this means they prepare an extract which closely resembles extract of beef. In fact, it is rather a finer flavored product than meat extracts. It is made by first cooking the beans, spreading them out in the yard on trays and allowing a fungus to grow, and after two or three weeks the whole mass is put into pots of brine in the yard and allowed to remain there for a year or more, and at the end of that time the brine has become soy sauce.

This shows a mass of soy roots. It has been suggested it might be very useful to nut growers as a means of fertilizing the soil, a crop which will fertilize the soil for the trees and at the same time give a valuable return for the labor and expense. The little nodules on the roots are very numerous and show well here. They produce nitrogen, concentrated nitrogen from the air as do the nodules on the roots of alfalfa. The Scientific American recently stated that the soy bean is one of the most promising of vegetables. It provides food for man and beast. Given enough soy beans and granted the art of preparing them so that they might be served as food having sufficient diversity and palatableness, neither meat nor fish nor fat would be needed. In this respect the Germans did not prepare for war. If they had had the soy bean industry well developed it might have helped them through, and the map of the world might have been seriously changed from what it now is.

I think one of the finest of the soy beans is the Hahto variety. They grow one or two in a pod. I saw some of these beans in the market in Jerusalem forty years ago. When about three quarters grown and used as shelled beans they are exceedingly palatable. If at the dinner table today you will call for a soy bean omelet, you will be quite surprised. Dr. Morris tried it this morning and was kind enough to say it was the finest he ever ate.

The soy bean is the best of a large part of the cookery of the orient. We have been introducing it here the last few months, and it is very palatable, very digestible, and our patients like it very much. If you are interested in the soy bean, write, to W. J. Morse, or to the Agricultural Department, Bureau of Plant Industry, and they will give you a lot of interesting information about it. In starting the planting of the bean, it is necessary to inoculate the soil as in the starting of a planting of alfalfa.

PRESIDENT REED: Mr. Bixby has prepared a paper on "Judging Nuts" which there is not now time for him to read. It will be inserted in the proceedings at this point.



JUDGING NUTS

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

That there are differences in nuts is apparent to everybody. The selecting of the best nuts out of a lot of two or three usually presents no difficulty, and, when the number of nuts to be judged amounts to a dozen or so, it is generally possible to pick out the best, but, when one has before him nuts from several hundred trees, the problem becomes a very different one, and the person who tries to pick out the best from such a lot soon becomes aware of his own limitations. If, in addition, he has sufficient respect for consistency to try to be so exact in his judgment as to be able to go over a large lot of nuts today, we will say, and several months hence go over the same lot again and render the same verdict on each one of them, he will doubtless give the matter up as an impossibility, and yet that is just what is wanted and expected of those who judge the nuts which are sent in to the annual contests, which contests have resulted in bringing to the attention of the nut growing world the nuts of so many fine trees.

The experience of the last two or three years in being one of the judges who passed on the nuts which were sent in to the contests convinced me, almost at the start, of the desirability of getting methods where it would be possible to go over a large lot of nuts now and several months hence, and render the same verdict on each one of them, but now how to do it was not at first apparent, and the methods for doing it which will be outlined are the results of much work, many attempts, and the discarding of many of the methods tried.

Considering the methods used in judging fruit, animals and fowl has helped to some extent, but this assistance did not go far. The beginning of improved methods of judging any of the above, is the establishment of a score card, as it is called, which is nothing more than an enumeration of the characteristics and a decision as to the relative value of each one. Usually the values assigned to each characteristic are such that when added up the total will be 100 points. Score cards of this character are in general use.

The first attempt to make a score card for use in judging the nuts to which the Northern Nut Growers' Association gives its attention, so so far as I am aware, was that of a committee of the Northern Nut Growers' Association, which reported at the Fifth Annual Meeting at Evansville, Ind., 1914, and which report will be found on page 20 of the report of that meeting. Prof. E. R. Lake was chairman of the committee. The score card for butternuts, black walnuts and hickories which it recommended is noted below:

General Values Points Size 10 Form 5 Color 5

Shell Values Thinness 15 Cracking 20

Kernel Values Color 10 Plumpness 5 Flavor 10 Quality 20 _

Total 100

This score card has served as a basis for all the work that has been done in judging nuts since that work has largely fallen to me. It was early found desirable, however, to change the score card in one or two respects, and it has since been changed two or three times as the experience gained in judging nuts saw it was desirable. The score card now in use is noted below:

General Values Weight 10 Form 5 Color 5

Shell Values Husking Quality 5 Thinness 10 Cracking Quality 20

Kernel Values Color 5 Proportion of kernel 20 Quality and Flavor 20 _

Total 100

The first time one attempts to judge a large number of nuts whether with the aid of such a score card as that proposed by Prof. Lake's Committee or without it, he gets into practical difficulties at once. These difficulties are not with the score card but in its use. Take for example the characteristic, size, the first one on Prof. Lake's score card. How can a person tell from the nuts of a hundred hickory trees which is the largest and which is the smallest and which are intermediate; in short how can he arrange them in order of size, the largest at one end of the line and the smallest at the other with a uniform graduation in between. Anyone who tries to do such a thing quickly finds that it is impossible to do this correctly if one has only his eye to aid him in determining size. The inability to do so quickly becomes apparent if a person tries to arrange such a lot of nuts in order of size at one time and then several days later tries to arrange the same lot of nuts in order of size again. It is almost certain that they will not get arranged the same both times. The differences between the nuts are usually so minute, and, what is more important, the difficulties of correctly estimating size by the eye alone are so great that it is practically impossible to do it. An expert on this point can do it of course much better than one who is not, but even the expert is only too well aware of his limitations and of the impossibility of properly doing the above. The same difficulty is apparent with every characteristic on the list and while judging by experts with the aid of a score card, is, so far as I am aware, the method used in judging fruit, farm animals, poultry, etc., the crudeness of this method is only too evident to the experts themselves. Two or three years ago it seemed very far inferior to what actually measuring these characteristics would be, although such measurement at first seemed difficult, not to say almost impossible. Much work has been done on this, and it is very gratifying to say that this measurement has been found possible to an extent that was not dreamed of before the work was started. Before outlining the methods worked out to do this a little discussion will be given on Prof. Lake's score card, the characteristics which it pointed out, and the reason shown for changing some of them.

Size is a characteristic which is apparent to everyone, yet the actual measurement of size in the case of a large lot of nuts presents difficulties which seem practically insurmountable. A serious attempt was made to measure the length, breadth and height of the nuts examined and gauges were made which should do this exactly and quickly. These were finely discarded and the characteristic "weight" adopted in place of size. This has to quite an extent replaced size in considering farm products. When we used to buy potatoes by the bushel we used to get a bushel basket full, now we get the legal weight of a bushel of potatoes and instances of this kind might be multiplied almost indefinitely. While weight and size are not exactly the same thing, yet they are so to a large extent in the case of a given commodity, such as nuts of one species, and weight can be accurately and rapidly determined.

Plumpness is another characteristic which we all understand as far as the difference between a nut with a plump well filled kernel is concerned, and one with a shriveled up kernel, but when it comes to arranging the kernels of a lot of nuts in order of their plumpness, the one who tries to do it becomes ready to give up before he really gets started. It was found that the ratio of the weight of kernel to the weight of the entire nut which is termed "proportion of kernel" was never large in the case of a nut with shriveled kernel. It was small in the case of a nut with a thick shell and a plump well filled kernel, but, as stated above it was never large in the case of a nut with a shriveled kernel and a good deal of work on the subject convinced me that the characteristic "proportion of kernel" could be very well substituted for plumpness.

There seemed at the present time little use for separating flavor and quality as there seemed to be some question as to what was intended by the terms separately and so they were considered together. I would like to state here that little consideration has so far been given as to whether the number of points awarded for each characteristic are such as to cause the nut that will ultimately be considered of most value commercially to get the first prize or not. The score card of Prof. Lake's seemed so good that it was thought far more important at present to develop methods of measuring these characteristics. A careful study of the nuts sent in to the contests, it was thought, would point out most parts of the score card where improvement could be made, and this has already proved to be so to a considerable extent. The methods of quantitatively measuring the different characteristics and determining the number of points to be awarded for each will be outlined one at a time.

WEIGHT: This is determined by an accurate scale, one weighing to 1/10 gram was used, and the same scale was used directly or indirectly for determining six out of the nine characteristics considered. In determining weight, five average nuts (as far as could be determined by appearance) were weighed and the average weight determined. Having at hand the weights of the largest and smallest nuts of the species under examination, the largest nut was awarded 10 points and the smallest 0 and the nuts of intermediate weight were awarded intermediate figures. The method of doing this will best be seen by taking a specific instance e. g. the Lutz black walnut, the average weight of which is 26.4g. The Alley black walnut, the average weight of which is 10.0g is the smallest good black walnut which has come to our attention, while the Armknecht black walnut which weighs 28.9g is the largest one of which we know. The Armknecht black walnut would be awarded 10 points for weight and the Alley 0 points and a table would be made up for use in determining the number of points to be awarded for intermediate weights as noted below:

BLACK WALNUTS—WEIGHT

Heaviest Armknecht 28.9 grams; Lightest Alley 10.0 grams.

Weight of nut. Points.

28 grams and less than 30 grams 10 26 " " " " 28 " 9 24 " " " " 26 " 8 22 " " " " 24 " 6 20 " " " " 22 " 5 18 " " " " 20 " 4 16 " " " " 18 " 3 14 " " " " 16 " 2 12 " " " " 14 " 1 10 " " " " 12 " 0

After the average weight of five nuts of a given variety has been determined, an inspection of the table shows at a glance the number of points to be awarded for weight, which, in the case of the Lutz Black walnut, is 9. In case a nut should be entered which was very much larger or smaller than provided for, the table can be extended for use temporarily. The table, however, should be revised before being used the next year. For example, had a nut come in weighing 30.5 grams this might have been awarded 11 points, and had one weighing 8.5 grams come in this would have been awarded-1 point in order to give each nut full credit, for excellence in size or to penalize it for lack of it. It will be noticed that by the method outlined the size of a nut is determined exactly and the same number of points for size (or weight) would be awarded today, next week, next month, or next year, barring of course real changes, e. g. those caused by actual loss of moisture, etc.

FORM: It was only recently that a method of measuring this characteristic has been suggested and this has been tried out only experimentally. By form is meant attractive appearing shape which has been held to be absence of hollows, ridges, angles, etc. A round, smooth nut would be held to have perfect form in distinction from nuts that are rough and full of ridges or edges. The only method of measuring that has been suggested and which it is believed will work out satisfactorily is to first select an average nut and weigh, then fill up the hollows in the surface of the nut with wax just covering the ridges till the surface is smooth, and weigh. This will give the weight of the nut plus the weight of the wax needed to fill up the hollows on the surface. As the specific gravity of the wax is 4/5 that of the nut the figure actually used is weight of nut plus 5/4 weight of the wax, which gives the weight of a nut of the size of the sample with the hollows in the shell filled up or the weight of a nut of perfect form of the size of the sample. The measurement of form is then the weight of the average nut divided by the weight of a nut of the same size of perfect shape, that is without hollows or ridges.

A measurement of form of a black walnut gave the following:

Weight of nut 22.5 grams Weight of nut and wax 24.6 " Weight of wax 2.1 " Weight of 5-4 wax 2.6 " Weight of nut and 5-4 wax 25.1 " Form 22.5/25.1=89.7%

When a nut has perfect form there will be no hollows to fill and no wax will be needed and the weight of nut and 5/4 of the wax will be the same as the weight of the nut and therefore its form figure will be 100%. The number of points to be awarded for any measurement of form would be determined by making up a table as was made up for awarding points for weight, but such a table cannot be made up till after an examination of form values for a large number of nuts. This will be done later.

COLOR: The color of shell was measured by making up samples of water colors of all gradations of color between the lightest shell and the darkest. From these, five were selected as showing in five steps the differences noted, the lightest being marked 5, the next 4 and so on down to the darkest which was marked 0. With these color standards in front of the one judging, it was only necessary to take the nut to be judged and lay it on the standards of color and the figure on the shade which the nut most nearly matched was the figure awarded for color.

HUSKING QUALITY: This represents the ease with which the husk can be removed. In view of the well known fact that husks of all nuts do not come off with equal facility the need of such is apparent. Its measurement will be the proportion of husk removed by a standard husking operation.

THINNESS OF SHELL: This was measured by providing a means for bringing two metal surfaces together, keeping them always parallel. The nut to be cracked was placed between these surfaces and an arrangement of scale levers provided so that the pressure exerted on the nut could be weighed. The surfaces were brought together till the nut was cracked and the pressure required was noted. This measures the thinness of the shell or more properly the strength of the shell, the weakest shell of course being the one that takes the least pressure to crack. This pressure was measured in kilograms for by doing so it was possible to utilize some stock apparatus. After the pressure required to crack has been noted a reference to the table below will tell the number of points to be awarded. We will take for an example the the same nut as taken to illustrate weight e. g. the Lutz black walnut whose average cracking pressure is 312kg and which therefore would be awarded 2 points for thinness of shell. In this connection it should be stated that this table would seem not to be made out on the plan followed heretofore by taking the thinnest shelled nut of which we know, the Alley, as the low limit of the table. While the Alley black walnut takes the least cracking pressure of any we know which we can identify as from a particular tree, one black walnut was cracked which I believe came from the Ten Eyck tree which had a cracking pressure below 80kg and hence the table was made of sufficient extent to include this. It is my intention to get additional Ten Eyck nuts this year and check the matter up.

BLACK WALNUTS—THINNESS OF SHELL

Weight required to crack: Thinnest, Alley 110kg; thickest, Triplett 348kg.

Weight in kg. Points

50 and less than 80 10 80 and less than 110 9 110 and less than 140 8

170 and less than 200 6 200 and less than 230 5 230 and less than 260 4 260 and less than 290 3 290 and less than 320 2 320 and less than 350 1 350 and less than 380 0

- Transcribers note: point 7 was missing in the original. -

CRACKING QUALITY: This characteristic is perhaps the one which seems to most people the most difficult to measure, but, while it was some time before methods of measuring it did occur to anyone, its measurement is effected very easily. In cracking nuts a part of the kernel will usually drop right out, some times it is a large part, occasionally all, and sometimes it is but a small portion. A perfect cracker is one where the entire kernel drops out after cracking. This would have 100% cracking quality. When 4/5 of the kernel drops out after cracking and the remaining 1/5 can be extracted only by recracking or by picking out, the nut is said to have 80% cracking quality. In other words, the cracking quality is the ratio of the weight of the kernel which drops out after cracking to the entire kernel. The operations of determining cracking quality in practice are first, selecting five average nuts; second, cracking them and weighing the part of the kernels which drop out after cracking; third, extracting the balance of the kernels and getting the weight of all the kernels; fourth, dividing the weight of the part of the kernels which drop out after cracking by the total weight of the kernels, and the result is the cracking quality. After an examination of the figures of a large number of nuts, the table below was made up from which the number of points to be awarded for any given cracking quality is readily obtained. Taking the Lutz black walnut as an example again we find that the weight of the kernels which dropped out after cracking was 24 grams while the total weight of kernels was 32.5 grams which gives a cracking quality of 73.8% which would be awarded 13 points for cracking quality.

BLACK WALNUTS—CRACKING QUALITY

Percentage of kernel that drops out after cracking. Highest, Alley[4], 100%; Lowest, Butler, 22.9%.

Cracking Quality. Points. 100% 20 96% and all higher percentages under 100% 19 92% and all higher percentages under 96% 18 88% and all higher percentages under 92% 17 84% and all higher percentages under 88% 16 80% and all higher percentages under 84% 15 76% and all higher percentages under 80% 14 72% and all higher percentages under 76% 13 68% and all higher percentages under 72% 12 64% and all higher percentages under 68% 11 60% and all higher percentages under 64% 10 56% and all higher percentages under 60% 9 52% and all higher percentages under 56% 8 48% and all higher percentages under 52% 7 44% and all higher percentages under 48% 6 40% and all higher percentages under 44% 5 36% and all higher percentages under 40% 4 32% and all higher percentages under 36% 3 28% and all higher percentages under 32% 2 24% and all higher percentages under 28% 1 20% and all higher percentages under 24% 0

COLOR OF KERNEL: This is determined in the same way as the color of the shell by comparing with a standard color scale, and the step of the scale whose color most nearly matches the color of the kernel being examined gives the figure to be awarded.

PROPORTION OF KERNEL: This is the ratio of the weight of the kernels of five average nuts to the entire weight of such average nuts. After this has been determined a comparison with the table below which was made up after an examination of the proportion of kernel of a large number of nuts, the number of points to be awarded is readily determined. If we take for example the Lutz black walnuts again we find the weight of five average nuts 132.0 grams and the weight of the kernels of these nuts 32.5 grams which gives for the proportion of kernel 24.0% which would be awarded 8 points.

BLACK WALNUTS—PROPORTION OF KERNEL

Ratio of weight of kernel to weight of entire nut (without husk) Highest, Ten Eyck 36.4%; Lowest, Seefeldt, 16%.

Percent of Kernel. Points

36% and less than 37% 20 35% and less than 36% 19 34% and less than 35% 18 33% and less than 34% 17 32% and less than 33% 16 31% and less than 32% 15 30% and less than 31% 14 29% and less than 30% 13 28% and less than 29% 12 27% and less than 28% 11 26% and less than 27% 10 25% and less than 26% 9 24% and less than 25% 8 23% and less than 24% 7 22% and less than 23% 6 21% and less than 22% 5 20% and less than 21% 4 19% and less than 20% 3 18% and less than 19% 2 17% and less than 18% 1 16% and less than 17% 0

QUALITY AND FLAVOR: Absolutely no progress has so far been made in measuring this characteristic or more correctly these characteristics for, strictly speaking, there are a number of them instead of one and the only method available at present is tasting by experts. It is very much to be desired that methods for measuring this be worked out and several lines on which to work in order to accomplish it have been thought of but as yet no definite progress has been made.

While the characteristic as yet unmeasured is one of the most important and most difficult even for experts to estimate correctly when there are large numbers of nuts to be examined, the fact that it is possible to measure the other eight is a matter of a good deal of satisfaction and this satisfaction is the greater because with the methods that have been worked out it is possible for any ordinarily careful person to do the work about as well as it is for an expert and, as the work of judging a large number of nuts is very considerable, the elimination of a large part of the need for expert services is very gratifying. The services for example of such experts as Dr. Morris and Capt. Deming are obtainable only occasionally and for a short period. Now that the nuts sent in are rapidly increasing, it would have been impossible to have handled the contests without some improvements in the methods used.

While the same score card has been used for butternuts, black walnuts, and hickories it seemingly can be used quite well for English walnuts, Japan walnuts and pecans also, in short, for all nuts belonging to the botanical family Juglandaceae and perhaps for hazels. Separate ones will evidently be required for beechnuts, and chestnuts. The tables for determining the number of points to be awarded for a given value of any characteristic are likely to vary for each species. Inasmuch as there are fourteen species of hickories exclusive of the pecan that have to be considered and apparently even more species of walnuts not to mention beechnuts, chestnuts and hazels, one might think that nearly 100 tables would be required. A study of the matter, however, has shown that the number really needed is very much less, and the more that nuts are examined the more it seems possible to make one table answer for a number of species and have the number of points a nut receives indicate to a certain extent its value as a nut to grow, and not simply the value of a given variety of a certain species.

The hickories and the walnuts require a word in passing. There are at least nine species of hickory either native in the northeastern United States or that will grow there and it is quite possible that further study of the hickories will add to this number. Seven of these belong to the scale bud class, Eucarya, the shagbark, Carya ovata, the shellbark, Carya laciniosa, the scaly bark, Carya Carolinae-septentrionalis, the mockernut, Carya alba, and the close-bark pignut, Carya glabra, the loose-bark pignut, Carya-ovalis, and the pallid hickory, Carya pallida; while two belong to the open bud class, Apocarya, the pecan, Carya pecan, and the bitternut, Carya cordiformis. Hybrids between many of these species are found occurring naturally and seemingly hybrids between any two are possible, and the fact of many of them being hybrids is not evident on an inspection of the nuts. It is a noteworthy fact that quite a proportion of fine hickories that are being propagated are evidently hybrids and the number of our fine hickories which are evidently hybrids increases as they are studied more carefully. In many ways it would be desirable in the contest to offer prizes for the best nuts of each species of hickories, but the difficulty of determining the species from the nut alone, and the fact of such a proportion of our finest nuts being hybrids is sufficient to discourage the attempt. What was done in the 1918 contest, and what would seem to be the best thing that can be done is to offer the prizes for hickory nuts simply. Most of the prizes are taken by shagbarks but when a nut not a shagbark gets into the prize winning class, we make a class that would include it. For example, in the 1918 Contest, three shellbarks and one mockernut came into the prize winning class, whereupon a special lot of prizes for shellbarks and mockernuts were given. This enables us to do what would be accomplished in offering prizes for best nuts of each species of hickories. The same score card and tables therefore are used for each of these species. It is convenient, in judging nuts, to differentiate between the pecan on the one hand and the other hickories on the other, although study recently put on the matter would seem to show that this distinction is not exact and that some nuts, for example, which apparently are pure pecans are really pecan hickory hybrids.

The differences between the structure of the shell of the nuts of certain of the walnuts is greater than between the shell structure of the hickories and the walnuts may be divided into three classes. Hybrids between a number of species are found which have been formed naturally, and seemingly hybrids between all species are possible. It is convenient in judging nuts to differentiate between English walnuts, black walnuts, and butternuts, which nuts are representative of the three walnut classes and to include with the butternuts, the Japan walnuts. This will strike many people as a strange classification, i. e. to include the butternut and Japan walnut, but I feel sure that no one who has given the matter much study will so consider it. Whenever the two grow in proximity they hybridize so freely that one may be almost certain of not getting pure species if he plants nuts and raises seedlings. Indeed I have received many such hybrids which have been called either butternuts or Japan walnuts. As a matter of fact the same difficulty exists in distinguishing butternuts and Japan walnuts that exists in distinguishing hickories. There is no name which includes the butternut and Japan walnut as there is to include the various species of hickories, and, as such a name is urgently needed, I have used the word "butterjaps." This includes butternuts, Japan walnuts and hybrids between them. While it doubtless will be convenient to continue the names butternut and Japan walnut it should be understood that usually they will mean simply nuts which, as far as appearance is concerned, would seem to be one or the other, but very likely may be hybrids between the two species and might be more properly called by some name e. g. "butterjaps," which would include the two species and hybrids between them.

At this point the Convention took a recess to enable a photograph to be taken and immediately after reassembled for a business session.

FOOTNOTE:

[4] An additional lot of Alley Black Walnuts received several months after the one entered in the 1918 contest did not show 100% cracking quality.



BUSINESS SESSION

PRESIDENT W. C. REED IN THE CHAIR

PRESIDENT REED: If Mr. Patterson is in the room, we will be glad to hear from him at this time. He has a matter he wants to bring before us.

MR. PATTERSON: Mr. President and Gentlemen: The National Nut Growers Association for some three years have had a standing committee on federal aid for the nut industry. Two years ago through the instrumentality of that committee, the appropriation for investigational work was increased by some fifteen thousand dollars from the previous appropriation. The total appropriation along this line now is thirty thousand to thirty-five thousand dollars. During the past year the almond growers felt the need of some encouragement and help from the Department of Agriculture, and the last appropriation was increased but was not made specific for the pecan industry, but for the nut industry in general in the United States which was entirely agreeable to the pecan people. And now I appear before you especially to call your attention to this movement and to suggest that this association should appoint a committee to co-operate with a committee from the National Nut Growers' Association and the Almond Growers' Association, and the nut growers of Washington and Oregon in an effort to secure an appropriation from the Department of Agriculture which would commensurate with the needs of the great nut industry in the United States. As we all know, it is entirely in its infancy as a commercial proposition and I doubt not we all agree as to its wonderful possibilities. The recommendation from the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture has gone to the House committee this year without any increase over the appropriation of last year; so that it will be necessary if any increased allowance is made, that pressure shall be brought to bear upon the House committee of agriculture, or the Senate committee (the bill is before the House committee at present), to get them to appreciate the importance of this appropriation. I might say I am on my way to Washington now to see if I can do anything in co-operation with the California Almond Growers Association and such other co-operation as we can get to see if we can get an increase in the appropriation over and above the appropriation recommended by the Secretary of Agriculture. The Secretary is not opposed to a higher appropriation, but he has had orders from higher up not to recommend any increase. I thank you for the privilege of bringing this matter to the attention of the Association with the suggestion that, if it meets with your approval you appoint a committee to co-operate with the other committees already appointed by these other associations.

PRESIDENT REED: You have heard the suggestion by Mr. Patterson. Are there any remarks?

MR. BIXBY: I move, Mr President, that a committee on Federal Aid be appointed for that purpose, to co-operate with the other associations for the purpose of securing for the nut industry an appropriation sufficient or at least somewhere near sufficient for the work in hand. There is much work to be done that should be done now.

MR. OLCOTT: I second the motion, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT REED: You have heard the motion. It is moved that a committee be appointed for this work, as suggested. All in favor of the motion say Aye. Contrary same sign. It is CARRIED. I think it would be well to leave that committee to the incoming president. That was your idea, Mr. Bixby, was it?

MR. BIXBY: I didn't think that far.

PRESIDENT REED: That won't be far off, and I think it would be well to leave the appointment of that committee to the incoming president. I think also, it would be well, before appointing that committee, to confer a little bit to see who could possibly attend, could go to Washington, and would have the time to give to it.

PRESIDENT REED: We will now have the report of the nominating committee.

REPORT OF THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE

Your committee on Nominations, having in mind the rapidly expanding interest in Nut Culture and the need of the Northern Nut Growers Association for a board of officers especially equipped for extending development on broad lines, respectfully submit the following nominations:

For President—WILLIAM S. LINTON, Saginaw, Michigan. For Vice-President—JAMES S. MCGLENNON, Rochester, New York. For Secretary-Treasurer—WILLARD G. BIXBY, Baldwin, New York. For Acting Secretary—DR. W. C. DEMING, Wilton, Connecticut. For Executive Committee—MESSRS. LINTON, MCGLENNON, BIXBY, W. C. REED, AND J. RUSSELL SMITH.

(Signed) Ralph T Olcott James S. McGlennon Robert T Morris William S. Linton J. F. Jones

MR. OLCOTT: Secretary-Treasurer Bixby has suggested that the work of his office be divided, he to look after the financial affairs and the nut contests, Dr. Deming to assume the work of the Secretary proper. The constitution provides that the three principal officers and the last two retiring presidents be the executive committee. As the constitution specifically provides regarding this matter, the committee suggests the position of acting secretary for Dr. Deming until such action may be taken as will conform to the constitution.

PRESIDENT REED: You have heard the report of the committee. What is your pleasure?

MR. C. A. REED: I move that this report of the committee be unanimously adopted and the officers be elected, and the secretary so cast the ballot.

MR. SMEDLEY: I second the motion.

PRESIDENT REED: All in favor of that vote say Aye. Opposed, No. CARRIED. I hereby instruct the secretary to cast the unanimous ballot of the Association for the list of officers as read.

The Secretary then cast a ballot for the persons on the report of the Nominating Committee, and declared the following elected:

President—WILLIAM S. LINTON, Saginaw, Mich. Vice-President—JAMES S. MCGLENNON, Rochester, N. Y. Secretary-Treasurer—WILLARD G. BIXBY, Baldwin, New York. Executive Committee—The above three and W. C. REED, Vincennes, Ind., and J. RUSSELL SMITH, Swarthmore, Penn. Acting Secretary—DR. W. C. DEMING, Wilton, Conn.

PRESIDENT REED: In regard to the change in the constitution, that will have to go over until next year.

MR. OLCOTT: The constitution provides that notice be given to this convention for action to be taken a year from now; or that thirty days before action is taken, the notice be sent to the members. It seems to me that inasmuch as the action proposed is fully understood, that Dr. Deming is available, and Mr. Bixby kindly consented while Dr. Deming was tied up in the war work to look after this work, that there really is enough for two, and as both are agreeable, this is the time to take that action to become effective a year from now unless you can bring it about quicker.

PRESIDENT REED: I should think it is only necessary to take the action on that. If there is some one better posted on parliamentary law, who thinks entire action better be taken at this time, I will entertain a motion. If not, we will let it stand as it is at present.

MR. OLCOTT: I move that it is the sentiment of this convention, and that the members should be notified through the annual report and the regular proceedings, that that action is contemplated—to divide the office of Secretary-Treasurer at the next annual meeting, and that the constitution be changed as follows:

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

That Article VII, Quorum, be changed as follows: Ten members of the association shall constitution a quorum, but must include a majority of the executive committee, or two of the four elected officers.

VOICE: I second the motion.

PRESIDENT REED: It is moved and seconded that this matter come up at the next annual meeting to be voted on as presented by Mr. Olcott. All in favor say Aye; opposed, No. CARRIED. I believe we have a report of the auditing committee that should come up.

MR. C. A. REED: Mr. Chairman, I believe I am the sole member of the Auditing Committee who is present. I have to report that the committee has not acted, but I think we can do this if agreeable: If you will leave it to the committee to audit the account, and if the committee finds the account is not accurate, to report to that effect next year and bring Mr. Bixby to time, then; otherwise say nothing about it.

PRESIDENT REED: I think we are willing to do it on that basis. Mr. Secretary, are there any other things that ought to come up that you think of?

MR. BIXBY: I have a resolution here if this is in order now. This resolution is sent from Mr. Littlepage.

"Whereas this Association is justly jealous of its character and standing among the nut-growing public of this western continent and especially among the northern nut culturists, amateur or professional; and

"Whereas this Association views with distrust and some alarm the growing and questionable practice of selling seedling pecan trees to the general public; and

"Whereas it developed at a recent meeting of the Southern Nurserymen's Association held at Atlanta, Georgia, that seedling pecan trees from the gulf states were being distributed in the territory north of the Ohio River; and

"Whereas this practice, if continued, will work a distinct disadvantage to the industry in general as well as to the planters in particular;

"Therefore be it RESOLVED, That this Association now and here vigorously record its view on this question as follows: That we protest against the above named practice and urge upon the nurserymen of the United States the importance of discouraging the practice of planting seedling pecan trees for orchard purposes in particular; and further that especially shall extreme caution be used to prevent the shipment of southern seedling pecan trees for planting in the territory north of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers, and further be it

"RESOLVED, That the secretary communicate a copy of these resolutions to the President of the American Association of Nurserymen with the request that his organization take cognizance of this condition and take such steps as are compatible with its authority and sentiment to repress such reprehensible practice on the part of the American nursery trade."

I will introduce this as a resolution.

VOICE: I second the motion.

PRESIDENT REED: You have heard the resolution which has been seconded. Are there any remarks?

MR. C. A. REED: I would like to add a word of explanation. There are only two or three nurserymen in the South engaged in that practice. There are several northern men who are in the nursery business in the South who have raised the question as to the propriety of that practice, and the question has been discussed at the meetings of this southern association with a good deal of heat and vigor. The southern people will not plant seedling pecan trees at all, but these few nurserymen do a few hundred dollars' worth of business every year by sending their product to big nurseries here in the North, general fruit-tree nurseries and they in turn distribute these trees through the North. These northern friends of ours who are now in the South, put through a resolution asking that the matter be discussed at their meeting this year at Atlanta, the meeting held in August, by myself representing the Department of Agriculture. I was unable to be present, but I sent down a paper which was read by my associate in the office, and he tells us that ninety per cent of the southern nurserymen were with us in opposing that practice; that it is only those two or three and their associates who practice it. And it is as a result of that situation that this resolution has been proposed. Prof. Lake, secretary of the American Pomological Society, has been in the South working on pecans and is quite familiar with the situation, and he drew up this resolution. It is something that by all means should be stopped if possible. The southern pecan does not succeed in the North anyhow, and even it did, we do not want the kind of pecan tree up here that the southerners would not plant themselves.

PRESIDENT REED: Are you ready for the question? All in favor of adopting the resolution as read, say Aye. Contrary, same sign. It is so CARRIED.

MR. C. A. REED: I would like to suggest that a copy of these resolutions be sent to the secretary of the Southern Nurserymen's Association, Mr. O. Joe Howard, Hickory, N. C.

MR. BIXBY: I have a telegram from Mr. Littlepage which I will read. "I regret exceedingly it is impossible to attend the meeting this year. Signed, T. P. Littlepage."

MR. J. F. JONES: I make a motion that Dr. Walter Van Fleet be made an honorary member of this Association for his valuable work in nut culture and hybridizing.

MR. OLCOTT: I second the motion.

PRESIDENT REED: It has been moved and seconded that Dr. Walter Van Fleet be made an honorary member of this Association for his valuable work in nut culture. All in favor say Aye. Contrary, No. It is CARRIED.

MR. BIXBY: The place of the next meeting is decided before the meeting adjourns, I think, or else provision made for it.

PRESIDENT REED: As I understand it, it is either decided or you vote to put it in the hands of the executive committee.

MR. BIXBY: Provision in some way is made for it. On that subject I would like to say a word. We have an invitation from Mr. Littlepage, and in considering the place of the 1919 meeting there were really three different locations spoken of—one Washington, D. C., one New York City or some point near there, and one Lancaster, Pa. Heretofore we have practically decided the place of the meeting on consideration of being able to see near there nut trees of interest. I think every meeting has been decided with that idea in mind. This year each of the three places offered promise of being very attractive in a year or two, but not in 1919. In the case of the meeting at Washington, we could see Mr. Littlepage's orchard of pecans, thirty acres in extent, which year before last put out a few flowers, and this year quite a number, and he expects nuts next year. There are also the many things to be seen around Washington,—the Department of Agriculture, and Dr. Van Fleet's work besides a number of other things. And at Lancaster, Pa., there has been a chance the past year to see some remarkable work on top worked hickories, that is, the early bearing of crops of fine nuts. Then again very soon on Capt. Deming's place at Georgetown, Conn., is going to be the greatest opportunity for topworked hickories anywhere to be seen. He has more young seedling hickories top worked to fine varieties than any one else that I know of. As a matter of suggestion it would seem to me well—this is only a suggestion, of course—that the matter be left with the executive committee, and next spring or summer when it is possible to get an idea as to which of these three places offers the most to see in the line of nut trees, then they could decide where it is best to go. That would be the suggestion that I would make.

MR. MCGLENNON: One of the suggestions was Rochester, N. Y. I think there are things worth while there in nut culture to be seen, and I know that we who are interested in nut culture would like to have the convention there; and I know also our Chamber of Commerce in the city would be very happy to have it there. So that in considering the place for the next meeting, I hope Rochester, N Y., will be incorporated in the thought.

MR. POMEROY: Mr. President, I would also suggest you might come to Lockport, N. Y. Out northeast of Buffalo there were shipped eighteen hundred pounds of walnuts to the Buffalo market this fall. North of Lockport is a man who supplies the country stores with English walnuts. As long as there are any of these walnuts in the baskets exposed for sale, those which were purchased from the wholesalers from California are left unsold. I went into one store and the store-keeper had some home grown English walnuts out in the back room. I said, "Why do you keep them out here?" He said, "I have three bushels of California walnuts, and I keep these here until the others are sold. If I put these out in front, I would not sell the others at all."

MR. BIXBY: I would be glad to include Rochester, or Lockport, or any other place suggested, and leave it to the executive committee with the power to act.

MR. C. A. REED: Mr. President, we know pretty nearly what could be seen at most of these places next year. There is not going to be a great change in what there has been this year, and it seems to me the sooner we can definitely decide upon this thing and get it a matter of record, and plan for it, the better it will be. We can go around from one place to another. We want to go to all these places during the next three or four years, and we have a definite invitation from Mr. Littlepage; and while he didn't so state in his telegram, in conversation with him on Friday by telephone, he said he would like to have them come there the latter part of August or first of September; and to make the matter definite and know where we stand early in the game, I move we accept Mr. Littlepage's invitation for a meeting about the first of September.

MR. OLCOTT: I second that motion, and add that at the Stamford convention, that is the very argument I made. Before that meeting it had always been left to the executive committee. It had been the custom of Dr. Deming, the secretary, to defer the matter of the place of meeting until a few weeks before the date for it. Nobody knew, and the committee decided, and the time was too short to get anything like the attendance we should have. If we should publish in the American Nut Journal for a year where the meeting is to be, you would get a year's advertising of that matter, and could plan better thereby.

PRESIDENT REED: You have heard the motion.

MR. BIXBY: The only reason I had in making the suggestion I did, was the possibility of one place or the other showing more importance but as Mr. Reed said, we want to do all these places mentioned at some time. It does not make much difference which we do first. We should like to take first the place where there is most to be seen, of course.

PRESIDENT REED: If there is no further discussion, all in favor of accepting Mr. Littlepage's invitation for Washington for the next meeting say Aye. Contrary, No. It is CARRIED.

J. F. JONES: The reason I did not push Lancaster is that some experiments on spraying are being conducted there and it will be a year before that will show up. The nut growers could see that better the year following.

PRESIDENT REED: If there is nothing else, I believe we are ready to turn over the gavel to our new president.

MR. C. A. REED: Mr. President, there is an important committee you have not appointed. I was out of the room when Mr. Patterson suggested this morning that a committee be appointed. Has that been attended to?

PRESIDENT REED: I expected to let the incoming president appoint that committee before we adjourn.

MR. SMEDLEY: I will make a motion that Mr. Patterson represent us and have the endorsement of this Association as to demanding more appropriations for the work in hand.

J. F. JONES: I second the motion.

PRESIDENT REED: It is moved and seconded that Mr. Patterson be appointed to represent us before congress in connection with the appropriation.

MR. PATTERSON: If everyone on the committee could go to Washington as soon as we can get at the House committee for a hearing, that would be the way to get action on the matter. Of course, the endorsement of the Association is good, and if you could get a committee of some one who could go down and help re-enforce it, there, we would appreciate it very much.

PRESIDENT REED: I think the incoming president will be one who will be going down. If he will come forward, I am ready to turn over the gavel.

At this point, Mr. Linton, the newly elected president, took the chair.

PRESIDENT LINTON: Ladies and Gentlemen I am sure that you will all concede that I have not sought official position, and no one could have been more surprised than I, when I was presented with the report of your committee. I have been much interested in the work that is being carried on by this association; and of course if I can be of any value to the association or to the cause in the position of president during this particular year, why I accept that duty. But I would like to impose one or two conditions. I know that your hearty co-operation will be given. That would be one condition. But I am sure that each and every one of you can assist in adding greatly to the membership of this organization. We should at least have fifty members in each state within our jurisdiction. That would mean, perhaps one-half of the states in the Union. That would mean one thousand members. Now, in accepting this position, I am going to ask each and every active member through his friends and acquaintances to solicit and secure twenty-five members. Now, I will double that amount, and agree during the year, to add fifty good members to the association. That means over one thousand during the year, and that is one goal that I hope we can reach during this particular year, 1920. So far as the growing of nuts is concerned, so far as the details connected with the work that you have been engaged in is concerned, I propose leaving those things to those whom I consider experts, Dr. Morris, our friend Reed from Washington, and others that I might name; but the particular lines that I would like to follow this year, gentlemen, and what I hope to receive your earnest support in is an addition to your membership so that it may exceed a thousand; and assistance in legislation throughout the country along the line that we have worked out in our peninsular state of Michigan. I am glad that you decided upon Washington as the place of the next meeting, and as I have intimated in my remarks heretofore, I believe we have there a Michigan Senator who will assist in national legislation along the lines that we desire, because they are right ones; and in his position as chairman of the committee on post offices and post roads of the country, being at the head of the highway legislation, there is no man in the United States as competent to help us along that line, and I feel sure that we will get that assistance and support. With these few lines I will close, and I sincerely hope you have not made any mistake at this session; and when we have rounded up our year's work, that we can all say it has been a successful one. I thank you. (Applause). The committee on Federal Aid that the incoming president was to appoint, I will name as follows: J. M. Patterson, Dr. Morris, Dr. Kellogg, Mr. Littlepage, Mr. Bixby, Mr. Jones and Mr. McGlennon.

MR. BIXBY: Senator Penney would like to say a word.

SENATOR PENNEY: I hadn't any intention of saying a word. But I am particularly pleased that you elected my friend, Mr. Linton, as president of the organization. I have known him a good many years, and I know he is an industrious worker. In anything that he undertakes to do, you will always see results. I am sure that in the lines which he has expressed himself as being anxious to cover, your membership, the matter of legislation, I am sure that you will see some results that will be very gratifying to the Association. I do not know as there is anything further I wish to say. But I have been very interested in these meetings. I am not a nut grower, and I hardly know one nut from another, excepting that I am like the squirrel, if I get hold of a good nut I like to eat it; but I have certainly learned a lot of things from this association, and I am very pleased to be present.

PRESIDENT LINTON: I am going to ask Senator Penney to become a member of this association.

MR. BIXBY: He is a member.

SENATOR PENNEY: I have gotten two since I have been here, so I am going to pledge myself for two or three more for the next year.

MR. OLCOTT: I think one subject should not be overlooked, and that is the matter of resolutions. There is Dr. Kellogg's very courteous offer and treatment to be remembered, and perhaps some other things. If there is not such a committee, I think some one ought to be appointed on it to report very soon before we close. I move that a committee on resolutions be appointed.

C. A. REED: I second the motion.

PRESIDENT LINTON: Gentlemen, you have heard the motion made by Mr. Olcott. Are you ready for the question? Those who favor the motion say Aye; opposed, No. The resolution is ADOPTED. I appoint Mr. Olcott, Mr. Bixby, Senator Penney, Mr. Jones and Mr. Patterson.

C. A. REED: There is a little bit of news I would like to tell the members of the association. Yesterday afternoon, a gentleman who is a patient across the street at the sanitarium, came down to the nut exhibit in a wheelchair and looked on with interest at what was shown there, and presently he called Mrs. Reed over to talk with her a little and ask something about who was connected with that exhibit; and the next thing he asked me to sit down by him. He was not able to get around, to stand, and he told me this: that four years ago he met a Mr. Page from Tulsa, Oklahoma, a man who is evidently a man of a good deal of means in the oil business there, who is very philanthropic in his activities, a man who has adopted two hundred children, I believe it is; and he proposed to this gentleman, who was Mr. Dow of Jamestown, N. Y., that he go to Oklahoma to establish a nut arboretum. He was willing to set aside two hundred acres of land and to endow it with $200,000 if this Mr. Dow would go and take charge of it. He also offered to build a $23,000 house on the place. But Mr. Dow is director of the Leadsworth Forest Arboretum, some sixty miles up the Genesee River from Rochester, and of course he did not feel that he could leave the work he was doing there and devote his energies to a new work. I thought that was something that we northerners would be very much interested in, and I think we ought to see if that offer could not be taken advantage of.

MR. BIXBY: Can any one here tell me where seedlings of the big western shellback, Carya laciniosa, can be obtained? I would like to get 100 of them.

C. A. REED: Probably the best place to get that information would be from the U. S. Forest Service. That bureau keeps in touch with such information. They have catalogs and they have lists of nurserymen having various trees including nut trees; the U. S. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

PRESIDENT LINTON: Mr. Reed informs me that it is the intention to close this session at this time.

J. F. JONES: I don't think we ought to close without passing a resolution of thanks to Dr. Kellogg for the nice entertainment here, the free service, the rooms, etc.

VOICE: I support the motion.

PRESIDENT LINTON: You have heard the motion offered by Mr. Jones. We can take a recess and adjourn after we take the trip through the buildings.

C. A. REED: If there is no one there but the president, officers and the committee, they would still have the authority to adopt these resolutions, and then properly adjourn.

PRESIDENT LINTON: If that is the consensus of opinion, we will take a recess until called to order again by the chair following the trip through the buildings.

C. A. REED: The idea was to take a recess until after our trip this afternoon and adjourn then. At that time this committee will be prepared with its resolutions.

PRESIDENT LINTON: We can not fix a definite time. It will be following the afternoon session with Dr. Kellogg. If there is nothing more to come before us at this time, a recess will be taken until after that time.

The convention then took a recess and reassembled at 2 p. m. at which time an old fashioned straw sleigh ride was taken to the buildings of the Kellogg Pure Food Company. Here Dr. Kellogg met the party and conducted them through, explaining the various products made and the processes by which they were made, and also that the large plant of the company was a growth from a very humble beginning, started originally for the purpose of providing food for the Sanitarium that was impossible to procure any other way. Persons who had been guests of the Sanitarium, after leaving it, have wished to get some of the food products they had had when there, and in that way, a demand was made which had grown, till many of them were supplied to the jobbing trade. A most enjoyable lunch enabled the party to sample many of the products.

From the Kellogg Pure Food Company, the sleigh took the party back to the Sanitarium through which they were conducted and shown the remarkable facilities for providing the guests with every kind of medical treatment that had proved valuable. It would be difficult to find a place where apparatus for treating every form of disease is equal to that of the Battle Creek Sanitarium or where such facilities exist for providing patients with all means for their comfort and for the recovery of their health. A most interesting talk illustrated with lantern slides, showed the growth of this institution from a modest beginning in a dwelling house, 54 years ago. After this the convention reassembled and adjourned at 5 p. m.



THE 1919 NUT CONTEST

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

The nuts sent in to the 1919 contest have been finished at last but the date is only a few days ahead of the date last year when the 1918 contest was finished, which is to me a matter of a good deal of chagrin as it was last year. No attempt was made to examine the nuts received till after the first of the year as the experience of last year showed this to be a waste of time. Several things seemed, this year, to conspire to prevent getting started on the examination. The number of nuts received was large and the time taken for examination quite considerable for no attempt as yet has been made to have but one person work on it. But the thing that has caused the greater part of the delay was the wide variation between the results in the tests of those nuts which were sent into both the 1918 and 1919 contests, and my unwillingness to have these results appear in print until the reasons for these discrepancies could be stated with certainty.

Had the methods used been those in use for some time and whose correctness had been proven, these differences would have caused little concern, but inasmuch as the methods for measuring most of the nut characteristics were used for the first time in 1918, and their had been devised by me, I could not help feeling that there was a possibility of the discrepancies being due to imperfections in methods for, at first, it would seem likely that nuts borne by a given tree one year would be like those borne the next year. I considered therefore that it was for me to prove beyond question that the methods used were sound and that the differences noted were real. The amount of time needed to do this at a period when my time was well occupied with other things has been more than I wish it had been. While many efforts were made to see if there were imperfections in the methods used for measuring the various characteristics, no such imperfections were found, and, for a considerable period, all efforts made to explain the differences in tests made on nuts borne by the same trees in different years were unproductive of results. Finally the matter was settled to my satisfaction as is noted in the next paragraph.

The Clark hickory received 79 points last year when it took the first prize. It tested out 11 points less this year when first tested which put it entirely out of the prize winning class. Repetition of this year's tests gave results agreeing fairly well with the first ones made but still not all comparable to those of last year. This was decidedly disconcerting when one of the principal results expected of the adoption of methods of measuring nut characteristics was the possibility of testing a given nut now and several months hence and obtaining the same verdict. After much work designed to see if the methods of measuring nut characteristics were faulty and nothing wrong had been found with them, a visit was made to the tree. Mr. Clark said that it bore a good crop every other year and but few nuts in the intervening years, and that the nuts were much better the years when a good crop was borne than they were in the other years. This was interesting information but I could not help realizing the difficulty of carrying in one's mind, from one year to the next, the merits of hickory nuts, and felt that, unless the matter could be proven, I had not as yet done very much to solve the problem at hand. Mr. Clark, however, gave me practically all the nuts of the 1919 crop which he had and I returned feeling that this trip had not done much to solve the problem as to why the tests on the 1918 nuts and 1919 nuts should be so different. Very careful examination was made of the few Clark hickory nuts remaining in my possession of the 1918 crop and they were compared with those of the 1919 crop. Slight differences in shape were noted and finally one nut was found seemingly just like the nuts that won the prize in 1918. When this nut was tested it gave substantially the same results as those tested in 1918. Another like it was afterward found where the result was repeated. This proved definitely that the trouble was not with the methods, and that, in off years, with the Clark hickory at least, some few nuts were borne that would test out as well as those borne in good years. The results of the tests on these good nuts borne in 1919 were substituted for those on the inferior nuts previously tested for in contests it is always the intention of those sending in nuts to send in the best.

It will be noted that the number of points finally awarded the Clark hickory for example this year is less than awarded last year. This difference is due to the method of scoring. In a matter as new as methods for measuring nut characteristics, the constants which have to be determined by experience must change somewhat at first. The method used this year in testing nuts sent in to the contest was to judge them on the basis used in 1918, redetermine the constants that required it, and work out the results again. An example will help to make this clear.

Take the matter of proportion of kernel, the highest award for which was 15 points in 1918 and also in 1919. Up to the time the 1918 contest was decided the hickory with the largest proportion of kernel was the Beam, Nut No. 3, of the 1918 contest with over 50% of kernel and the lowest was the Brown mockernut of the 1918 contest with 18% of kernel. On the basis of the difference between the highest and lowest the number of points to be awarded each was worked out. On this basis the Clark hickory was awarded, in 1918, 10 points for a proportion of kernel of 40.8%. In the case of the 1919 contest nuts with larger proportion of kernel were found, the Hatch bitternut with 65%, and the Halesite bitternuts with 69% kernel. A mockernut from Sliding Hill, Jackson, S. C. with only 14% kernel was also found and the figures for awarding points for proportion of kernel were recalculated as follows:

Points Points 69% and over 15 65.3% to 68.9% inclusive 14 61.7% to 65.2% inclusive 13 58.0% to 61.6% inclusive 12 54.3% to 57.9% inclusive 11 50.7% to 54.2% inclusive 10 47.0% to 50.6% inclusive 9 43.3% to 46.9% inclusive 8 39.7% to 43.2% inclusive 7 36.0% to 39.6% inclusive 6 32.3% to 35.9% inclusive 5 28.7% to 32.2% inclusive 4 25.0% to 28.6% inclusive 3 21.3% to 24.9% inclusive 2 17.7% to 21.2% inclusive 1 14.0% to 17.6% inclusive 0

On this basis the Clark hickory was awarded but 7 points for the same proportion of kernel in 1919 instead of 10 as in 1918. This accounts for 3 out of the 5 points difference between the 79 points awarded in 1918 and the 74% in 1919. The other two points can be similarly explained. There are bound to be similar changes in the tables for awarding points from year to year, but they will be less and less as time goes on. For example, the Wasson butternut of the 1915 contest which weighed 18.8g was the largest butternut received until 1919 when two larger came in, one weighing 19.5g and the other weighing 22.6g. The Mott shellbark hickory which weighs 29.6g which was discovered by Dr. Morris before the founding of the Association is still the largest hickory of which we know. On the other hand the black walnut record for size was exceeded in 1918 and also in 1919.

The nuts received were gone over carefully and all characteristics measured where this was possible, then the other characteristics were passed on by me. Then the best nuts were brought to the attention of Dr. Morris and Dr. Deming and the three of us passed on those characteristics where methods of measurement had not been worked out.

The results of this contest are noted in considerable detail as it is believed that they may have value as matters of record. While an attempt has been made to give the species of each nut tested as such information is useful, it must be understood that the notations of species are tentative and subject to change should further knowledge require it. It is, frequently, difficult to positively identify a nut as to species without having leaves, buds, bark and husk for examination and in most instances the judges did not have these. No nut is noted as a hybrid unless it has been proven so by evidence which it is believed is beyond question, yet there are a number of nuts noted as pure species which later may be proved to be hybrids. This is particularly so in the case of the hickories.

In explanation of the tables it should be noted that weights of nuts and kernels are expressed in grams, while cracking pressures are expressed in kilograms. The methods used for measuring the various characteristics are noted in detail in the article "Judging Nuts" on pages 122 to 132 inclusive.

The two items cracking quality need a little explanation. Last year 20 points were awarded for cracking quality and 5 points for plumpness of kernel. Plumpness was very difficult of estimation. It means the reverse of shrivelled. To assign values for this can only be done by appearance and it seemed impossible of measurement. A study of the nuts of the 1918 contest which were awarded high values for plumpness and those which were awarded low values showed that in no case was a nut which had a shrivelled kernel awarded a high value for proportion of kernel. Sometimes a nut with a plump kernel had a very thick shell and a low proportion of kernel but in no instance did a nut with a shrivelled kernel have a high proportion of kernel, so it was thought that for practical purposes the figure for proportion of kernel would answer very well to represent excellence in both characteristics. It was also evident that the ratio of the weight of the portion of the kernel which, after cracking, could be easily picked out with the fingers to the total weight of the kernel, which was taken to represent cracking quality last year, was capable of more refinement for it was noticed that of those nuts where the entire kernel could be easily picked out with the fingers after cracking that some were better crackers than others, for, in some instances, the entire kernel fell out. As the proportion of the kernel which could be picked out easily with the fingers is seemingly the most important this was still given 20 points and called "cracking quality commercial," and the figure representing the proportion of kernel which dropped out after cracking was called "cracking quality absolute," and awarded the 5 points formerly awarded to plumpness.

In the case of the hazel which generally has a cracking quality both absolute and commercial of 100% the item "freedom from fibre" was substituted for "cracking quality absolute." The hazel seems to be the only nut where this characteristic must be considered.

It is too bad that while practically all characteristics are determined with exactness to a single point and could be even more precisely determined, that the item quality and flavor of kernel to which 20 points are justly awarded has to be determined in so crude a manner as it is at present. It is true that formerly all characteristics were determined in equally crude manner and we should be glad that all others can be determined with precision but still having one quality not precisely determined, to a certain extent prevents exact determination of the others having the value it otherwise would. We can make only about five graduations in quality which would be differences of five points except at the top of the scale where it is 2 and an error in one gradation would make a difference of 5 points generally. When it is seen how close some of the nuts run, particularly the hickories, where the differences in total points awarded are generally only 1 point, with several of the same score, this crudeness of determination of one of the most important characteristics is the more regrettable.