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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
TENTH ANNUAL MEETING
BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN
DECEMBER 9 AND 10, 1919
CONTENTS Page
Officers and Committees of the Association 4
Members of the Association 5
Constitution and By-Laws 9
Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Convention 11
President's Address, Mr W. C. Reed, Indiana 11
Report of the Secretary-Treasurer 14
Business Sessions 15, 133
The Farms by the Side of the Road, Matthew Henry Hoover, New York 23
Native Nut Tree Plantations in Michigan, Prof. A. K. Chittenden, Michigan 33
Pecans Other Than Those of the Well Known Sections, J. F. Jones, Pennsylvania 44
Hazel Nuts and Filberts, Conrad Vollertsen, New York 53
Disease Resistance in the American Chestnut, Arthur H. Graves, Connecticut 60
Notes on the Hickories, Dr. Robert T. Morris, New York 68
The Nutritive Value of Nuts, F. A. Cajorie, Connecticut 80
Nut Trees and Bushes in Landscape Work, O. C. Simonds, Illinois 88
Nut Culture in Michigan, C. A. Reed, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 98
Nut Trees for Highways and Public Places, Hon. William S. Linton, Michigan 108
Legislation Regarding the Planting of Nut and Other Food Producing Trees, Senator Harvey A. Penney, Michigan 112
Michigan Law Regarding Roadside Planting of Nut Trees 116
The Soy Bean, Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Michigan 118
Judging Nuts, Willard G. Bixby, New York 122
The 1919 Nut Contest, Willard G. Bixby, New York 146
OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION
President W. S. LINTON Saginaw, Michigan
Vice-President JAMES S. MCGLENNON Rochester, New York
Secretary and Treasurer WILLARD G. BIXBY Baldwin, Nassau Co., New York
Acting Secretary W. C. DEMING Wilton, Connecticut
COMMITTEES
Auditing—C. P. CLOSE, C. A. REED
Executive—J. RUSSELL SMITH, W. C. REED AND THE OFFICERS
Federal Aid—J. M. PATTERSON, R. T. MORRIS, J. H. KELLOGG, T. P. LITTLEPAGE, WILLARD G. BIXBY, J. F. JONES, J. S. MCGLENNON
Finance—T. P. LITTLEPAGE, WILLARD G. BIXBY, W. C. DEMING
Hybrids—R. T. MORRIS, C. P. CLOSE, W. C. DEMING, J. G. RUSH
Membership—HARRY R. WEBER, R. T. OLCOTT, F. N. FAGAN. W. O. POTTER, W. C. DEMING, J. RUSSELL SMITH
Nomenclature—C. A. REED, R. T. MORRIS, J. F. JONES
Press and Publication—RALPH T. OLCOTT, J. RUSSELL SMITH, W. C. DEMING
Programme—W. C. DEMING, J. RUSSELL SMITH, C. A. REED, R. T. MORRIS
Promising Seedlings—C. A. REED, J. F. JONES
STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS
California T. C. Tucker 311 California St., San Francisco
Canada G. H. Corsan 17 Rusholme Park Crescent, Toronto
Connecticut Henry Leroy Lewis Stratford
Georgia J. B. Wight Cairo
Illinois E. A. Riehl Godfrey
Indiana M. P. Reed Vincennes
Maryland C. P. Close College Park
Massachusetts James H. Bowditch 903 Tremont Building, Boston
Michigan Dr. J. H. Kellogg Battle Creek
Missouri P. C. Stark Louisiana
New Jersey C. S. Ridgway Lumberton
New York M. E. Wile 37 Calumet St., Rochester
Ohio Harry R. Weber 601 Gerke Building, Cincinnati
Pennsylvania J. G. Rush West Willow
Texas R. S. Trumbull M. S. R. R. Co., El Paso
West Virginia B. F. Hartzell Shepherdstown
MEMBERS OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
ARKANSAS
* Drake, Prof. N. F., University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
CALIFORNIA
Cress, B. E., Tehachapi
Tucker, T. C, Manager California Almond Growers Exchange, 311 California St., San Francisco
CANADA
Corsan, G. H., 17 Rusholme Park Crescent, Toronto Sager, Dr. D. S., Brantford
CONNECTICUT
Barrows, Paul M., May Apple Farm, High Ridge, Stamford Bartlett, Francis A., Stamford Deming, Dr. W. C, Wilton Filley, W. O., State Forester, Drawer 1, New Haven Glover, James L., Shelton, R. F. D. 7 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 Van Duzee, C. A., Judson Orchard Farm, Cairo Wight, J. B., Cairo
ILLINOIS
Casper, O. H., Anna Librarian, University of Illinois, Urbana Poll, Carl J., 1009 Maple St., Danville Potter, Hon. W. O., Marion Riehl, E. A., Godfrey, Route 2 Uran, B. F., Mattoon
INDIANA
Crain, Donald J., 1313 North St., Logansport Reed, M. P., Vincennes Reed, W. C., Vincennes Simpson, H. D., Vincennes Staderman, A. L., 120 S. Seventh St., Terre Haute Wilkinson, J. F., Rockport
IOWA
Snyder, D. C., Center Point (Linn Co. Nurseries)
KANSAS
Sharpe, James, Council Grove, (Morris Co. Nurseries)
KENTUCKY
Baker, Sam C., Beaver Dam, R. D. 2 Livengood, Frank M., Berea
MARYLAND
Hoopes, Wilmer P., Forest Hill Keenan, Dr. John F., Brentwood Littlepage, Miss Louise, Bowie
MASSACHUSETTS
* Bowditch, James H., 903 Tremont Building, Boston Cleaver, C. Leroy, 496 Commonwealth Ave., Boston
MICHIGAN
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 Schram, Mrs. O. E., Galesburg, Box 662
MISSOURI
Mosnat, H. R., 3883 East 62 St., Kansas City Stark, P. C., Louisiana Ward, Miss Daisy, 2019 Allen Ave., St. Louis
NEBRASKA
Caha, Wm., Wahoo
NEVADA
Swingle, C. G., Hazen
NEW JERSEY
* Jaques, Lee W., 74 Waverly St., Jersey City Heights Landmann, Miss M. V., Cranbury, R. D. 2 Marston, Edwin S., Florham Park, Box 72 Price, John R., 36 Ridgedale Ave., Madison Ridgeway, C. S., Floralia, Lumberton
NEW YORK
Abbott, Frederick B., 419 Ninth Street, Brooklyn Ashworth, Fred L., Heuvelton Atwater, C. G., The Barrett Co., 17 Battery Place, New York City Bixby, Willard G., 32 Grand Ave., Baldwin, Nassau Co. Brown, Ronald J., 320 Broadway, New York City Buist, Dr. George J., 2 Hancock St., Brooklyn Crane, Alfred J., Monroe, Box 342 Ellwanger, Mrs. W. D., 510 East Ave., Rochester Goeltz, Mrs. M. H., 2524 Creston Ave., New York City Harper, G. W., Jr., 115 Broadway, New York City Hicks, Henry, Westbury, Long Island Hodgson, Casper W., World Book Co., Yonkers * Huntington, A. M., 15 West 81st St., New York City McGlennon, James S., 528 Cutler Building, Rochester Olcott, Ralph T., Editor American Nut Journal, Ellwanger and Barry Building, Rochester Pomeroy, A. C., Lockport Stephen, John W., New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse Tallinger, J. F., Barnard Teele, A. W., 120 Broadway, New York City Ulman, Dr. Ira, 213 W. 147th St., New York City Vollertsen, Conrad, 375 Gregory St., Rochester 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 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 Ketchum, C. S., Middlefield Truman, G. G., Perrysville, Box 167 Weber, Harry R., 123 East 6th St., Cincinnati Yunck, E. G., 706 Central Ave., Sandusky
OREGON
Pearcy, Knight, Salem, R. F. D. 3, Box 187
PENNSYLVANIA
Druckemiller, W. H., Sunbury Fagan, Prof. F. N., Department of Horticulture, State College Heffner, H., Highland Chestnut Grove, Leeper Hile, Anthony, Curwensville National Bank, Curwensville 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 Rush, J. G., West Willow Smedley, Samuel L., Newtown Square, R. F. D. 1 * Sober, Col. C. K., Lewisburg 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
VIRGINIA
Parish, John S., University Smith, Dr. J. Russell, Roundhill
WEST VIRGINIA
Brooks, Fred E., French Creek Cannaday, Dr. John Egerton, Charleston, Box 693 Hartzell, B. F., Shepherdstown Jenkins, Miss, The Green Bottom Homestead, Glenwood P. O.
* 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 nut-bearing 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 and a secretary-treasurer, who shall be elected by ballot at the annual meeting; and an executive committee of five persons, of which the president, two last retiring presidents, vice-president and secretary-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 a majority of the executive committee or two of the three 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 with the first day of the calendar quarter following the date of joining the association.
ARTICLE IV
Amendments. By-laws may be amended by a two-thirds vote of members present at any annual meeting.
Northern Nut Growers Association
TENTH ANNUAL MEETING DECEMBER 9 AND 10, 1919 BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN
The tenth annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers' Association was called to order at 11:00 A. M., Tuesday, December 9, 1919, in the Annex Parlor of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, Battle Creek, Michigan, with the President, W. C. Reed, presiding.
The meeting was opened with a short business session beginning with the President's report as follows:
PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS
W. C. REED, VINCENNES, IND.
FELLOW MEMBERS, NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
Our Association meets today under the most favorable surroundings. We have this splendid building in which to hold our meetings, furnished gratuitously also have with us in this wonderful Institution several thousand guests, men and women of ability and prominence in their respective communities, from all parts of the United States.
Dr. Kellogg has been very kind and generous in extending an invitation several times to this association, and your speaker has thought there was no place quite so well suited for a winter meeting. It gives me great pleasure to be able to be with you and preside over a meeting as the guests of Dr. Kellogg. There is probably no man in America who has done so much to further the use of nuts, to show their benefits, and to explain their uses, as a food for mankind.
Conditions have changed greatly since our last meeting, September 1917, at Stamford, Connecticut. At that time the greater part of the world was at war, and owing to conditions prevailing during 1918, it was impossible for this association to hold its annual meeting. Your speaker is still holding the office of President because you have had no meeting at which new officers could be elected. It is to be regretted that the past three years have been crowded so full of events, that it was impossible to give the association matters the attention they deserved, and devote the time to them I would have liked to have done.
With the armistice came a cessation of war, and we are all happy that the terrible struggle is over, but with it have come conditions that are almost as terrible as war. Famine and want stare millions of people in the face on the continent of Europe. Our own country is at present in the grip of strikes for higher wages, the like of which has never been known. Yet we are prosperous beyond the greatest dreams of any nation on earth, but with this prosperity comes many duties. Our yields of food crops have been great, but to us has fallen the lot of feeding the world, and this will continue until industrial and agricultural conditions of Europe, have been reestablished on a pre-war condition.
There never was a time when meats of all kinds were so expensive, and to many almost prohibitive. Many have learned the use of nut meats in varied ways until all kinds of edible nuts are quoted on the markets today at prices undreamed of in former years. These conditions will not always last; crop failures will come; and production will be curtailed. Land values are advancing so rapidly that the production of cheap meats will be impossible. To help supply this deficiency, there will be an increased demand for nuts of all kinds.
To help meet this demand, much can be done by road side planting. On our main market highways, such trees as the grafted black walnuts could be planted profitably, in many sections of the country; the English walnut in some parts where they succeed the best; and the pecan and chestnut in other parts of the country where they are specially adapted.
While commercial planting of nut trees may not be attractive to the average man, home planting of a few nut trees can be recommended for every where space is available. They will make beautiful shade trees, and produce crops that will eventually be of great value. To land owners who are planting private parks, avenues and pastures, we would recommend nut trees.
The production of nut trees is very difficult, and the development and testing of new varieties, a slow and expensive process. We need the Government's helping hand, and are very glad that there has been set aside by Congress an appropriation to help develop this industry. We have with us, the Nut Culturist from the Department of Agriculture, who is devoting his entire time along these lines.
On the programme that is to be presented here, today and tomorrow, are men of national reputation in their respective lines, who stand at the head of their profession. To our friends and visitors here, we extend an urgent invitation, that you attend all the meetings possible, and we trust that you may learn much that will be of interest, and that this information may be taken home to your different communities.
Our sincere thanks should be extended to the Programme Committee and our very efficient Secretary who have given so much time to this work.
For an association to stand still, is usually to go backward. Owing to war conditions, and missing one meeting, we have had little chance to increase our membership. I sincerely trust that the Membership Committee will be active while here, and extend an invitation to all to become members, and to help advance an industry that will be for the good of posterity, and should give us much pleasure during our own lifetime.
We are told, the good we do unto others lives after us. May the Nut Trees planted and fostered by the members of this association, live long to wave their leafy branches under Heaven's purple dome, and may weary pilgrims of future generations rest beneath their shade, and enjoy their fruits, thanking us with a silent prayer that these trees were planted for their benefit.
PRESIDENT REED: I believe the next thing in order will be the reading of the secretary's and treasurer's reports. Does any one have anything to present while we are waiting for the secretary, who is busy?
DR. MORRIS: How many members have we, Mr. President?
PRESIDENT REED: I don't know. Several have written me asking about members, and Mr. Olcott probably knows something about it.
MR. OLCOTT: I don't know how many there are now; but I think there were 150 or 200 at the time of the Stamford meeting. I think there were that many enrolled. I presume that two-thirds of those renewed—probably something over 100 members.
PRESIDENT REED: There were 138 paid members.
DR. MORRIS: Dr. Kellogg says there may be a thousand men in the audience this evening, and if there are we ought to do some propaganda work.
PRESIDENT REED: I don't remember who the membership committee was. Mr. Weber was chairman, I believe, and he is not here. Olcott is next on the committee.
MR. OLCOTT: I didn't know I was on that committee.
PRESIDENT REED: Fagan was on that committee, Potter, Deming, Williams, J. Russell Smith. I guess you are the only member of the committee who is here. We are ready for the report of the secretary and treasurer, Mr. Bixby.
* * * * *
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-TREASURER SEPT. 1, 1917-NOV. 30, 1919
Key: A: Sep. 1. '17 to Dec. 31, '17 B: Jan. 1, '18 to May 20, '18 C: May 21, '18 to Dec. 31, '18 D: Jan. 1, '19 to Nov. 30, '19
RECEIPTS
A B C D Total Balance
Balance on hand date of last report, August 31, 1917. $ 15.93 Received from annual members including joint subscriptions to American Nut Journal $69.50 $123.54 $ 73.75 $247.35 $514.14 Received in payment of life membership 20.00 25.00 45.00 Sale of reports, brochures and leaflets 2.25 4.00 9.95 4.85 21.05 Advertising in report of Stamford meetings 8th, 1917 21.00 21.00 Sales of sundry material. 1.58 1.58 Contributions for 1917 Contest 25.00 125.00 150.00 Contribution for special hickory prizes 25.00 25.00 ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- $112.75 $145.12 $108.70 $427.20 $793.77 $793.77 ———- $809.70
EXPENDITURES
American Nut Journal, their portion of joint subscriptions $ 6.75 $ 14.00 $ 59.00 $ 79.75 Stationary, printing and Supplies .69 44.05 49.50 94.24 Postage, Express, etc. 4.82 13.95 9.66 9.24 37.67 Prizes 1917 Nut Contest 15.00 15.00 Prize 1918 Nut Contest 107.00 107.00 Advertising 1917 Nut Contest $10.21; expenses 1917 contest $2.90 13.11 13.11 Advertising 1918 Nut Contest 51.50 51.50 Stamford Meeting 1917 expenses 65.55 65.55 Printing Report of Stamford Meeting 162.00 162.00 Errors in remittance corrected 3.85 3.50 7.35 Litchfield Savings Bank. Life membership of John Rick Balance on hand Dec. 1, 1919. 20.00 20.00 ——— ——— ———- ———- ———- ———- $97.81 $30.91 $244.71 $279.74 $653.17 $653.17
Balance on hand Dec. 1, 1919. Special hickory prize 25.00 Life membership Lee W. Jaques 25.00 For regular expenses. 106.53
———- $809.70
I have carefully been over the above statement and found it to be correct. C. A. REED, for Auditing Committee.
The above are records of receipts and expenditures for two years and three months and are approximately double those noted in the report of of the Stamford meeting. The activities of the Association were necessarily at a low ebb in war time, and, although a joint meeting with the National Association was planned for the fall of 1918, it was never held.
The list of members printed in this report numbers 128 while that in the last one shows 166, apparently a very large decrease. The last report showed 138 paid up members. Following the methods of Secretary Deming, members who have not responded to notices and letters have been dropped. In no case has a member been dropped until a letter with return postage has been sent. In a number of instances members thus written to have resigned giving various reasons, the most common of which are change of occupation or residence, which prevented their doing anything in the line of nut growing or lack of success in their attempts to grow nuts. Two members have died since the last meeting, Mr. Wendell P. Williams and Mr. Mahlon Hutchinson; the former was in the U. S. Service at the time of his death. 57 new members have been added to our rolls since 1917 making a total of 410 joining since organization of whom we now have 128, 282 having dropped out. Of the 52 who have joined since last meeting, 21 joined before Oct. 1, 1919 the date of the proposed meeting in Albany, Ga., which was never held, and 31 since that date.
The holding of members is a difficult problem and one that has not been worked out at all satisfactorily. Most members join in the hope of thereby learning how to successfully grow nut trees. They find out that so much is still experimental that most do not remain. This is bound to continue till we can show grafted or budded nut trees bearing satisfactory crops, and, until that time, there seems nothing to do but to keep on going after new members and by means of bulletins, reports, letters and otherwise making the membership more valuable than ever. There has been a greater interest in nut growing during the past fall than at any time since your Secretary-Treasurer has held office.
Respectfully submitted,
WILLARD G. BIXBY, Secretary-Treasurer.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT REED: You have heard the report. What is your pleasure? I believe that is usually referred to an auditing committee. C. A. Reed was chairman of that committee.
MR. BIXBY: Mr. Reed spoke to me about this yesterday. He said he would be glad to audit it, but there has not been time to give it to him. It was ready for him this morning, but he was busy on other things.
PRESIDENT REED: What is the next thing on the program, Mr. Secretary?
MR. BIXBY: The reports of committees. I do not know how much report the standing committees have.
PRESIDENT REED: There is the executive committee, the finance committee, the hybrids committee—maybe Dr. Morris has something on that.
DR. MORRIS: No, I have no report to make on that. I shall talk on the subject this afternoon or in the course of my paper incidentally. I didn't see any occasion for action in that direction since the last meeting, so I have not acted except incidentally in the course of my work.
PRESIDENT REED: The committee on nomenclature—of course they wouldn't have any report until after this meeting.
MR. BIXBY: Who is on that committee?—C. A. Reed, Dr. Morris, and J. F. Jones. Two members of the committee are here. There is one matter which perhaps I better bring up to the committee first,—one matter I think they should take some action on.
PRESIDENT REED: I think it would be best to have that come up at a later time.
DR. MORRIS: I would like to bring in something incidentally in relation to nomenclature in my paper. Perhaps we could have the question discussed after I have brought up that point.
PRESIDENT REED: There is a committee on promising seedlings C. A. Reed, and J. F. Jones. I think that covers all the standing committees. Wasn't there a committee on nominations for officers to be elected, this morning?
MR. BIXBY: That nominating committee has to be elected.
PRESIDENT REED: How many members?
MR. BIXBY: There were four or five last time, I think.
PRESIDENT REED: (Reading by-laws calling for five members).
MR. BIXBY: I move Mr. Olcott be on the committee.
VOICE: I second the motion.
PRESIDENT REED: It has been moved and seconded that Mr. Olcott be elected as a member of the nominating committee. All in favor say, Aye. It is so ordered. Who else shall we have, for a second member?
MR. LINTON: I move Mr. Bixby be a member of the committee.
MR. BIXBY: There is a precedent that the secretary has never been a member of the nominating committee. He has sometimes given them information. I move Dr. Morris, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Linton be members of the nominating committee, and Mr. McGlennon.
MR. MCGLENNON: I second the motion.
MR. OLCOTT: The committee as you suggested it is Dr. Morris, Mr. J. F. Jones, Mr. Linton, Mr. McGlennon and myself?
PRESIDENT REED: You have heard the motion. All in favor say Aye. The committee stands elected as named. They report at tomorrow morning's meeting. I think there is one matter it would be well to bring up, and that is the membership committee.
MR. OLCOTT: I was going to suggest that is an important matter, and I think that committee should be filled out with those who are present, inasmuch as the regular members are not here. It looks as though a comparatively small membership would have to double up on membership committee.
PRESIDENT REED: Have you any suggestions as to whom you want on that committee?
MR. BIXBY: Those committees, with the exception of the nominating committee, are appointed by the president. I think myself that the new president appoints them.
PRESIDENT REED: My idea was to appoint for this meeting and help Mr. Olcott out.
MR. OLCOTT: I suggest Mr. McGlennon and Mr. Jones as two of the members.
PRESIDENT REED: Let it stand as it is with the three and give the chairman power to appoint two more later.
MR. MCGLENNON: Can the secretary tell us how many members there are?
MR. BIXBY: One hundred sixty-four notices of this meeting were sent out. There are 128 paid up members.
MR. OLCOTT: On the matter of membership, I wonder if the association could suggest some inducement for membership, or summarize the inducements. As you know, the American Association of Nurserymen has been desirous of more members, and they found it very advisable to outline definitely the benefits of membership in that association. I am wondering if that has been done recently and could not be emphasized in some way to the advantage of larger membership. You have got to do something more than say that there is in existence an association devoted to these purposes and everybody is invited to come in. Maybe the secretary has something on that line.
MR. BIXBY: I have no suggestion. It is very evident that there is a greatly increased interest in nut growing over what there was when I first took up the office. That is very clearly brought out by the amount of mail received. You may know that Capt. Deming, when in the service, took the position of editing the nut department of the American Fruit Grower. I saw him recently and it looks to me as if, as editor of that department, he is answering about as many correspondents on nuts and trying to boost the association in that way as he did when he was secretary before. And that would appear to be in addition to the communications that are coming to me now.
MR. OLCOTT: There is interest. We get at the Journal office a great quantity of inquiries but only a small per cent of them result in memberships and subscriptions, and while this interest is so strong, ought not this association to study that which is something of a problem—perhaps something that ought to be taken up in view of the interests and the benefits of the association shown.
PRESIDENT REED: I think that is a good suggestion. I think they need something along that line. Is there anything else we want to bring up at this morning session?
MR. MCGLENNON: Is this not a very good field to open up operations along that line, right here at Battle Creek? A large number of people who come here are people who eat nuts, and I believe that condition would resolve itself into a material advance of membership. I think we ought to get busy right here and see if we can not enlist the membership of a great number of the patrons of this institution.
MR. OLCOTT: That was the principal object of the membership committee I suppose. My idea was to get the ideas of the individual members, put them together and present a broadside of benefits in this organization rather than have one man attempt to outline them.
DR. MORRIS: There is an immense amount of interest. The question is how to get it together and formulate it in such a way that men will join. There is an enormous, large loose majority, and we must have a small compact minority to swing it as the Senators do down at Washington, you know. Prof. Murrill of the New York Botanical Garden told me that wherever he went (he is interested in mushrooms, that is his special subject) he had had no idea in the world there was so much interest of the public in mushrooms; yet when it comes to getting together members to form the base of an association to study the subject, he finds very few members. It is simply because men haven't got the habit, and we have got in some way to give direction to that in such a way that it will be focused and concentrated on some one objective point. How to do it, I don't know.
MR. BIXBY: Dr. Kellogg suggested that at the meeting this evening there will be the largest number of people, not members, that there has been at any meeting; and he said he had had requests from people that they wanted to hear Dr. Morris, and they wanted to hear Prof. Cajori who used to be here, and he asked me to change those from this afternoon to this evening in order to accomplish that, and I said we would switch the program. That was for that very purpose.
MR. OLCOTT: Mr. President, it just occurred to me that in view of the number of inquiries we get, and I am sure the secretary gets, and I am also sure Dr. Deming gets from his articles, there is no doubt of the interest, yet the joining of this Northern Association, and the attendance of its single annual meeting, does not appeal to many. They do not find it convenient to attend the convention; they do not see any great amount of benefit in the membership. It occurs to me that if we had a list of state vice-presidents and each of those could provide for some local gathering of people interested in nut culture in the various communities; rather, I would say that if our members, as fast as we can increase our membership, wherever they are located, would form a nucleus of a little circle in their neighborhood, and have them affiliated with the Northern Association; it would accomplish this result. And afterward it occurred to me that perhaps that could be done through state vice-presidents. But what is really needed is to get them together in meetings. They won't come yet. They will when you get a larger membership, but they won't come to the annual meeting of this association where I think they would go to a community affair and talk over matters and refer difficult problems to the Northern Association of which they were affiliated members. In some way, a wheel within a wheel could work at it that way, and we could increase membership in that way.
DR. MORRIS: It is a rule in psychology that you have got to have personal interest first. If Mr. Olcott's idea of having a local vice-president offer prizes, no matter how small, for nuts in the vicinity, and would also state that any one finding some remarkable nut would have that nut named after him to go down to all time, you would have two points there in self-interest. First, a five dollar prize to the best nut; next the name going rattling down through time in association with it. There are two points of personal interest. We may as well take it back to the basic principles and begin with the psychology of the situation.
MR. KETCHUM: Mr. President, in regard to these vice-presidents, that point looks to me very good for this reason. I saw it work out in the Minnesota State Horticultural Society. They had a vice-president in each congressional district. I was vice-president in the third district one year myself From them reports were sent from their district by people who were interested. They were asked to fill out blanks about conditions as they found them in their neighborhood and we got great good from it. Then this vice-president was to make a general district report from the reports sent him, and hand it in at the annual meeting. It was quite a success.
DR. MORRIS: There you have civic pride brought into your psychology.
MR. KETCHUM: That was in the third district which included the northeast part of the state. It was quite a large district geographically, and I sent out something like seventy of these blank reports, and while the interest was very slight, I think I got 23 field reports in return, and out of those 23 were some nine or ten that were of some considerable importance; but it was a great big help to me in making out my report together with what I knew in my own location. The percentage of reports that came back showed that there was great interest taken by those persons.
DR. MORRIS: You can arouse local pride in any locality.
PRESIDENT REED: I have tried that in our own state in the last two or three years, at county fairs and local district horticultural meetings. Several times I have offered prizes out of my own pocket individually; then I have gotten other parties to help in some cases, and some exhibits even at county farmers' institutes, even very creditable exhibits and they seemed to attract as much interest even as the school exhibits. I know of one case at Martinsville two years ago this winter where the nut exhibit was almost as large as the fruit exhibit, and I think it attracted more attention; and I think there was only something like ten dollars spent in order to get it out. I think that work along that line, missionary work of that kind, is going to do us more good than almost any other endeavor.
MR. OLCOTT: I do not think that the industry is old enough or strong enough yet, perhaps, to operate that state vice-president plan as it would be perhaps later on, for this reason, that if you have a state vice-president, you narrow the activity in that state to that immediate locality. But it would probably be much better, instead of that, to endeavor to get each member to form the nucleus of a local circle, and so have ten or a dozen in a state, instead of one.
PRESIDENT REED: I think that suggestion is better.
MR. OLCOTT: That was my original idea, and the state vice-president idea came in afterwards.
MR. MCGLENNON: How many states are included in the northern association territory?
MR. BIXBY: There is no limit.
DR. MORRIS: Northern is a relative term.
PRESIDENT REED: I don't think there is any clearly defined line where the Northern Association is.
MR. OLCOTT: For the reason that men live in the North are interested in lands in the South, and vice versa.
PRESIDENT REED: There are twenty-three vice-presidents on the list here, in the last published report. Is there anything else that should come up at the morning session? Mr. Secretary, do you know of anything else?
MR. BIXBY: I would really like to see something definite on this line of increasing the membership. I can think of several things that will help; but to get something that is going to have action right away is not so clear. Recently I have had a good many people come down to my place to look at the small orchard I have there. I aim to have varieties of every nut tree that is being propagated, and I think if I keep at it a few years longer I will pretty nearly have them; and in most cases, when people have come down that way, they have become members afterwards. Two or three of them have. I am only twenty miles from New York City, and it is not difficult, if I find someone interested, to invite them down to look over the trees growing there, and usually when they come they join afterwards.
MR. OLCOTT: Pardon me for speaking again, but I am on the membership committee and I am anxious to draw out anything that may be of use. Why could not some plan be devised by the secretary or by this committee and sent out tentatively in the way of suggestion and perhaps some other suggestions will be made to add to it. Perhaps also in addition to this local community plan that I suggested, there might be formed, all of it within the Northern Association, a subsidiary thereto—the walnut society—people particularly interested in the walnut, but do not care for the hickory, pecan or any other nut. You will find people particularly interested in the black walnut, some in the Persian walnut, some in the filbert—form a filbert society as the American Nut Journal has suggested, and let all the enthusiasts of the filbert get together, and if they are scattered, let them keep together by correspondence and increased activity in that way. The same for the butternut. Get at it from that way.
MR. KETCHUM: Another thing to further our society here today, we can make those small organizations auxiliary thereto.
DR. MORRIS: Any one who is interested in one nut becomes interested in all eventually.
MR. BIXBY: I received more inquiries regarding the Persian walnut and the pecan than any other nuts—probably more regarding the Persian walnut. Nearly everybody who writes wants to grow Persian walnuts; and in the great majority of instances, I have to try to switch them onto black walnuts with the suggestion that they plant a few Persian walnuts because we have no experimental data of the Persian walnut succeeding in their section. In some instances they will turn to the black walnuts; in other instances I hear nothing further from them. The Persian walnut is the most popular with people who have not tried to grow any nuts. Mr. Jones perhaps can tell us how his inquiries run. Don't they run very largely for Persian walnuts?
MR. JONES: Yes, they do. I was thinking possibly you could make a combination—take, for instance, the membership, the nut journal, and some nut trees. The nurserymen could make considerable concession.
DR. MORRIS: That combination is right well.
MR. JONES: You could give a coupon good for so much on an order for trees or something of that sort.
MR. BIXBY: That suggestion was made and I referred it to the executive committee. I have not had any reply.
PRESIDENT REED: I didn't have time to answer the communication and get it back to you before I came here; so I thought we would decide on that here. If there is nothing further to come up this morning, a motion to adjourn will be in order until the afternoon session.
MR. BIXBY: I might repeat that at the request of Dr. Kellogg, in order to get the papers which he had been particularly requested to have given so that people could hear them, Dr. Morris and Prof. Cajori who were scheduled this afternoon, will come this evening, and Mr. Hoover's and Mr. Graves' papers, which were scheduled for this evening, will have to come this afternoon. Neither of the writers are present, but the papers are here. Mr. Graves expected to be here but I had a telegram yesterday that he could not get away. I have the paper, though and the photographs.
MR. MCGLENNON: Has there been provision made for a paper on filberts by Mr. Vollertsen? If not, I should like to have it.
MR. BIXBY: Certainly, there can be. It ought to come in this afternoon. I wrote Mr. Vollertsen asking if he could deliver it.
MR. MCGLENNON: He has the paper prepared, and I want to hear it. I have been closely associated with Mr. Vollertsen for some ten years, and I know that his whole heart and soul are in the development of the filbert; and I know what he has done and that he is a rare character in the nut world today, that he possesses a fund of information. I am sure you will find intensely interesting; and furthermore I would suggest, and I believe I speak for him when I say I hope you will feel free to ask him questions. As I said before, he has a fund of information that I think we nut people ought to have, and the general public as well. We have a very good exhibit of the nuts. Mr. Vollertsen is the practical man in the enterprise we are interested in. I look after the business end of it. We are equally interested in it and feel that we have made some progress.
DR. MORRIS: Put Mr. McGlennon on too.
MR. MCGLENNON: I have said all I can say.
MR. VOLLERTSEN: You have said too much.
PRESIDENT REED: If there is nothing else, we will stand adjourned until 2:30 p. m.
* * * * *
TUESDAY AFTERNOON, DECEMBER 9, 1919, 2:30 P. M. PRESIDENT W. C. REED, IN THE CHAIR
PRESIDENT REED: The first paper is by Mr. Hoover, Matthew Henry Hoover, of Lockport, N. Y., president of the New York State Conservation Association. Mr. Hoover is not here, and the Secretary will read his paper.
THE FARMS BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD
BY MATTHEW HENRY HOOVER, LOCKPORT, N. Y. FORMERLY NEW YORK CONSERVATION COMMISSIONER PRESIDENT NEW YORK STATE CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION
Horace Greeley is best known for his contribution to the abolition of human slavery in the United States. Yet his service to mankind is not fully appraised by the average American, because many of the younger generation are unaware of his aid to agriculture. His maxim about farmers' failing to till the most valuable part of their farms underneath, opening the eyes of agriculturists to the efficacy of sub-soil plowing, was the preamble to freeing American husbandry from the slavery of antiquated and unscientific methods.
Following the application of science to the cultivation of the soil, came the students of Conservation. They were teaching the farmer the relation of conservation of natural resources to agriculture, the effects of forests on rainfall, moisture, erosion of soil, minimization of floods that annually bury thousands of acres of arable lands in the valleys, under rocky debris and so on.
Greeley discovered the Farm Below. The Conservationists are saving the Farm Above.
Now, in these days of reclamation and reconstruction, it is high time to pay more attention to the Farm by the Side of the Road.
The Northern Nut Growers' Association is to be congratulated upon the fact that it is blazing the trail through the forest of popular ignorance on this vitally important conservation question; leading public thought in the right direction; and providing both the seed and the stock for practical efforts in behalf of the Farm by the Side of the Road. I am going to claim a bond of brotherhood with you in this great work, basing my claim not upon my small activities in nut cultivation, but rather upon the fact that I was one of the conservation pioneers in New York State in the advocacy of planting profitable trees—nut trees and fruit trees—along the public highways.
That eminent conservationist, Gifford Pinchot, addressing the National Council of Farmers' Co-operative Associations in 1915, defined "Conservation" as "the wise use of the earth for the benefit of the people who live on it." That would be a perfect definition, if it did not invite the query: Should it not be enjoined upon the people who live upon the earth today, while enjoying its benefits, to keep faithful stewardship of the interests of the inhabitants of tomorrow?
About the time Mr. Pinchot enunciated this famous definition, the New York State Conservation Department summed up the purposes of practical Conservation as: "The correction of past indiscretion, the perfection of present utilization, and the formation of future accumulation with respect to natural resources."
Conservation activities must repair errors of the past which have left denuded forest lands and empty game covers and waters; they must afford and direct the present use of the forests and the streams; they must safeguard the future supply, if they would meet the requirements of a conservation which shall raise the standards of life and lower the cost of living. That is a conservation embracing both the aesthetic and the economic, the only kind worth while. It is a conservation wherein the arable areas and the so-called waste lands and waters have a very intimate interrelation of interests. And, I submit, Gentlemen, that the American people too long have failed to recognize and to account as in the class of waste lands, "The Farms by the Side of the Road."
The reclamation of waste lands is a compromise between the activities of the Conservationists, who claim that in the more thickly inhabited portions of the United States the cultivated or semi-cultivated areas are out of sane and safe proportion to the wild forest sections, and the advocates of intensive and extensive agriculture. It is not the purpose of this article to take sides in that controversy, but rather to invite attention of both sides to a safe and practical field for their endeavors, namely, the reclamation of the "wasted lands" along the roadsides, the farms along the highways.
During the War Garden campaigns of the past two years, these heretofore largely unused strips of tillable land, forming in the aggregate thousands of along-the-road acres in every state, received considerable attention from the thrifty plow and hoe. But in the main, the results were not encouraging. The public will trespass, unintentionally or otherwise, upon the land cropped along the highway. Then, if the farms by the side of the road are to be conserved—used by present as well as future generations—there remains but one practical recourse: productive trees.
The American people love beautiful trees, possibly the expression of a reaction from the sentiment of the pioneers who regarded trees as their enemies, handicaps to agriculture to be removed as thoroughly and expeditiously as possible. But with virgin soil producing enormous crops, they naturally centered their interest on ornamental trees without reference to their fruits. Hence the horse-chestnut, buck-eye, maple, locust, oak, poplar, along the highways and byways of America, instead of the native nut trees and the Persian or English walnut.
And, speaking of highways, this is the age of concrete. Taking the hint, I am selecting one concrete example of which I have intimate and personal knowledge, well aware that there are numerous others that I might cite were my acquaintance with practical nut culture more extensive than it is. The one that I know about of my own personal knowledge is, a very good example of the plain common sense of productive trees which combine the useful with the ornamental.
IT READS LIKE A FAIRY TALE
In 1876 two Niagara County farmers, Norman Pomeroy and Matthew O'Connor, neighbors, decided to go to the Centennial. They packed one carpet-bag in common for their baggage and boarded the train for Philadelphia. Although well to do farmers, their economic instincts warned them to beware the profiteering hotel keepers. So they sought a humble boarding house in the suburbs of the city. Returning one evening from sight-seeing at the exposition, the travelers were so weary that they retired immediately after supper. During the night Pomeroy was awakened by a tapping on the window. Assuring himself that the wallet under his pillow was still there, he investigated the cause of the disturbance of his slumbers. The noise had ceased and he decided that the overstrain of the day had worked an hallucination. Pomeroy dropped off to sleep, but presently was aroused by sounds which were unmistakably caused by a gentle tapping on the window pane. Exasperated, the man arose, picked up a boot, slipped to the window and raised it gently ready to give the joker or would-be burglar a rousing whack on the head if within reach. He stuck his head out of the window for a better view of the exterior world, and his curiosity was rewarded with a stinging blow on the cheek. The pain aroused all the Pomeroy French Huguenot fighting blood in his veins. Viciously he swung the boot at the unseen foe, only to hear it crash through tree branches. Laughing softly, in his enlightenment, he reached out into the night, grasped a branch, broke it off and turned on the gas and lit it. On the twig were two curious nuts.
Pomeroy was a lover of nature, as I learned by many an interesting talk with him. He found time in his regular farming pursuits to study native trees and shrubs, and had forbidden his hired men to cut down any of the native nut trees on his 500 acre farm. But the nuts on the branch retrieved from darkness were specimens new to him and he could hardly wait for daylight to come to enable him to get acquainted with the tree which had invited his attention so rudely. Next morning Pomeroy learned that his new found arboreal friend was a Persian walnut. It was loaded and the wind storm of the night had covered the ground with shucked and unshucked nuts. By permission of the landlord, he gathered a peck of the Persian walnuts, wrapped O'Connor's and his own belongings in a newspaper and filled the carpet-bag with the nut treasures. Arriving home, the tourists stopped first at O'Connor's house. There they had to relate the experience of their great trip to an assemblage of the two families. The recounting of the Centennial wonders took until midnight. When Pomeroy picked up his carpet-bag to go home, it was empty! The children had made a discrete retirement after having consumed the entire peck of English walnuts, as the shells in the kitchen disclosed. Luckily for the youngsters, they were safe in bed and asleep.
The next day, according to the elder Pomeroy, little Albert who had not been at the O'Connor home the night before, heard the dolorous tale of the wonderful tree in Philadelphia, the gift of nuts and their weird disappearance. To confirm the sad story he picked up the carpet-bag, turned it inside out. Within a torn lining, he triumphantly extracted ten nuts. Child-like, he proceeded to sample them and had eaten three when his father rescued the remainder. Seven Philadelphia walnuts were planted in the yard, and, in due time there were seven slender, silver-grayish seedling trees. These were carefully staked, guarded and cultivated by Norman Pomeroy. Despite the caviling of the neighbors, who declared that a Persian walnut tree would not thrive and bear so far north, twelve years after planting the "lucky seven" reproduced their kind—from a dozen to two dozen large, handsome Persian or English walnuts. Today the seven Centennial trees are about two feet in diameter and about 60 feet high. And as to the value of the crop, one tree alone produced nuts which sold four years ago for $142.50.
Now as to the application of this romance in real life. I must return to the more prosaic generalizations of conservation and its relation to the products of cultivation with which this article began.
In 1913 Governor Martin H. Glynn invited me to outline for him a program of "Practical and Progressive Conservation", applicable to the needs of New York State. In the effort to meet the request, I drew a little from my personal experience and observations as a sportsman, a farmer and a newspaper man, and a great deal from what I had learned from others among the organized sportsmen, agricultural societies, hydro-electric engineers, forest products men, foresters, and nature lovers in general. We then set forth the following as necessary to the realization of the purposes of a Conservation which should meet all conditions imposed by the past, the present and the future, as hereinbefore stated:
"PRACTICAL AND PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATION"
1. Protect the birds and save the crops.
2. Develop the unutilized water powers, now going to waste with destructive effects in freshet periods to arable lands and thickly populated communities, through public ownership and distribution; thereby use "The People's White Coal," save coal and cussin' the ash-sifter, giving the public cheaper light and power for the homes, the farms, the factories, and public highways.
3. Amend the constitution to permit the use of dead and down timber in the state forest preserves, worth at least $10,000,000 annually.
4. Provide free forest trees furnished by the state for all who will plant them. (Note—The present N. Y. Conservation Commission in a special report to be made to the Legislature of 1920 has at last adopted that progressive policy).
5. Plant productive trees along the highways—nut and fruit trees.
6. Restock waters and covers more extensively and intelligently.
7. Stop pollution of private and public waters.
8. Harmonize the interrelated interests of farmers and sportsmen.
9. Establish game and bird refuges in every county in the state.
10. Sane and practical game laws, eliminating prosecutions on petty technicalities, educate the public to co-operate in fish and game protection, enact legislation to encourage rather than handicap the propagation of fish and game by private enterprise.
It will be noted that plank 5 in our progressive conservation platform is urging the planting of producing trees along the highways. By that we meant not only the native nut trees, all of which are beautiful and ornamental, but also fruit trees, according to the wishes of the abutting owners.
In the State of New York, taking into account only improved roads coming under the head of State or County Improved Highways, disregarding the mileage of the rural roads several times as large, there are about 8,000 miles of "Good Roads". There are many stretches of the highways which nature has generously adorned with trees. Some portions of the roads have witnessed the spoliation of the contractor's indiscriminating ax, but in the main the workmen were as careful as possible to retain natural shade trees along the routes. A few miles comparatively, were planted by state agencies. Farmers, especially in the Lake Ontario Fruit Belt of New York State, have worked wonders in ornamentation and economy by planting cherry, apple, plum and other beautiful and productive trees on the strip of land, "The Farms by the Side of the Road."
At a very small additional expense, the State could have planted every rod of improved highway with productive trees, putting that forethoughtful specification into the contracts.
Get out your pencil for a moment. Suppose the state had English walnuts on the 8,000 miles, placing the trees 40 feet apart. We should have growing then over one million productive trees and some of them would be old enough to be bearing today. Within ten years from now, their product would be worth at a conservative estimate $25 per tree, representing a sum sufficient to carry one-third of the State's entire cost of government.
The war just won for the cause of World Democracy has opened the eyes of the American people to many things they had not before apprehended or realized. One is the value of productive land space. Another is the importance of our forests, and especially the value of the native nut-bearing trees. It was discovered, when Uncle Sam scurried around to procure a supply of black walnut for gun stocks, that the German agents had been ahead of him. Although thickly settled, Germany finds it profitable to employ one-fourth of its entire area in growing forest trees. Yet it seems the Kaiser's forests were short on this valuable timber, so they picked up all the procurable black walnut in the United States.
This set the New York State Conservation Commissioner thinking and last year he advised farmers to propagate and cultivate the black walnut—a little late for the emergency; but better late than never, especially in this case.
On my little farm near Lockport, N. Y., there is a large black walnut tree, perhaps 90 to 100 years old. It bears a nut of unusual size, of excellent taste and good keeping qualities. This tree has produced as high as ten bushels of shucked nuts in a season. Twenty-two years ago, when the importance of growing native nut trees had impressed but few people, I did have the good sense to plant several dozen nuts from the "Niagara King Walnut." I must confess I gave the trees little attention, and a farm hand zealously cut down all but one of the black walnuts, mistaking them for sumac. The survivor last year bore about three bushels of nuts. Most interesting of all is the result of observations as to the product, and its bearing on the question of whether or not nut trees will reproduce "true to variety." The walnuts from the young tree differ in shape, being almost round, while the fruit of the parent tree is almost chestnut in form. But the flavor, thickness of shell and the keeping qualities seem identical.
Six years ago I started a small black walnut and butternut tree nursery for home use and from it have set out about four hundred trees along the ditches and fences on the farm. The early plantings have attained a height of from 12 to 15 feet. If every farmer would do likewise, he would make a considerable addition to the country's food supply, to say nothing of the value of the timber for coming generations when the frees approach maturity. It has afforded me pleasure to send nut trees to friends in various counties of the state and we shall watch with interest, the reports on their growth and development under the many variations of soil and climate. The butternut in many parts of the country is rapidly disappearing. To save this beautiful tree with its delicately flavored nuts, it will undoubtedly be necessary to take it into extensive cultivation.
Although apart from the subject perhaps, it may be interesting to refer to the application of forestry to a woodlot containing native nut trees. Like many farmers who regard every tree as just a tree, useful for timber or fire wood, I found several years ago that indiscriminate cutting on my woodlot was destroying walnuts, along with the commoner species of the stand. My first step was to halt the cutting of all black walnuts, hickories, butternuts, oaks and beeches on the seven-acre woodlot. I took an inventory of these trees and found there were 160 shagbark hickories from 10 to 25 years old, five butternuts about 20 years old, and four black walnuts about 25 years old. These, of course, were not "tolerant trees" like the evergreens, and most of them were rapidly deteriorating from being overcrowded by more rapidly growing and less desirable neighbors. All of them had been retarded in growth by the crowded condition of the stand. Inaugurating a process of judicious thinning with a view to giving the nut trees the advantage, the result in a single season was surprising. Under the beneficent influence of ample sun, air and root sustenance, the butternuts and black walnuts bore fine crops for the first time, in the season following the winter thinning process. The young hickories contented themselves with making their first annual growth in years. And, Oh joy of realized hopes, in this the third season since letting the sun into the native nut grove, nearly all of the older shagbark hickories bore their first crops! And now I have a nut plantation, that might have been ere this, burned up as fire-wood, at no expense whatever, since the thinning out process produced a very welcome supply of fire wood in these days of high-priced coal.
In a recent bulletin of the United States Department of Agriculture, "Value to Farm Families of Food, Fuel and use of House," there are some illuminating statistics on "The Farmer's Income" and "The Farmer's Living." It is stated that "the total average of the three items of food, fuel and use of the house for the 950 families (selected from all parts of the United States) is $642, and 66% of $424 of this is furnished by the farm." The Seven Pomeroy Centennial. Trees in one year produced a food product worth and actually sold for about $800 in one year! The average annual production of those seven trees has been over $600 for the last ten years. And what about the labor involved in raising and harvesting the English walnut crop in question? Picking the nuts from the ground, children gladly doing it and earning five cents per basket.
Horace Greeley's undiscovered farm under the first twelve inches was a gold mine when turned up finally; Mr. Pinchot's farm on top rescued from flood and other devastations is worth more money than before. But how about the strip of land along the roadside, an aggregate waste of at least one per cent of the acreages of eastern farms? Well worth reclaiming, and no expensive ditching, irrigation and lumbering involved in the process either. In addition, credit must be given also to this enterprise for the value of ornamentation of the highways and their protection from the elements all seasons of the year.
And strange to relate, in the long list of items under the head of "Classes of Food," given in the Federal Bulletin referred to, no mention is made of nut foods, either native or imported nut trees. Fruits, vegetables, meats, store groceries, everything is there but nuts.
"Nutty," do we hear someone suggest? Probably not in this audience of enlightened nut growers, but speaking to the general public we shall say, "Well, mebbe," like Uncle Lige of Niagara. Two bad years on the farm, four acres of tomatoes that didn't pay for the plants, nothing but soft corn and no potatoes compelled Uncle and Aunt Tompkins to open an account at the corner grocery. The first month the bill came in, Aunt Sally was all in a flutter when she audited the items: Sugar, 60; coffee, 40; oatmeal, 50; sugar, 75; ditto, 80. "Lige, you go right back to the store and tell that cunnin' clerk that he's charged us fer what we never got. We ain't had no 'ditto' in this house." Lige went to the store and returned, apparently a sadder but a wiser man. "Well, Lige," inquired the thrifty spouse, "Did you find out 'bout that 'ditto' we didn't get? What did you find?" Lige picked up his pipe, remarking, "Well Sally, I found I was a durned fool, and you ditto."
We are all waking up to the fact that we did not become "nutty" soon enough. We have found that our public agencies of conservation have been "durn fools" and farmers and other land owners "ditto", for not having inaugurated the systematic planting of productive trees along the highways and farm hedgerows and ditches, many years ago.
Norman Pomeroy used to say with becoming modesty that he took no credit for planting the trees that have made such a substantial income for his family, because "I had to be slapped in the face in the dark before I became wise, and then the natural improvidence of mankind came near spoiling Nature's tip when the children gratified their little stomachs in preference to planting for the future. Men are but children of an older growth, a wise man said. That is a true but sad doctrine. We all live too much in the present and for the present, forgetting that the future will soon be the present, if not for ourselves, for our children and our children's children. It takes time to realize on trees, for the stomach or the pocketbook. It requires sacrifice to get anything worth while and, waiting is the hardest kind of sacrifice, especially for people of small means. But it pays in the end."
The Northern Nut Growers' Association, is doing valuable work not only in the study and planting of nut trees, but in its propaganda. But I have discovered that the results of practical work and the worth of propaganda, are hard to bring home to public agencies, like Governors and Legislatures. The construction and maintenance of public highways are a state function. But that duty must be incomplete in our opinion until the state finishes its job by planting productive trees along the highways and public roads. How shall we bring this about? Adopt resolutions? Very good.
But did the Anti-Saloon League, for example, content itself with resolutions when it wanted real results in the halls of legislation? Not much. Our prohibition friends were very practical. They employed trained agents to present their cause everywhere and in every way calculated to do the most good.
Let me repeat to you tree planters the late Norman Pomeroy's favorite lines, as I recall them:
"The dead are eternized in stone, The living, by living shafts are known. Plant thou a tree and each recurring spring The stirring leaves thy lasting praise shall sing."
PRESIDENT REED: Prof. Chittenden, of Michigan Agricultural College will address you on "Native Nut Tree Plantations for Michigan."
NATIVE NUT TREE PLANTATIONS IN MICHIGAN
PROFESSOR A. K. CHITTENDEN, MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN
I am very glad of this opportunity to tell you what the Michigan Agricultural College is doing, and what it thinks, about nut tree plantations in this State. I want to say first, that there is a very general interest in nut trees among the farmers and land owners of the State. A considerable number of the letters that the Forestry Department of the College receives from farmers are about nut culture. They seem to be particularly interested in pecans, English walnuts, and chestnuts. A few years ago the State was flooded with literature urging people to plant these trees and we are still feeling the aftermath of this campaign. Much of this state is too far north for the successful growth of these particular trees and we therefore have advised waiting before investing heavily in young trees, until experiments have shown where they would succeed and what kinds it would be safe to plant. At the same time, we suggested the planting of one or two trees of certain varieties as an experiment. We have for the most part recommended only our native nut trees for planting on a large scale.
We have tried many varieties of nut trees, grafted on hardy stock, at the College, and only a few of them are alive today. All of the pecan trees have been lost and nearly all of the English walnuts. About two years ago, we got some of Burbank's Royal walnuts from California. All of these trees except one, were killed back of the graft the first winter. One of them, however, is doing well although growing very slowly. It will doubtless succeed now, as it has pulled through two winters, one an exceptionally cold one.
About three years ago, we bought some Sober Paragon chestnuts from an eastern nursery which had been advertising them widely in this State. They were all infected with the Chestnut Blight disease. Now this disease has at the present time not appeared in Michigan, except on imported nursery stock. We have a considerable number of chestnut plantations in the State, and if the disease can be kept out, there is no reason why chestnuts cannot be raised more profitably. But our experience has shown that the trees must be raised in this State and not brought in from outside. We have some very nice chestnut trees in our nursery at the College which are now thirteen years old and which have been bearing nuts for four years. This fall we are planting them all along the drives so as to open up the crowns and induce a greater production of nuts.
We also have some Japanese walnuts that are doing well indeed. One of these trees on the campus is 35 years old and produces a large quantity of nuts.
There are a number of English walnuts at various places along Lake Michigan in the fruit belt. Individual trees will often succeed, but the chances for success are not great enough to warrant a man putting very much money into a plantation. There are two Sober Paragon chestnuts near Niles which are now 12 years old and are growing and bearing well. At the College farm, near Grand Rapids, there are some pecan trees, but their history shows that they have been repeatedly frosted back.
I could mention a great many cases of success with individual imported trees, but I do not know of any extensive plantations that have so far succeeded.
There is, however, a different story to tell of our native nut trees of which there are many successful plantations. Our native edible nuts are black walnut, hickories and chestnut. They will grow anywhere in the southern part of the State and along Lake Michigan. Using these trees as a basis, I believe we can develop, if it has not already been done, a tree that will bear an improved quality of nuts and that will be perfectly hardy.
The black walnut is the tree that did perhaps more than any other tree to help win the war, and, while timber raising and nut culture do not perhaps go hand in hand, probably more black walnuts are being planted as individual trees than any other tree in the State. The black walnut was an invaluable tree for gun stocks and airplane propellers. The War Department scoured the country to find trees for these purposes and every black walnut that is now planted, may be of service to the country in the future. The College raises thousands of black walnuts and Japanese walnuts each year, and the demand for them is very great. When we have in planting, a choice between two trees, one choice being a tree suitable for shade only and the other a nut producing tree, I would say plant the nut tree. Our trees will have a double appeal if they furnish not only shade, but edible nuts as well. At the last session of the State Legislature, an act was passed providing for the planting of nut and shade trees along our highways. As a result of this act, we hope sometime to see the highways in the southern part of the State lined with walnut and other nut bearing trees. A tree that will serve a double purpose should be planted wherever possible.
Tree planting is a thing in which we are all interested. Those of you who have been abroad remember the long rows of trees, often fruit trees, that lined the roads. In this country we cannot plant fruit trees along our roads as there is nobody to care for them and disease would quickly start and spread to our orchards. But nut trees can be safely planted.
We have, on certain soils in the southern part of the State, recommended planting black walnuts for fence posts. The heart wood is very durable and the tree grows quite rapidly under favorable conditions. Then, perhaps when the trees are large enough for posts, the owner will decide to keep them for the nuts and for timber production.
During the past summer the College made a study of native nut tree plantations in the State with a view to determining the profitableness of such plantations.
Among the older plantations studied was one in Berrien County. It was planted 45 years ago and covers four acres. The soil is clay and loam with a clay sub-soil. Three year old seedlings were used with an average spacing of about 28 by 32 feet. The grove was cultivated for about 8 years after planting. The trees are now in fairly good condition but many are affected with heart-rot. They are quite spreading and bushy in form and are not suitable for lumber. There is now about 30 cords of wood per acre. The average diameter is 20 inches with an average height of 60 feet. The ground is sodded over and the grove is used for grazing sheep. The owner says that about half the trees bear and that the June bugs are the principal source of trouble, eating the blossoms. The yield in nuts varies from practically nothing to 25 or 30 bushels for the entire plantation. About six years ago, the owner reports a crop of 36 bushels, and two years ago a crop of 27 bushels. From these figures I should say the plantation is a success.
A chestnut plantation in Van Buren County was set 37 years ago and covers one acre of sandy soil. The plantation was cultivated for about ten years and corn was grown between the trees. The average tree is 14 inches in diameter and 65 feet tall. The returns have been small because the trees were planted too close together, but some years the plantation has yielded 15 bushels of nuts. There are 67 trees on the acre, which is too many for good nut production. The grove will produce about 20 cords of wood or about 550 split fence posts per acre.
One of the oldest plantations in the State is 56 years old and covers 1-1/2 acres in Montcalm County. It consists of black walnuts and chestnuts mixed together. The average black walnut is 14 inches in diameter and 67 feet tall. The average chestnut is 20 inches in diameter and 60 feet tall. The spacing is about 40 by 30 feet and the soil is a gravelly sand. The yield in nuts has been quite small, six to eight bushels a year.
There are a number of such mixed plantations in the State and it would seem that the two trees do not do very well together. In this case, I should say that the soil is not well suited for either tree.
There is a plantation of Japanese walnuts in Oakland County. It is five years old and on sandy soil. About 500 trees were planted at the cost of 60 cents per tree. The stock came from Pennsylvania and was budded to English walnut. The scions died back, however, and the plantation stock came along so it is now a Japanese walnut grove. The average tree is about 2 inches in diameter and 10 feet tall. The trees are very healthy and vigorous and are beginning to bear a few nuts.
A chestnut plantation in Van Buren County is 12 years old. Two foot transplants were used and the trees were planted at the rate of 100 to the acre. They were cultivated for two years. The average tree is 4 inches in diameter and 20 feet high. The trees are healthy and in good condition. The grove is yielding from one to two bushels of nuts a year and should be thinned so as to open it up and encourage nut production.
A black walnut plantation in Ingham County, planted about 20 years ago for timber purposes and underplanted with white cedar to force the trees to grow straight and tall, is in excellent condition. The average tree is 5 inches in diameter and 34 feet tall. The plantation has not yet borne nuts but if it were opened up, would doubtless produce a large number in a few years.
I could give more instances of nut tree plantations in the State, but I think I have mentioned enough to show that our native nut trees can be profitably raised. During the last few years, a great many black walnut plantations have been established but most of them are yet too young to be in a bearing condition. If it were not for the difficulty of getting healthy chestnut stock, I believe Michigan would be a large producer of these nuts.
A study has been made of the volume of the wood that could be obtained from these chestnut plantations. Owing to the open nature of the groves, the trees are mostly not suitable for lumber and the yield of cordwood and posts is less than in a forest plantation where the trees are closer together and force each other to grow straight and tall. It was found, however, that a chestnut grove planted for nuts, would yield on the average 13 standard cords of wood per acre at 20 years of age, 20 cords at 30 years, and 25 cords at 40 years of age. Placing the value of this wood at present prices of $7 per cord, would give a value of $91 per acre at 20 years and $140 per acre at 30 years for the wood alone.
Probably most of the chestnut plantations have been planted for the nut and the black walnuts for timber with the nuts as a side issue.
Black walnuts should be planted on fairly fertile, moist soil. We do not recommend planting the nuts as squirrels are liable to dig them out. It is better to use small trees.
The cost of establishing black walnut plantations is quite small. Native trees can be bought for $15 per thousand one year old seedlings. We prefer to plant these small trees as the black walnut develops a strong tap root early in life, making it difficult to transplant large trees.
Only a comparatively small number of hickories have been planted in this state. This is a tree that, while it grows slowly, is very valuable for its wood and it is becoming very scarce. It should be planted more extensively. It may well be planted in openings in the woodlot. Every farmer knows the value of hickory and the trees can be utilized when quite small.
It is needless to say anything about the value of black walnut wood. High prices have been paid for standing trees and for saw logs. Many individual trees have sold for $500 apiece and even more. Prices as high as $120 per M board feet have been paid for standing timber.
At the present rate of cutting, it is only a question of a few years before all of the merchantable black walnut will have been removed, and, unless trees are planted, the black walnut will be a thing of the past. It cannot be depended upon to reproduce itself in our forests as do the maples, the ash, and many other trees with nonedible seed. For every black walnut tree in our woods and along the roads, there are innumerable small boys and squirrels who are after the nuts and the seed have little chance of germinating even if they do get into the soil. If there are to be black walnuts in our future forests, the trees must be planted or the nuts planted and properly safeguarded. From a forestry viewpoint, the black walnut is a good tree to plant. It has a high value and the demand for the wood is very great. And, for planting, trees should be chosen that will give a good quality nut as far as possible.
For ornamental planting, too, nut trees may often be chosen to advantage. For the farm yard they are often the best choice. Hickories or black walnut are long lived trees and the hickory is very ornamental. A great many trees have been planted by the school children of the State; and right here is a good field for planting, around our school houses. The average country school ground is a forlorn place, usually barren of both grass and shade. While we perhaps cannot have a lawn, we can certainly have shade trees, and the children will take care of them and watch their development with interest, particularly if they have a part in planting them. A few years ago the College distributed about 6000 trees to the schools of the state for Arbor Day and many of these trees were black walnuts. During the last few years, the Collage has not raised enough of these trees to meet the demand.
As memorial trees, also, nut trees are being quite extensively planted. A great many black walnuts have been planted in the honor of our soldiers who gave their lives in the war and it is a very suitable tree to plant for this purpose.
Now that our forests are becoming more scarce, we are beginning to appreciate more fully the value of their products. Nuts, extracts, maple syrup and many minor products are obtained from our native trees. If man could be surrounded with the right assortment of trees, he would need little else. He would have food in the nuts and fruit; fire wood and building material in the stems, as well as paper and clothing from the wood pulp. He would have sugar from the sap, medicine from the bark, and he would have wood distillates, turpentine and resin. He could live long and well on the products of our forests.
Our forests are, however, disappearing. Our native nut trees are being cut off. Our sugar maple orchards are being put into farm land, and forest products are increasing rapidly in price. We have got to keep a certain part of the country in forests in order to have the country prosperous, and to do this we must either plant trees or so manage the existing forests that they will renew themselves naturally. In planting trees, we should not overlook the by-products of the trees, nuts and syrup and bark. These products are often the main crop in themselves and in any case, they will increase the receipts and make our forestry work more profitable.
There are many acres in southern Michigan and along the Lake, that will give larger returns from nut tree plantations than from any other source. We want first to be sure that the trees are hardy to the locality before we recommend them. I believe there is a very big future for such plantations. The history of southern plantations has been one of remarkable success.
We must be particularly careful in advising the establishment of nut tree plantations. We ought to be particularly careful in not encouraging people to buy trees that we are not sure will succeed. For every plantation that fails means a loss of money and an obstacle to future progress. But every tree that succeeds means an advertisement for years to come.
I do not see any reason why southern Michigan cannot raise many improved varieties of black walnut and perhaps some other nut trees as well. Our study of native nut tree plantations this summer, shows that with proper care they may be very profitable and we hope to see a great extension of such plantations in this State.
PROF. CHITTENDEN: I would like to say that the College has been very favorably impressed with the work that this Association has been doing and the care that is used in recommending nut trees. It is a thing the people need a lot of advice about. I thank you. (Applause).
MR. J. F. JONES: I would like to ask if the pecans that were tender were northern or southern pecans.
PROF. CHITTENDEN: We got them from a nursery in New York State and I could not say as to the source of the stock beyond that.
MR. JONES: Naturally the southern source is the cheapest tree.
PROF. CHITTENDEN: We got the trees from a nursery that had been advertising them very extensively in Michigan. It was about five years ago, at a time when this State had been flooded with literature from this nursery and other nurseries about particularly pecans and chestnuts. We were doubtful about the trees they were recommending, and we got a considerable number and planted them out, but we took pretty good care of them; but they all died in winter.
DR. MORRIS: It is a pity that people who do the most advertising have to. Certain firms are not allowed to advertise in nut journals at all. I think the public ought to be made aware of that fact. It is a pity too, because the ones who spend the largest amount of money in advertising are the ones of whom we ask the most questions.
In regard to Prof. Chittenden's paper, it is a very important matter to impress upon children and others who are setting out trees the idea that a tree is not able to care for itself as a rule. It is quite the exception for a tree set out by itself to thrive and enter into competition with other trees and bushes and shade, in the early years, and insects later. I suppose the number of ordinary trees including maples that make their way to a successful old age would not represent one in many hundred thousands that make a start in the sprouting seed. That fact ought to be impressed on every school child who is setting out a tree—he really should adopt that tree and make that its own child. And if you can inculcate the maternal and the paternal instinct along with the setting out of from one to six children of these other children, you will then get trees on your roadsides and your waste lands, and without a great amount of difficulty. But you have got to go back to first principles there and realize that very few trees are able to succeed after they have been set out unless they receive a great deal of care subsequently. Those of us who give a great deal of attention to trees, who pretend to care for our trees, will lose a percentage so large that I would hardly dare state what it probably is. Among the hundreds and thousands of trees I have set out, all from reputable nurserymen or raised by myself; I doubt if 25% are alive today, and I have pretty good success too. This is not to discourage anyone; it is to encourage people, and they are to be encouraged by knowing the facts; and when all the final facts are known about the values of trees that are given proper attention, then people will be willing to give them that degree of attention. Not until then are we to have success in filling our waste lands with nut trees.
Prof. Chittenden brought up one point of a great deal of consequence. In any locality plant the species which belong to that locality. The species which, by natural selection and adaptation have fitted themselves to the environment are, as a rule, the trees which will do best in that locality. That is a principle I think which ought to be thoroughly well fixed in mind. One may experiment with any number of trees from a distance, but the trees which naturally have adapted themselves to a locality, the species which have done that are the species upon which we can expend our efforts to the best advantage.
In the matter of chestnut blight, we assume that the chestnut blight will act like measles blight, scarlet fever blight, or any other epidemic. In other words, it is due to a microbe, it is due to a peculiar microbic group, a peculiar family group which happened to start out in northern China on its invasion and got to this country where it found trees which were not resistant. The American and European trees are not resistant. Wherever it has gone from northern China, from the place where blight, the tree host and enemy grew up side by side, and represented the survival of the fittest; wherever it has gone away from the place where we have the survival of the fittest, at any rate as a result of struggle, there it has found susceptible individuals that it has destroyed. When a blight of any sort sets out, chestnut blight, measles, scarlet fever—any blight you please, you are talking natural history, you are taking biology, about an animal or a plant, about a microbe, a living thing. All of these living things run out of their vital energy in time. Each microbe runs out of its energy just as a breed of horses or of strawberries runs out of its energy. All varieties, varietal types, run out of their natural energy, so that it is simply a question of length of time before this family microbe or family group of this microbe will lose its energy. We do not know how many years that will be. It may be a great many years, and by that time, our chestnuts may practically have disappeared. We can find here and there a tree which resists better than others do, and we may find some with enough resistance to be worthy of propagation as of that resistant kind. We know that several species resist the blight very well. I found four species that resist the blight very well among six kinds I have tried out on my place. But some chestnuts bear so early and heavily that we may afford to set them out, even in the presence of blight, trimming them back and looking after them carefully: For instance, a number of Sober Paragon chestnuts that I planted all died but one that is near the house. It bears so heavily that it is well worth while, and it simply means that one must give a great deal of attention to it. Some people can afford even to set out the Paragon because of its high bearing power. I have a number of hybrids which resist the blight very well. The cross between the American chestnut and the Japanese, or between the common American chestnut and the chinquapins showed the resistance very largely of the resistant parent. But curiously enough, the ones which look most like the American chestnut also carry that parent's weakness in regard to blight, so that all of my hybrids between the American chestnut and the resistant kinds which look like the American chestnut and act like it also catch the same microbe for the most part. But one of the hybrids does not. No. 2 which I have given Mr. Jones, is very much like the American chestnut. It grows vigorously, acts like it, and looks like it, and it has not blighted up to the ninth year of age, beginning to bear about the fourth year. Most of those that are like the chinquapin or like the Chinese chestnut resist blight very well.
About Japanese walnuts. If Prof. Chittenden has a large number of Japanese walnuts about the state, he may very well select one or two of the very best and advise the owners to top work the others with the one or two which happen to be particularly good. Most of the Japanese walnuts are small. Most of them are Siebold type instead of the heart nut variety, but a few very large ones will be found here and there and of high quality, and they graft almost as easily as peaches.
In regard to Persian walnuts. If there are a few trees here and there about the state, we need not fear the question of introducing others because it is too far north. If you simply have one tree that is a good one, that is enough, because you can graft over all sorts of black walnuts, Japanese walnut and Persian walnut stocks with the one or two trees which are known to be good in Michigan. One good tree in the state which is bearing good nuts of desirable qualities is enough. Graft all of your other walnuts back from it. And in setting out the native black walnuts, chestnuts and the hickories of different species, it is important always to distinguish in regard to intention—whether they are to be for forest purposes or for nut purposes. That is not always clear in the minds of a number of people whom I have seen setting out groves of these trees. They talk about getting timber and nuts. You can not get both profitably. I think people ought to be impressed with the fact that if they are setting out apple trees for timber they would set them five or six feet apart. If they are setting them out for apples, they would set them sixty feet apart. Precisely the same thing is true of nut trees. (Applause). |
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