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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
TWELFTH ANNUAL MEETING
LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA
OCTOBER 6 AND 7, 1921
CONTENTS
Officers and Committees of the Association 5
State Vice-Presidents 6
Members of the Association 7
Constitution and By-Laws 13
Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Convention 17
Report of the Treasurer 23
Nut Trees for Public Places, Dr. R. T. Morris 25
Roadside Planting, Prof. A. K. Chittendon 36
Roadside Planting Legislation in Mich., Senator Henry A. Penny 40
Cultivation and Culture of the European Filbert, James S. McGlennon 54
Report of the Committee on Uniform Bill for Roadside Planting, T. P. Littlepage 59
Where May the Northern Pecan Be Expected to Bear, Willard G. Bixby 63
Constitution and By-Laws Amended 71
Report of Nominating Committee, Secretary Olcott 75
Proceedings of The Tree Planting Ceremonies at Long's Park, Lancaster County, Pa 77
A National Program for the Promotion of Nut Culture, Dean Watts 80
Appendix 84
OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION
President JAMES S. MCGLENNON Rochester, New York
Vice-President J. F. JONES Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Secretary WILLIAM C. DEMING Danbury, Conn., R. 2
Treasurer WILLARD G. BIXBY Baldwin, Nassau Co., New York
COMMITTEES
Auditing—C. P. CLOSE, C. A. REED
Executive—J. RUSSELL SMITH, W. S. LINTON AND THE OFFICERS
Finance—T. P. LITTLEPAGE, WILLARD G. BIXBY, W. C. DEMING
Hybrids—R. T. MORRIS, C. P. CLOSE, W. G. BIXBY, HOWARD SPENCE
Membership—JAMES S. MCGLENNON, H. R. WEBER, R. T. OLCOTT, W. O. POTTER, W. G. BIXBY, W. C. DEMING
Nomenclature—C. A. REED, R. T. MORRIS, J. F. JONES
Press and Publication—R. T. OLCOTT, W. G. BIXBY, W. C. DEMING
Programe—JAMES S. MCGLENNON, W. C. DEMING, R. T. OLCOTT, C. A. REED, R. T. MORRIS, W. G. BIXBY
Promising Seedlings—C. A. REED, J. F. JONES, W. G. BIXBY
STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS
Alabama H. M. Robertson 2026 1st Ave., Birmingham Arkansas Prof. N. F. Drake University of Arkansas, Fayetteville California T. C. Tucker 311 California St., San Francisco Canada G. H. Corsan 63 Avenue Road, Toronto China P. W. Wang, Kinsan Arboretum Chuking Kiangsu Province Colorado C. L. Cudebec Boulder, Box 233 Connecticut Ernest M. Ives Sterling Orchards, Meriden Dist of Columbia B. G. Foster 902 G. St., Washington England Howard Spence Eskdale Knutsford Cheshire Georgia A. S. Perry Cuthbert Illinois E. A. Riehl Alton Indiana J. F. Wilkinson Rockport Iowa D. C. Snyder Center Point Kansas James Sharp Council Grove Kentucky Frank M. Livengood Berea Maine Alice D. Leavitt 79 High St., Bridgton Maryland P. J. O'Connor Bowie Massachusetts C. Leroy Cleaver 496 Commonwealth Ave., Boston Michigan Dr. J. H. Kellogg Battle Creek Missouri P. C. Stark Louisiana Nebraska William Caha Wahoo New Hampshire Henry B. Stevens Durham Nevada C. G. Swingle Hazen New Jersey C. S. Ridgway Lumberton New York Dr. G. J. Buist 3 Hancock St., Brooklyn North Carolina Dr. Harvey P. Barrett 211 Vail Ave., Charlotte Ohio Harry R. Weber 123 E. 6th St., Cincinnati Oklahoma Dr. C. E. Beitman Skedee Oregon Knight Pearcy Salem, R. F. D. 3, Box 187 Pennsylvania F. N. Fagan State College South Carolina Prof. A. G. Shanklin Clemson College Texas J. H. Burkett Clyde Vermont F. C. Holbrook Brattleboro Virginia John S. Parish University Washington William Baines Okanogan West Virginia Fred E. Brooks French Creek Wisconsin Dr. G. W. Patchen Manitowoc
MEMBERS OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
April, 1, 1922
ALABAMA
Robertson, H. M., 2026 1st Ave., Birmingham
ARIZONA
Heyne, Fred W., Douglas
ARKANSAS
*Drake, Prof. N. F., Fayetteville, Univ. of Arkansas Dunn, D. K., Wynne
CALIFORNIA
Cajori, F. A., 1220 Byron St., Palo Alto Cress, B. E., Tehachapi Thorpe, Will J., 1545 Divisadero Street, San Francisco Tucker, T. C., 311 California St., San Francisco
CANADA
Bell, Alex., Milliken, Ontario Corsan, G. H., 513 Christie St., Toronto Corcoran, William, Port Dalhousie, Box 26, Ontario Haight, P. N., St. Thomas, Canada
CHINA
Kinsan Arboretum, Chuking, Kiangsu Province, P. W. Wang Secy.
COLORADO
Bennett, L. E., Cory Butterbaugh, Dr. W. S., Engleburg, Las Animas Co. Cudebec, C. L., Boulder, Box 233 Hartman, Richard, Kremmling
CONNECTICUT
Barrows, Paul M., Stanford, R. F. D. No. 30 Bartlett, Francis A., Stanford Benedict, Samuel L., 98 South Main St., So. Norwalk Bielefield, F. J., Middleton, South Farms Bradley, Smith T., New Haven, Grand Ave. Craig, Joseph A., 783 Washington Ave., West Haven Deming, Dr. W. C., Hartford, 983 Main St. Glover, James L., Shelton, R. F. D. No. 7 Hilliard, H. J., South View Hungerford, Newman, Torrington, R. F. D. No. 2, Box 76 Ives, E. M., Meriden, Sterling Orchards Lewis, Henry Leroy, Stratford, 1822 Main St. *Morris Dr. R. T. Cos Cob Route 28, Box 95 Pomeroy, Eleazer, 120 Bloomfield Ave., Windsor Sessions, Albert L., Bristol, 25 Bellevue Ave. Southworth, George E., Milford, Box 176 Staunton, Gray, 320 Howard Ave., New Haven White, Gerrard, North Granby
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Beatty, Wilbur M. L., 4027 Georgia Ave., Washington Close, C. P. Prof., Pomologist Dept. of Agriculture, Wash. Foster, B. G., Washington, 902 G. St., N. W. *Littlepage, T. P., Union Trust Building, Washington Reed, C. A., Dept. of Agriculture, Washington **Van Fleet, Walter, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington
ENGLAND
Spence, Howard, Eskdale, Knutsford, Cheshire
GEORGIA
Bullard, William P., Albany Patterson, J. M., Putney Perry, A. S., Cuthbert Steele, R. C., Lakemont, Rabun Co. Wight, J. B., Cairo
ILLINOIS
Buckman, Benj., Farmingdale Casper, O. H., Anna Heide, John F. H., 500 Oakwood Blvd., Chicago Illinois, University of, Urbana (Librarian) Hon. W. A. Potter, Marion Harry J. Rickelman, Weed Bldg., Effingham Reihl, E. A., Godfrey, Route 2 Shaw, James B., Urbana, Box 143, Univ. Sta. Swisher, S. L., Mulkeytown Sundstrand, Mrs. G. D., 916 Garfield Ave., Rockford Wells, Oscar, Farina
INDIANA
Crain, Donald J., 1313 North St., Logansport Jackson, Francis M., 122 N. Main St., South Bend Reed, W. C., Vincennes Redmon, Felix, Rockport, R. R. 2, Box 32 Rowell, Mrs. George P., 219 North 5th St., Goshen Simpson, H. D., Vincennes Staderman, A. L., 120 South 7th St., Terre Haute Wilkinson, J. F., Rockport
IOWA
Bricker, C. W., Ladora Finnell, J. F. C., Hamburg Pfeiffer, W. F., Fayette Skromme, L. J. (Skromme Seed Company), Roland Snyder, D. C., Center Point Snyder, S. W., Center Point
KANSAS
Bishop, S. L., Conway Springs Gray, Dr. Clyde, Horton Sharpe, James, Council Grove
KENTUCKY
Baker, Sam C., Beaver Dam, R. D. No. 2 Livengood, Frank M., Berea
MAINE
Leavitt, Mrs. Alice D., 79 High St., Brighton
MARYLAND
Auchter, E. C., College Park Littlepage, Miss Louise, Bowie Keenan, Dr. John F., Brentwood O'Connor, P. J., Bowie
MASSACHUSETTS
*Bowditch, James H., 903 Tremont Bldg., Boston Cleaver, C. Leroy, Hingham Center Jackson, Arthur H., 63 Fayerweather St., Cambridge Mass. Agriculture College, Library of, Amherst Scudder, Dr. Charles L., 209 Beacon St., Boston
MICHIGAN
Beck, J. P., 25 James, Saginaw Charles, Dr. Elmer, Pontiac Cross, John L., 104 Division St., Bangor Graves, Henry B., 2134 Dime Bank Bldg., Detroit Guild, Stacy R., 562 So. 7th St., Ann Arbor Hartig, G. F., Bridgeman, R. F. D. No. 1 Henshall, H., 527 Harper St., Detroit House, George W., Ford Bldg., Detroit Kellogg, Dr. J. H., Battle Creek, 202 Manchester St. *Linton, W. S., Saginaw, Pres. Board of Trade Mac Nab, Dr. Alex B., Cassopolis McKale, H. B., Lansing, Route 6 Olson, A. E., Holton Penny, Harvey A., Saginaw, 425 So. Jefferson Ave. Smith, Edward J., 85 So. Union St., Battle Creek
MISSISSIPPI
Bechtel, Theo., Ocean Springs
MISSOURI
Crosby, Miss Jessie M., 4241 Harrison St., Kansas City Hazen, Josiah J., (Neosho Nurseries Co.) Neosho Rhodes, J. I., 224 Maple St., Neosho Spellen, Howard P., 4505a W. Papin St., St. Louis Stark, P. C., Louisiana
NEBRASKA
Caha, William, Wahoo Thomas, Dr. W. A., Lincoln
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Stevens, Henry B., N. H. College of Agriculture, Durham
NEVADA
Swingle, C. G., Hazen
NEW JERSEY
Brown, Jacob S., Elmer, Salem Co. *Jaques, Lee W., 74 Waverly St., Jersey City Landmann, Miss M. V. Cranbury, R. D. No. 2 Marshall, S. L., Vineland Marston, Edwin S., Florham Park, Box 72 Phillips, Irving S., 501 Madison St., West New York Price, John R., 36 Ridgdale Ave., Madison Ridgeway, C. S., Lumberton Salvage, W. K., Farmingdale Westcoat Wilmer, 230 Knight Ave., Collingswood
NEW YORK
Abbott, Frederick B., 1211 Tabor Court, Brooklyn Adams, Sidney I., 418 Powers Bldg., Rochester Ashworth, Fred L., Heuvelton Babcock, H. J., Lockport Bixby, Willard G., 32 Grand Ave., Baldwin, L. I. Borchers, H. Chas., Wenga Farm, Armonk Brown, Ronold K., 320 Broadway, New York City Buist, Dr. G. J., 3 Hancock St., Brooklyn Clark, George H., 131 State St., Rochester Crane, Alfred J., Monroe Coriell, A. S., 120 Broadway, New York City Diprose, Alfred H., 468 Clinton Ave., South, Rochester Ellwanger, Mrs. W. D., 510 East Ave., Rochester Gager, Dr. C. Stewart, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Gillet, Dr. Henry W., 140 W. 57th St., New York City Goeltz, Mrs. M. H., 2524 Creston Ave., New York City Graham, S. H., R. D. 5, Ithaca Hall, L. W., Jr., 509 Cutler Bldg., Rochester (L. W. Hall Co., Inc.) Harper, George W., Jr., 115 Broadway, New York City Hodge, James, 199 Kingsbridge Road West, Kingsbridge, N. Y. C. Hodgson, Casper W., Yonkers, (World Book Co.) Hoffman, Arthur S., 26 Church St., White Plains Kains, M. G., Pomona Jewett, Edmund G., 16 Elliott Place, Brooklyn Johnson, Harriet, M. B., 15th & 4th Ave., New York City *Huntington, A. M., 15 W. 81st St., New York City MacDaniel, S. H., Dept. of Pomology, New York State College of Agriculture, Ithaca McGlennon, J. S., 528 Cutler Building, Rochester Meyers, Charles, 316 Adelphi St., Brooklyn Olcott, Ralph T. (Editor American Nut Journal), Ellwanger and Barry Building, Rochester Pomeroy, A. C., Lockport Richardson, J. M., 2 Columbus Circle, New York City Ritchie, John W., Yonkers, 2 A Beach Street Ryder, Clayton, Carmel Stephen, John W., Syracuse, New York State College of Forestry Solley, Dr. John B., 968 Lexington Ave., New York City Teele, Arthur W., 120 Broadway, New York City Vollertsen, Conrad, 375 Gregory St., Rochester Wetmore, W. J., Elmira Whitney, Arthur C., 9 Manila St., Rochester Whitney, Leon F., 65 Barclay St., New York City Wile, M. E., 955 Harvard St., Rochester Williams, Dr. Chas. Mallory, 4 W. 50th St., New York City *Wisman, Mrs. F. de R. Westchester, New York City
NORTH CAROLINA
Hutchings, Miss L. G., Pine Bluff C. W. Matthews, 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), Painesville Fickes, W. R., Wooster, R. No. 6 Jackson, A. V., 3275 Linwood Rd., Cincinnati Ketchem, C. S., Middlefield Box 981 Pomerene Julius, 1914 East 116th St., Cleveland Ramsey, John, 1803 Freeman Ave., Cincinnati Truman, G. G., Perrysville, Box 167 *Weber, Harry R., Cincinnati, 123 East 6th St. Yunck, Edward G., 706 Central Ave., Sandusky
OKLAHOMA
Beitmen, C. E., Dr., Skedee
OREGON
Marvin, Cornelia, Oregon State Library, Salem Nelson, W. W., R. 3, Box 652, Portland Pearcy, Knight, 210 Oregon Building, Salem
PENNSYLVANIA
Althouse, C. Scott, 820 North 5th St., Reading Balthaser, James M., Wernersville, Berks Co. Bohn, Dr. H. W., 34 No. 9th St., Reading Bolton, Charles G., Zieglerville Bomberger, John S., Lebanon, R. F. D. No. 1 Chapin, Irvin, Shickshinny Clark, D. F., 147 N. 13th St., Harrisburg Druckemiller, W. H., Sunbury Fagan, Prof. F. N., State College Fritz, Ammon P., 35 E. Franklin St., Ephrata Heffner, H., Leeper Hess, Elam G., Manhein Hile, Anthony, Curwensville Irwin, Ernest C., 66 St. Nicholas Bldg., Pittsburg Jenkins, Charles Francis, Philadelphia—Farm Journal *Jones, J. F., Lancaster, Box 527 Kaufman, M. M., Clarion Leas, F. C., Merion Station Mellor, Alfred, 152 W. Walnut Lane, Germantown, Philadelphia Minick, C. G., Ridgway Murphy, P. J., Scranton, Vice-Pres. L. & W. R. R. Co. Myers, J. Everitt, R. D. No. 3, York Springs Neagley, C. H., Greencastle, R. D. No. 2 Patterson, J. E., 77 North Franklin St., Wilkes Barre *Rick, John, 438 Pennsylvania Square, Reading Rittenhouse, Dr. J. F. S., Lorane Robinson, W. I., Fort Loudon Rose, William J., 413 Market St., Harrisburg "Personal" Rush, J. G., West Willow Russell, Dr. Andrew L., 729 Wabash Bldg., Pittsburgh Shoemaker, H. C., 1739 Main St., Northampton Smedley, Samuel L., Newton Square, R. F. D. No. 1 Smith Dr. J. Russell, Swarthmore *Sober, C. K. Col., Lewisburg Spencer, L. N., 216 East New St., Lancaster Taylor, Lowndes, West Chester, Box 3, Route 1 Walter, R. G., Willow Grove, Doylestown Pike Weaver, William S., McCungie Wilhelm, Dr. Edward A., Clarion *Wister, John C., Wister St. & Clarkson Ave., Germantown
SOUTH CAROLINA
Shanklin, A. G., Prof., Clemson College Kendall, Dr. F. D., 1317 Hampton Ave., Columbus
TENNESSEE
Waite, J. W., Normandy
VERMONT
Aldrich, A. W., Springfield, R. F. D. No. 3 Holbrook, F. C., Battleboro
VIRGINIA
Harris, D. C., Capital Landing Road, Williamsburg Jordan, J. H., Bohannon Parrish, John S., Charlottesville, Route No. 4 Roper, W. N., Petersburg
WASHINGTON
Baines, William, Okanogan Turk, Richard H., Washougal
WEST VIRGINIA
Brooks, Fred E., French Creek Cannaday, Dr. J. E., Charleston, Box 693 Hartzel, B. F., Shepherdstown Mish, A. F., Inwood
WISCONSIN
Lang, Robert B., Racine, Box 103 Patchen, Dr. G. W., Manitowoc
* Life Member ** Honorary Member
CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE I
Name. This society shall be known as the NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION.
ARTICLE II
Object. Its object shall be the promotion of interest in 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, a secretary and a treasurer, who shall be elected by ballot at the annual meeting; and an executive committee of six persons, of which the president, the two last retiring presidents, the vice-president, the secretary and the treasurer shall be members. There shall be a state vice-president from each state, dependency, or country represented in the membership of the association, who shall be appointed by the president.
ARTICLE V
Election of Officers. A committee of five members shall be elected at the annual meeting for the purpose of nominating officers for the following year.
ARTICLE VI
Meetings. The place and time of the annual meeting shall be selected by the membership in session or, in the event of no selection being made at this time, the executive committee shall choose the place and time for the holding of the annual convention. Such other meetings as may seem desirable may be called by the president and executive committee.
ARTICLE VII
Quorum. Ten members of the association shall constitute a quorum, but must include two of the four elected officers.
ARTICLE VIII
Amendments. This constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the members present at any annual meeting, notice of such amendment having been read at the previous annual meeting, or a copy of the proposed amendment having been mailed by any member to each member thirty days before the date of the annual meeting.
BY-LAWS
ARTICLE I
Committees. The association shall appoint standing committees as follows: On membership, on finance, on programme, on press and publication, on nomenclature, on promising seedlings, on hybrids, and an auditing committee. The committee on membership may make recommendations to the association as to the discipline or expulsion of any member.
ARTICLE II
Fees. Annual members shall pay two dollars annually, or three dollars and twenty-five cents, including a year's subscription to the American Nut Journal. Contributing members shall pay five dollars annually, this membership including a year's subscription to the American Nut Journal. Life members shall make one payment of fifty dollars, and shall be exempt from further dues. Honorary members shall be exempt from dues.
ARTICLE III
Membership. All annual memberships shall begin either with the first day of the calendar quarter following the date of joining the Association, or with the first day of the calendar quarter preceding that date as may be arranged between the new member and the Treasurer.
ARTICLE IV
Amendments. By-laws may be amended by a two-thirds vote of members present at any annual meeting.
PROCEEDINGS AT THE
TWELFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
LANCASTER, PA.
OCTOBER 6 AND 7, 1921
The Convention was called to order at 10 a. m. Thursday, October 6, 1921, by the President, Hon. William S. Linton, of Saginaw, Michigan, in the convention hall of the Brunswick Hotel, Lancaster, Pa.
THE PRESIDENT: It certainly is a pleasure and a privilege for us to meet in the prosperous and historic Pennsylvania City of Lancaster. I am sure that we will have a successful meeting, and I am certain also that during the past year progress has been made in our work which when read into the records will show that we have accomplished material good. Without further preliminary remarks, and with the statement that my address or report will come later during the session, we will proceed immediately with our programme.
I have the honor to call upon the representative of the Mayor of Lancaster, Oliver S. Schaeffer, for the welcoming address.
OLIVER S. SCHAEFFER, ESQ.: Mr. President, Members of the Northern Nut Growers' Association, Friends and Guests: On behalf of the Mayor and the people of Lancaster I extend to you their greetings and bid you a most hearty and cordial welcome.
We feel honored that you have selected for the second time this city for the holding of your convention. Your esteemed president referred to Lancaster City as an historic city, and no doubt all of you know that Lancaster is frequently called the garden spot of the world.
Historically Lancaster City was the capital of Pennsylvania for thirty-three years, I think from 1779 to 1812. During the Revolutionary War when the British troops occupied Philadelphia the Continental Congress met here for a while in a building that formerly stood at Center Square where you now see the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument.
I was talking to your secretary a few minutes in the hotel lobby this morning and he told me that while some of you were in the nut business with a majority of you it was a hobby. That is the altruistic spirit that counts in these days when most of us look upon things in a materialistic way.
There was a time when I thought that most nuts came from Brazil, but I am glad to learn that we grow the nuts we eat here in the good old U. S. A., and some right here in Pennsylvania and in Lancaster County.
I cannot help but think of the chestnut blight that has worked havoc throughout our state and some other states. It has occasioned a big material loss. Yet I think too of another side of the loss and that is the spiritual side because our "chestnut parties" are now becoming a past memory. It is up to men like you to retrieve that loss and to bring back to our youth the chance of experiencing that innocent pleasure the gathering of chestnuts.
As I look into your faces here this morning (and while you are not numerous you make up in quality what you lack in quantity), I cannot help but congratulate you on showing the spirit that means progress. I cannot help but feel also that you are optimists, and they are what we need at the present time.
I will not trespass upon your time any longer. I again bid you a most warm welcome to our city and on behalf of the Mayor hand you the symbolic key of this city to enable you to go where you please.
THE PRESIDENT: Working with us unselfishly for the past two or three years has been a Michigan man who has had in mind the benefit of his locality, the State of Michigan and the United States. It was his privilege to introduce the first bill into a state legislature that became a law making it obligatory upon state authorities to plant useful trees along the roadside throughout the entire state that he represented so well in the Senate. I take pleasure in calling upon that member to respond to the eloquent words of the Mayor's representative. I would ask Senator Penney to reply to Mr. Schaeffer.
HON. HARVEY A. PENNEY: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of this Convention, and Mr. Mayor: We all appreciate this warm and hospitable greeting. Some of us are a long way from home. Mr. Linton, and I come from a town somewhat the size of this. We have about sixty-five thousand people, a large and growing city with a lot of prosperous and very wealthy men in it. We feel that in coming here we are coming to a city something like our own. We have been very much impressed with your city since we have been here. I am glad to see that colonial spirit, the spirit of '76, which permeates your people here. Up in Saginaw, of course, we do not have the same things to remind us of the past that you have. You have your monuments and those things that call your attention continually to it; but I am sure that our people are as patriotic as your people. However, I think that the spirit of '76 which still permeates the East helps to keep the whole country in line for the patriotic upholding of our governmental institutions.
While most of the men here are interested especially in the scientific investigation and promotion of the nut industry, my friend Mr. Linton and I have been more particularly interested in road-side planting. Along with the promotion and building of good highways we fell into the idea of beautifying those highways. At the time the people in the East were having their trouble in the colonial days, the revolutionary days, our town was unheard of. It was simply way back in the forest and the wilderness and it was not until very early in this past century that Saginaw was even thought of. Mr. Linton and I talked last night about different things connected with the history of our country and we spoke of De Tocqueville, the great French traveler and explorer who came to America way back in 1831. He wished to go into the wilds of this country and see for himself what was here. He went to Buffalo and crossed the lakes to Detroit. Detroit was then a city of about two thousand inhabitants. And then he had the desire to go up into the wilds where nothing but wild animals and wild people lived; so he went up on a trail that led to what is now Pontiac perhaps thirty or forty miles northwest of Saginaw; that was about the end of the trail. There were one or two settlers who lived there. He picked up a couple of Indian guides and started through the trackless forest, sixty or seventy miles up through the northwest to what is now Saginaw. He had his desire fully satisfied. He was eaten up by mosquitoes and rattlesnakes in the swamps and marshes; he could not sleep nor anything else; so he came back. That was away back in 1831, fifty years or more after your people were fighting and struggling for the liberty of this country.
I wish to say in closing that we all highly appreciate the welcome that has been extended to us on behalf of the Mayor of this fine city.
THE PRESIDENT: Next on the program will come the report of the secretary.
THE SECRETARY: I regret the smallness of the secretary's accomplishment for the past year. Except for the editing of the annual report—which is much a matter of cutting out superfluous words—and the effort to get speakers for this convention, he has attempted very little.
This is not, however, for lack of things that could and should have been done. An energetic campaign for new members is the most obvious desideratum. The committee to prepare and issue a bulletin on the roadside planting of nut trees, arranged to give information for every part of the country, has been innocuous as well as useless. Perhaps this meeting will afford stimulus and material enough to get it to work.
I think that few of the members realize how the inactivity of the secretary has been more than made up for by the industry of the treasurer. Perhaps they are reciprocally cause and consequence. Not only has the treasurer discharged the usual duties of that office but he has also attended to most of the correspondence and clerical work. He has conducted the nut contests which, under his management, have developed to formidable proportions requiring immense expenditure of time and effort.
These nut contests have now become so widely known as to return us a good idea of what we may expect of the native nuts of the country. Undoubtedly we have not yet found the best nuts that this country produces, except perhaps in the case of the pecan. But Mr. Bixby's labors, continuing the work begun by Dr. Morris, have reached such results that I think he will be willing to say that we have nearly reached the limit of natural excellence in the nuts already discovered.
In fact it seems to me that we have reached the point where further improvement in nuts for cultivation is to be looked for especially from purposeful hybridizing by man. It should be another of the chief aims of this association to induce self-perpetuating institutions to get together the material necessary for such work. Such material already exists in incomplete form—incomplete, that is, especially in horticultural varieties—as in the Arnold Arboretum and in the Public Park at Rochester. The Arnold Arboretum, through our treasurer's efforts, has agreed to give more attention to nut growing and breeding. The St. Louis Botanical Garden and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, through the efforts and generosity of Mr. Bixby and Mr. Jones, have made special plantings of horticultural varieties, and this summer the New York Botanical Garden was induced to set out a number of grafted and seedling nut trees given by Mr. Jones, Mr. Bixby, Mr. W. C. Reed, the McCoy Nut Nurseries and others.
But unless this association can keep their interest alive it is likely that some of these institutional plantings will be neglected, especially as regards the highest development of their possibilities. In one botanical garden visited this summer the casual nut tree plantings running back thirty years have been entirely neglected and the trees are stunted almost to extinction. I hope that our members will lose no opportunity to visit these institutions and ask to see the nut tree plantings. One or two such visits in a year will help to keep our wards in the institutional mind.
We cannot expect from these gardens, at present at least, interest in breeding experiments. That is more properly a function of agricultural experiment stations. These are so short manned and short funded, so absorbed in problems offering quicker results, that it is difficult to get them even to consider nut growing. I do not recall a single experiment station in the country where any nut breeding experiments are being conducted. A few manifest a little interest in planting horticultural varieties but the only breeding experiments that I know of, or at this moment recall, are those of Dr. Morris, Dr. Van Fleet, Mr. Forkert and Mr. Jones. All of these experimenters have produced results that more than indicate great possibilities.
Therefore I think that more of the energy of this association should be expended in influencing the self perpetuating horticultural institutions to see the importance of nut culture.
Attention should be called also to our treasurer's initiative, perseverance and industry in issuing Bulletin No. 5 on Nut Culture, in improving and reprinting our accredited list of nut nurserymen, in visiting, photographing and describing many of our important parent nut trees, in securing and distributing scions, in promoting experimental topworking of native nut trees in promising localities, in developing a varietal and experimental nut orchard which in time will be second to none in these respects, and in many other promotions of the objects of our association, unsparingly of his energy and his means.
It is curious that the biggest development in nut tree planting, for which we are responsible apparently, and practically the only considerable development of the roadside planting of nut trees, about which we have been talking so much, is on the other side of the earth, in China, where Mr. Wang, one of our members, and associated with the Kinsan Arboretum, is planting along the new model highway from Shanghai to Hangkow, a ton of black walnuts bought in this country and shipped to him through Mr. Bixby.
Two public horticultural institutions in Canada have written me about making nut plantings.
We seem, perhaps, in this land, too busy making what we call wealth, and armaments to protect it, too busy to give attention to the food supply of the future race.
To summarise, the association may feel that its purpose as originally stated, and never changed, "The Promotion of Interest in Nut Bearing Plants, their Products and their Culture," has been furthered consistently though results are slow. For the future we should work, 1. For a greater membership. 2. To stimulate interest in horticultural institutions, especially in nut breeding. 3. To give definite information that will encourage nut tree planting for profit by individuals. 4. To promote roadside, memorial and public place planting of nut trees. 5. To discover still more of our valuable native nut trees through our prize contests.
Mr. C. A. Reed has made a suggestion which I will lay before you and which may be considered at a later hour. He suggests that it might be better to have our conventions once in two years, every other one to be held in Washington.
This is so radical a proposal that it should have prolonged consideration before adoption.
The affairs of the association are not getting from the secretary the attention they deserve and he does not foresee better attention in the future. He wishes that some more active person could be found for the place and would be very glad to have the association elect another secretary.
THE PRESIDENT: The secretary's report will be received and filed with the proceedings. Are there any remarks in connection therewith?
Personally, I wish to endorse emphatically what the secretary has said relative to Treasurer Bixby who has worked early and late and has promoted the affairs of this association to a very great degree. His work is along practical lines and brings results.
The secretary finds fault with himself. No member of the association endorses that particular phase of his paper because his work has been good, he has had the best interests of the association at heart at all times—that I personally know—and I sincerely hope that he may change his mind relative to his successor.
We will now listen to the report of Treasurer Bixby.
NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION In account with WILLARD G. BIXBY, TREASURER
RECEIPTS
Balance on hand Oct. 1, 1921: Special Hickory Price, $25.00; Life Membership, $25.00; for Regular Expenses, $25.26 $ 75.26 From Annual members including joint subscriptions to American Nut Journal $199.50 $ 423.58 $ 623.08 Reports 5.50 7.50 13.00 Contribution for prizes 54.00 15.00 69.00 Contribution to meet expenses 602.50 602.50 Bulletin No. 5 12.73 60.94 73.67 Cash discount on bills paid .48 .48 Postage returned .10 .10 Advertising in Report 5.00 5.00 Life Membership P. W. Wang 20.00 20.00 Funds Received for transmission to other parties 1.00 1.00 Salary check returned by Secretary 50.00 50.00 $272.21 $1,185.62 $1,457.83 $1,457.83 Deficit October 1, 1921: Balance Special Hickory prize $ 25.00 Life Membership 45.00 Deficit for regular expenses[A] 246.07 176.07 Net deficit 1,709.16
EXPENDITURES
American Nut Journal, their portion of joint subscriptions $ 64.00 $1 99.65 $ 263.65 1920 Convention 85.00 85.00 Printing Bulletin No. 5 62.50 62.50 Stationery, Printing & Supplies 50.55 91.01 141.56 Postage, Express, etc. 36.60 75.78 112.38 Prizes 1919 Nut Contest 128.00 128.00 Advertising 1920 Nut Contest 52.08 52.08 Printing Report 10th Meeting 69.09 400.05 469.14 Printing Report 11th Meeting 341.85 341.85 Funds received for Transmission to other parties 3.00 3.00 Salary Secretary 50.00 50.00 $535.32 $1,173.84 $1,709.16 $1,709.16
Forty-seven new members have joined the Association since the last report, making 523 since organization, of which we have 221, making 302 who have resigned or otherwise dropped out. It will be noticed that the number of members received last year, 47, is less than the number reported a year ago, 66. This in the judgment of the Treasurer is entirely due to the less amount of energy expended for a smaller proportion of members have dropped out than a year ago. While the gaining of members is not particularly easy it can be done and the number gained to quite an extent is in proportion to the energy put on it.
The finances of the Association this year are in a more troublesome situation than any year since the undersigned had charge. Two reports each at double normal cost each is quite enough to cause it. An inspection of the Treasurer's accounts have made it evident that during no year in the history of the Association have the dues received been equal to the cost of carrying on the Association. Each year some members interested have contributed in addition to paying dues. During the year past these sums have been considerable. It is believed that with only one report a year there will be only normal difficulty in handling the finances of the Association. The orderly conduct of the finances of the Association makes it very desirable that normal receipts of dues take care of normal expenditures with a little margin for contingencies. The matter of classes of membership would seemingly help on this. The treasurer would not recommend changing the annual membership from its present figures, $2.00, but would suggest that this meeting consider making a class of contributing members at $5.00 per year including the American Nut Journal. This would give the Association double the income from each such member that it now gets for most members accept the combination offer of membership in the Association and subscription to the American Nut Journal at $3.25 for both which nets the Association $1.75 per year.
Respectfully submitted, Sept. 30, 1921. WILLARD G. BIXBY.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Bixby is certainly a first class treasurer. He makes a recommendation in his report. Do you desire to act upon it at this time? I refer to his recommendation relative to a new class of membership. It is a first class suggestion and a motion covering it would be in order.
THE SECRETARY: I move that a committee of three be appointed by the president to consider the recommendation of the treasurer relative to different classes of membership and to report at this meeting.
MR. A. C. POMEROY: I second the motion.
The motion was carried.
THE PRESIDENT: I will appoint as that committee the treasurer, Mr. Bixby, the secretary, Dr. Deming, and Mr. R. T. Olcott.
Mr. Reed, the chairman of the committee on road-side planting, is in California, and unable to be with us at this session. If a report is to come from that committee it must necessarily come from some other member, so we will defer action on that particular report at this time.
We also regret the absence of Dr. Morris the first president of the association. He is unable to be with us at this meeting but he has forwarded a paper and unless there are objections we will receive it at this time and have it read by the secretary.
NUT TREES FOR PUBLIC PLACES
DR. ROBERT T. MORRIS, NEW YORK
The question of the planting of nut trees along highways and in parks and other public grounds falls into classification under two separate and distinct heads. First, the abstract proposition of planting useful trees upon ground which is not usefully occupied otherwise. Second, the reaction of human nature to the different phases of the proposition. The latter part is the larger part of the question, otherwise the work would already have been done.
Let us take up the smaller part of the question first. Nut trees which are indigenous to any locality, or allied species from other countries having similar soil and climatic conditions, will grow and thrive on public grounds quite as well as upon private property. They will be as beautiful and as useful upon public grounds as they are upon private property, speaking in a large way, although disposal of their products will go along different channels perhaps. Nut trees of various species will be quite as beautiful and distinctly more useful than any of the other trees that are commonly selected for planting upon public grounds. Because of the inclusion of the economic factor the question as to whether nut trees may well supplant the kinds of trees commonly selected is not a debatable question.
Let us leave this part of the subject however and take up question number two, relating to the human nature side. A little examination into this phase of the matter will disclose reasons why nut trees are not already along our highways and in parks and other public grounds. The supplying of trees on a large scale for such a purpose is commonly done by contract with nurserymen. Nurserymen find it more profitable to raise certain kinds of trees instead of other kinds. Nurserymen are prone to raise kinds which are most profitable. Public officials who are making contracts sometimes look for perquisites. These include acceptance from nurserymen of bonuses for letting the contract. Here then we have at the very outset of the problem two large obstacles to the purchase of nut trees for public places. The carrying forward of any large project of this sort means reliance upon someone with legislative resources. In my experience legislators are commonly keen to approve of any project which will render public service when they are fully convinced of that fact. If not fully convinced of that fact and reserving the feeling that private interests are being served they wait until somebody who knows how to see the legislator has seen him. Another phase of the question relates to the attitude of the people toward public property in a so-called free country. People are prone to take anything that they please from anything which is so impersonal as a country. Nut trees planted in public places would have their crops carried off by every passer by to such an extent that revenue for the upkeep of the trees would be difficult to obtain. In some of the European countries this obstacle has not been insurmountable. There are many villages in Europe in which privately owned fields are not even fenced and fruit and nut trees growing for the benefit of the village are left untouched by the passer by in this older civilization. A man would no more think of taking what belonged to the town than he would think of taking property from the storehouse of a neighbor. In this country we have not yet arrived at that point in civilization. The distinction between meum and tuum in a free country is sometimes blurred.
What are we to do about this whole question? That is the practical point. Change human nature and educate the public. In towns belonging to our system of government there is some question if the public would ever allow nut trees to bring revenue sufficient for their upkeep and to yield a profit for the town. On the other hand, by means of education the public may come to desire the planting of nut trees along the highways and in other public places to the extent that it will submit to taxation for the purpose. The public planting of nut trees belongs to progress. If we are to remain boastful of progress in this country the question will gradually be developed in a practical way.
THE PRESIDENT: You have heard the reading of Dr. Morris's paper. Are there any remarks thereon or any discussion?
MR. A. C. POMEROY: Some years ago there was objection raised at Los Angeles to the use of sewage water for irrigating purposes in raising tomatoes and other vegetables. The city then bought the property and set out orchards of English walnuts. I understand that they are growing and that the revenue goes to the city of Los Angeles.
As to the road-side planting of nut trees in Europe, to which Dr. Morris refers, the very first battle fought in the great world war when the Belgians were resisting the Germans was along where there were thirty miles of English walnut trees on both sides of a highway. I understood that every tree was demolished. I think our secretary or treasurer could find out about the Los Angeles park and the nut trees.
As to monument trees, about twelve or fifteen years ago, at my home, I set out a grove in our cemetery in memory of my father and it is doing fine. It seemed quite appropriate for he took such an interest in nut growing.
THE SECRETARY: I would like to speak a word in defense of our American civilization, as evidenced by something that Mr. Bixby and I saw this summer at Lockport, New York. We observed that one of the main highways leading from the town of Lockport to one of the principal lakeside resorts, was unfenced, lined with fruit trees on both sides—cherry trees which overhung the sidewalk. The sides of the road also were planted with tomatoes and other vegetables apparently unharmed. The trees certainly did not show any evidence of injury from depredations. Whether the products of the trees were taken or not I do not know but they still had fruit on them. Possibly those who live in that neighborhood—Mr. Olcott and Mr. Pomeroy—could tell us more in defense of American civilization as to depredations on road-side property.
MR. POMEROY: There are some people—what do you call them—dung hills—in this world, and I have had a little trouble with them but not much. They run around in automobiles and get out and take fruit. Dr. Deming and Mr. Olcott know how close the school house is to my home. The fact is the children walk under the nut trees when they take the cut through the private driveway, but I have very little trouble with them. I think the greatest object lesson was given last year, when two young men, who were hunting pheasants, took a half bushel of nuts and were caught at it. They did not think it amounted to anything. They came along up to the house and the nuts were taken and put upon the drying rack. While they were arguing an automobile stopped and the nuts were sold. They came to nine dollars and a few cents by the pound. One of these young men—he was in the retail tobacco business,—threw up his hands and said, "I admit it; I would not want you to walk into my store and grab nine or ten dollars' worth of goods; I admit this is all wrong."
MR. R. T. OLCOTT: I have been very much surprised in the discussion of road-side planting, of fruit and nut trees at the prominence given to that feature of it which deals with the public taking the crop. That seems to me to be such a minor part of the proposition as to be almost negligible, and while it continues to arouse discussion I cannot see the vital importance of it. In a great many undertakings there are drawbacks but the undertakings go right on and when the difficulties arise they are met in turn. I think the thing for this association, and all others in favor of road-side tree planting to do is to go ahead with the proposition and forget the question of the crop and what is going to be done with it. As a matter of fact farmers are complaining continually of the depredations on their orchards resulting from the increase of automobile parties—perfectly respectable people going out on the road-side and helping themselves. If fine fruit and nut trees were planted along the road-sides and the crops were being picked, it seems to me that, under a general understanding that the public was to let these trees alone, and that any one caught or seen picking the crops would be reported by the one following, it would automatically police itself. The finger of ridicule would be pointed at a person who was so doing by somebody other than a uniformed officer, in other words by an ordinary citizen. I speak of that because in Rochester during the war when it was deemed necessary not to run automobiles on Sunday it was as much as his life was worth for a man to be out with his car on Sunday, not because of any police officer but because of the other fellow who was staying at home. I think that the other travelers along the road will take care of the fellow that violates the understanding about roadside fruit and nut trees.
THE VICE-PRESIDENT: I come from Rochester, New York, and I know that in and around Rochester there are fruit-bearing trees planted along the roadside. Out on the road to Honeoye Falls there are a number of apple trees and out through the Webster section there are a number of cherry trees. I do not know what the results have been in the garnering of crops, but the appearance of the trees indicates that they are well cared for and that they are producing abundant crops of fruit. In Albany, Georgia, planted on the street side in front of the court house, are a number of pecan trees. I have seen them loaded to capacity with splendid seedling nuts. I understand that any one walking along the sidewalk under the trees has the right to pick up any nuts that are on the walk but is not permitted (at least it has been suggested that he do not) to reach up into the trees to take the nuts. I understand that the request has been very faithfully regarded and that it is very rare that the nuts are picked from the trees. Just what is done with the crop of nuts from those trees I do not know but I assume that it is harvested and marketed and the returns made to the town. The trees indicate that they are splendidly cared for and the citizens take a great deal of pride in their splendid appearance. I talked with the man who planted them, an employee of the court house, and he himself was simply delighted that he had been responsible for such a splendid monument. And property owners referred to in my home section, before whose premises these cherry trees and apple trees were planted, I feel very sure would not complain at all bitterly, if at all, about any filching that might be indulged in. So that I think, as Mr. Olcott has suggested, that maybe we are trying to cross the bridge before we get to it; that the thing to do is to urge the planting of nut trees on the roadsides and to stimulate a sense of pride in our American citizenship.
MR. OLCOTT: We all agree that trees of this kind planted along the sides of city streets would never be touched. I have been at Miami, Florida, and have seen the bearing coconut trees there. No one would think of knocking off one of those coconuts and thousands of people pass under them.
THE SECRETARY: I think it is very important to have brought out this optimistic view on the question of depredations on road-side fruit trees. I think it is only a question of time, as Mr. Olcott says, when the public will be educated to respect such products. If they have done it in other countries we can do it in this country. It is a question of the people becoming accustomed to it when we have enough of such products. When the whole country is covered with such products I think there will be no difficulty about maintaining respect for them. You know that sometimes after the loss of a very small amount of property there will be very great reaction. Some people feel that because robins take a few cherries or strawberries all robins ought to be exterminated.
There are two other remarks in Dr. Morris's paper which should have consideration. I refer to those bearing upon nurserymen and public officials.
MR. OLCOTT: If there is any question relating to nurserymen, we are very fortunate in having one of the most prominent nurserymen in the United States at our meeting today. I refer to Mr. John Watson, of Princeton, New Jersey.
THE PRESIDENT: We certainly would be glad to hear from Mr. Watson. If I may be permitted to make a statement from the chair I agree fully with what Mr. Olcott has had to say as to depredations. Possible depredations in connection with the trees that may be planted along the road-side, either fruit or nut, are hardly worthy of consideration. With my good wife in passing through New York State recently I drove through rows of fruit trees on either side of the roads, as did Dr. Deming and Treasurer Bixby, and we were surprised to see that they were loaded with apples. The fact that the trees were loaded with fruit of course proved that the fruit had not been stolen or taken from the trees. They had not been disturbed in any way. A number of years ago while holding the position of postmaster in Saginaw I planted a black walnut. That walnut has produced a fine walnut tree. I selected a nice place on the post office grounds at a corner where two of our prominent streets meet in the business portion of the city. Last fall for the first time that tree bore walnuts—about a bushel and a half; and the employees of the postoffice gathered those walnuts and sent them in a complimentary way to me. Now that tree being in a public place, you would naturally expect the boys to have taken the nuts from it, but they did not do it. So that I know that that particular phase of this question as Mr. Olcott has said is hardly worthy of consideration. Suppose now and then the boys do get a few fallen walnuts or apples. No harm is done. Just that much more food is produced for their benefit by this way of planting.
I now take pleasure in calling upon Mr. Watson relative to Dr. Morris's reference to the nursery business.
MR. JOHN WATSON: I am afraid that Mr. Olcott's suggestion might possibly have given you the idea that I have something to say on this question or that I wanted to say something on it. I assure you that that is not the case. I am not a member of your association much to my regret. I am just visiting here trying to learn something from your meeting (this is the first one that I have attended) rather than to try to tell you something.
The question is whether I have any objection to make to Dr. Morris's two statements. I can say that they are both very reasonable. As a nurseryman I have no objection. Of course, I cannot speak for any other nurseryman.
I was rather surprised upon looking at the roll of those in attendance at this convention at the absence of nurserymen. I should think that those who produced the things that you people are trying to interest the country in would be the very men who would be the most interested in being here. It seems to me that you are trying to make a market for the goods that they are producing. I am rather surprised not to see at least half the attendance here made up of nurserymen.
It is entirely possible that I have not have understood those two statements made by Dr. Morris and I may be rather careless in saying that I do not object to them. They were, I believe, that nurserymen prefer, naturally, to produce the things that they can produce most easily and at least cost, and, in the second place that they produce the things that they can sell. That is what most manufacturers do. I could not find fault with either statement. The nurseryman as a manufacturer or as a merchant of course produces the things that people want to buy. He may go a certain distance in producing the things that are worth while, that are better than other things; but in the last analysis he must depend upon the buying public and the buying public is always going to get from the nurseryman just exactly what it demands.
THE SECRETARY: In regard to the presence of so few nurserymen at our meetings I would like to say that we have long tried to interest the nurserymen in nut growing. We always have had a few nurserymen with us; but I think without exception they have been those who had either previously become interested in nut growing or had become interested in it through some other influence than that of this association. It has been a great disappointment to us that we have never been able to interest the nurserymen generally. Although we have at times sent special communications to a great many nurserymen I think we have universally failed to get any response except from those who were already interested in nut growing.
THE PRESIDENT: I do not think there is a movement in the country today that will amount to as much for the nurserymen of America as this particular movement that we have been promoting for a few years back. I know that it is becoming universal. During my short experience as your president I have found that inquiries have come from all over the United States asking how they may procure these trees and especially asking how they may procure the finest varieties. It is along that particular line that the nurserymen certainly could extend their business greatly; because as this movement of road-side planting goes along the man who has a good farm, the general farmer in his business, or any man with a small piece of ground that he can call his own, will want to plant a good nut tree thereon of a most improved variety. Now so many of these trees will be called for in the next few years (I do not think I am over-optimistic in the matter at all) that it will be impossible to supply the demand. So I am sure that any man who is regularly engaged in the nursery business will find that he will be called upon to supply a demand for the better class of trees that really cannot be filled for years to come. In this way his business will be largely benefited. Are there any further remarks on this particular phase of the question?
MR. OLCOTT: As editor of the American Nurseryman I am especially interested in this discussion. There is scarcely a catalogue of a southern nurseryman of any consequence but lists nut trees; and yet we have the Northern Nut Growers' Association convention here now, and we will have a National convention in Mobile next week right in the heart of the pecan growing section at neither of which will there be a half dozen nurserymen. I think both of these associations should have more nurserymen members. They list nut trees but do it in a perfunctory way. I do not believe nurserymen know what this northern association is doing nor how near they are to the demand for the trees which will be wanted in the very near future. I think it is up to this association to make special efforts to acquaint them with the facts, and then I think they will come in and be active members. All persons connected with nut culture and all nurserymen ought to be most active members of such an organization as this. The subject should go before the membership committee.
MR. SAMUEL L. SMEDLEY: I have had a little experience with black walnuts and have found that they do not mix at all with farm crops nor with fruit. Possibly you folks from Michigan can solve the problem but I would not thank anybody for planting black walnuts along the road in front of my place. I am in favor of road-side planting but I do not think black walnuts would be acceptable in this part of the country, from what my experience has been.
THE TREASURER: Let me ask why it is you think they would not be acceptable.
MR. SMEDLEY: I had a grand big walnut tree on my place at one side of the road. I tried to get apple trees to grow on the opposite side of the road but could not and it could not be accounted for by any other reason. I know other people have come to the some conclusion that certain things would not grow near a walnut tree. Some grasses will. If you go down through Lancaster County along the Lincoln Highway you will find a quantity of locust trees thriving there. Wheat and things will grow right up to the roots of those trees, but I do not think you will find that they will grow up to a black walnut.
THE TREASURER: I had a chance to observe, last summer, a black walnut tree out in the field with a crop planted right under it. It seems to me it is a question of shade. With this walnut tree with branches low down the corn seemed to be stunted where it grew a little way under the branches. On the other hand I saw another one where the branches were high up and cabbages growing almost up to the tree and about as luxuriantly as outside of its branches. It seems to me that it is a matter of shade rather than the tree getting the fertility in the ground. It may be that if the fertility in the ground is not sufficient for both tree and crop the tree will take it and let the crop suffer. But I imagine if there is enough for both, and the crop is not shaded, the crop can be grown much nearer the tree than we have any idea of.
MR. J. G. RUSH: I want to say a word about this way-side planting in our neighborhood. I do not think it is the general practice in Lancaster County where land is valued at two or three hundred dollars an acre. If you plant a walnut tree on a public thoroughfare there is temptation for children to go there to gather walnuts, endangering their lives on account of the automobiles.
One gentleman said something about a walnut tree damaging the crops. In my experience with black walnut nursery trees some have what is called a very strong top root while others have a deep root. It is the first kind, the surface rooted, that will do your crop damage but not the deep-rooted kind.
Now another thing. Suppose one plants a cherry tree. To whom do the cherries belong? To the man who planted the tree practically on his premises. But the limbs extend out on the public highway. If I, the owner, take a ladder out there and pick cherries and an automobile comes running past and throws me down I am practically a trespasser on the public highway. I believe I would not plant along the public highway with the idea of getting any fruit from the trees. I think however when you have a railroad going through your premises it is entirely practicable to plant your nut trees alongside the railroad, especially where there is a fill. Where the roots will grow under it and thrive luxuriantly. Nearly every farmer has a small stream running through his premises. You plant your walnut trees or your filbert trees along that stream, and you will have magnificent results. I do not want to be understood as disparaging nut tree planting.
MR. D. F. CLARK: I would like to know if the planting of black walnut trees is discriminated against because of the difficulty of getting the meat out of the nut. I have made a great many experiments and have not been able to get the meat out of the nut in large pieces. Is there some kind of a machine made for that purpose? Black walnut kernels bring a splendid price and if we could get them open right it would be fine.
THE SECRETARY: That difficulty is being taken care of by the improved varieties which are being raised and which you can get on grafted trees.
I am inclined to agree with Mr. Bixby in regard to its being the shade of black walnut trees that affects the crops growing near them rather than the roots of the trees. I have seen the same thing that Mr. Bixby describes, a high-pruned black walnut tree with wheat growing clear up to the trunk. I have photographs of a number of fields in Europe where the English walnut is grown. The trees are pruned high and the wheat grows up close to the trunks of the trees.
I would like to say also that I think it is the purpose of those who advocate the road-side planting of trees not to do it forcibly nor to compel anybody to have trees planted in front of his premises if he does not want them, but to give him a voice in the selection of the kind of trees that should be planted in front of his property. I think that is a necessary thing for the success of the movement, that the co-operation of the property owners should be invited by giving them a voice in the selection of the trees that are planted in their location.
DR. RITTENHOUSE: I feel that this matter of the injury caused by a black walnut to surrounding vegetation should be more thoroughly thrashed out. It is doubtful to my mind whether the injury that a black walnut produces on surrounding vegetation is solely due to shade. Seven years ago I planted an apple orchard and some of the young trees began to be injured by a large walnut tree possibly seventy five feet away. The walnut tree happened to be on the line and I got the permission of my neighbor to cut the walnut tree down. The apple trees immediately began to thrive. I thought perhaps it was due to the roots demanding too much moisture from the soil because it was impossible for the shade to do any harm to those young apple trees. There is a superstitious idea among the people of our locality that the black walnut root is injurious to growing vegetation.
MR. SMEDLEY: In my case the walnut tree was on the opposite side of a public road thirty feet wide and the influence was shown to the second row of apple trees on the other side. I do not think it was the shade in that case. The limbs were pretty high too. It was a public road. I do not think there were any roots that reached the apple trees at all.
MR. MCGLENNON: Mr. Rush's reference to the ownership of the crop on trees planted on the road-side is a thought that has occupied my mind, and I have found some consolation in the belief that the ownership of land applies from the center of the roadway. I am not sure about that and I think it is a point that ought to be clarified.
MR. SMEDLEY: I think in Pennsylvania the public just have the right-of-way there; they have no claim to anything that grows.
THE PRESIDENT: In Michigan, the law applies that the ownership goes to the middle of the highway. The recent act of the legislature of our state causes the state highway commissioner to plant trees for the maintenance of the roadway. The planting of the trees he claims benefits the roadway, so that under that application he plants the trees for the maintenance of the road. The distance from the fence line varies. The state highway department of Michigan has a department for the planting of trees since the law introduced by Senator Penney some two or three years ago came into effect. The commissioner varies his planting, sometimes in groups and sometimes in a formal way, according to the stretch of road; but the basis of it all, perhaps, would be thirteen feet from the lot line on each side of the road. Our roads, or at least ninety per cent of them, are sixty-six feet in width. Thirteen feet from the lot line on each side would take twenty-six feet, and planting them forty feet apart in the other direction makes those trees forty feet apart each way. A great majority of the trees being planted in Michigan follow that particular plan, so they are thirteen feet from the property holder's fence line.
I might say that occasionally the highway commissioner would run across an obstinate individual who would not plant trees in front of his place nor permit such trees to be planted as would conform to the other plantings. But the law passed at the last session of our legislature leaves it entirely in the control of the planting department of the highway department. The law reads that the owner of the adjacent property shall have the privilege of gathering the fruit or nuts or whatever may come from that tree. He has no better right, perhaps, than any other citizen of the State of Michigan, but he is there and can get the first ripe fruit or nuts which come from the tree. THE PRESIDENT: Are there any further remarks upon this subject? If not, I have a paper prepared by Prof. A. K. Chittendon, Professor of Forestry in the Michigan Agricultural College, which I will ask the secretary to read.
ROADSIDE PLANTING
Prof. A. K. Chittendon
The improvement and beautification of our highways is one of the best investments that can be made. Particularly in the Middle West where we do not have the panorama of hills and mountains, much of the beauty of the road depends upon the roadside trees. They frame the long vistas of farmlands, woods, lakes and rivers and lend enchantment to the road. Under recent legislation Michigan has taken a leading place in the care and planting of roadside trees. Provision has been made by the Legislature for the planting of ornamental and food-producing trees along the highways and for their protection.
The highways offer an almost limitless field for ornamental planting and they also offer opportunities for raising certain food producing trees of which at present the nut trees are the principal species used. A time may come when we can safely plant fruit trees along the roadside but until provisions can be made for their systematic care and spraying, such trees would be liable to spread disease to nearby orchards.
Roadside trees increase the value of adjacent property. They attract birds and thus assist in keeping down insect pests. They may be used to prevent erosion on steep slopes. They increase the life of certain kinds of improved highways by protecting the roadbed from the direct heat of the sun. They serve as a source of food if nut-bearing or sugar-producing trees are used. They invite tourists to travel over the highways. They may serve as a windbreak to prevent the drifting of sand.
Roadside trees may, however, be too close together or by their shade injure crop production in adjacent fields. Some species of trees are particularly harmful if planted on the edge of a cultivated field. They send out their roots under the cultivated land and sap the moisture essential to plant growth. This can be avoided by using trees with deep or compact root systems.
The desirability of planting trees of any sort along the highways is sometimes questioned. There are places where it is urged that trees are not desirable. On stretches of road where the soil is naturally wet the heavy shade cast by certain species of trees is undoubtedly objectionable; but there are also trees whose shade is very light. Some trees make such a dense mass of foliage that they tend to prevent air currents and thus keep the moisture in the road from drying out. Along such stretches of road the method of planting may affect the matter of light and air, and species of trees can be chosen which will be practically unobjectionable. Most of the highway planting in the past has been a matter of chance and there have been few definite plans for any long stretch of roadway.
In selecting trees for planting the probable rate of growth and appearance of the tree at maturity should be borne in mind. What might seem entirely satisfactory in young trees may prove objectionable in the cost of mature ones. The size and shape of the tree at maturity should be considered as it affects the spacing of the trees. Also the amount of care which it will be possible to give the trees should influence the choice of species; for certain trees will produce good results with a small amount of attention while others require a great deal of care. The matter of interference with telephone and electric wires must also be considered. A species should be selected which is relatively free from the attacks of insects and fungi. It would be very difficult to find a tree which is entirely immune but there are some trees which are more resistant than others. The amount of shade cast by the tree is of a great deal of importance in connection with the moisture conditions; trees are often placed too close together which prevents their proper development. Where quick results are desired two species are often used, a fast growing one planted in between slower growing trees; the idea being to cut out the fast growing tree after the slower growing ones have reached good size. This is alright in theory but seldom works well in practice. The fast growing trees are seldom cut at the proper time and the result is often the stunting and injuring of the better and more durable trees. The fast growing trees usually die before many years. The result is seldom satisfactory.
The question of litter while of importance with city street trees does not matter so much in the case of highway trees, but the cottony seed from poplars is very objectionable anywhere. The longevity of a tree is important. The desire for quick results often outweighs other considerations. Many of the trees which give results such as silver maple, box elder and Carolina poplar do not last long and the effort spent on them is wasted. More time and money is needed within a short time to remove and replace such trees. It is better to plant well in the first place. Trees do not grow at the same rate throughout their life. They usually grow slowly at first and then fairly rapidly between the tenth and thirteenth years, after which the rate of growth usually falls off gradually. If small trees, about ten feet high are used for planting they should reach the following sizes in twenty years on favorable soil:
American elm 18 inches Basswood 15 " Chestnut 12 " Hard maple 11 " Red oak 11 " Pin oak 9 " White ash 9 " Black walnut 8 " Hackberry 7 "
Certain trees such as the horse chestnut and the evergreens generally appear to better advantage alone or in groups while others like the elms, maples and box elder show to fine advantage in long rows. It is doubtful if the planting of windbreaks along the highways is advisable. Windbreaks are sometimes planted with the idea of preventing the drifting of snow but the snow will collect and form great drifts on the leeward side of a windbreak and the shade from the windbreak may prevent the snow from melting so rapidly. Hedges may be used, however, to prevent the shifting of sand or the erosion of steep slopes.
The highways offer excellent opportunities for nut production and such trees as the black walnut and hickories may often be used to advantage. The presence of birds may be encouraged by planting hackberry and other trees or shrubs of which they are fond.
The Michigan Agricultural College was authorized by the Legislature to raise trees for roadside planting. The College is raising red oak, black walnut, oriental sycamore, sugar maple, elm, hackberry, snowdrop tree, Juneberry, hickory, European larch, Norway maple and box elder for this purpose. Other trees may be added to the list from time to time.
In addition to the planting of trees we need also the proper care of those already planted or growing naturally along the roads. The commonest source of injury is due to improper pruning for telephone lines. A great many trees are badly injured in this way. We already have a large investment in highway trees and it is only the part of wisdom to protect this investment.
Michigan has started active work in highway planting and we hope in a few years to be able to point with pride to our highways, not only because of the good roadbeds but also because of the trees and shrubs that line those roads.
THE PRESIDENT: Is there any discussion on Prof. Chittendon's paper? If not, it will be received and filed in the proceedings.
It is now near the noon hour and I think it would be well to have Mr. Jones or Mr. Rush state what program has been arranged for this afternoon.
MR. J. F. JONES: I believe the plan is to get dinner here, and then to go to our nursery at Willow Street. From there some machines will take the parties who do not have conveyances, around to other points.
THE SECRETARY: Mr. President, in accordance with Article V of the Constitution, I move that a committee of five members be elected for the purpose of nominating officers for the ensuing year.
(Motion seconded and carried.)
THE SECRETARY: Mr. President, I move that Mr. Olcott be named the chairman of that committee.
Mr. J. F. Jones, Mr. John Rick, Mr. Ernest M. Ives and Mr. C. S. Ridgeway were nominated as members of said committee.
Messrs. Olcott, Jones, Rick, Ives and Ridgeway having been nominated were on motion duly elected members of a committee to nominate officers for the ensuing year in accordance with Article V. of the Constitution.
On motion the meeting adjourned until 8 p. m. same day.
EVENING SESSION
October 6, 1921, 8 p. m.
Hotel Brunswick
PRESIDENT LINTON: A recess was taken from the morning session until this time for the purpose of considering a roadside planting bill that might be recommended by this association to the authorities of every state in the Union. In order to bring this about we will have presented to you by Senator Penney, who was the introducer of the original bill that became a law in the Michigan legislature, a copy of the laws practically as they exist in our state today. We take a little pride in Michigan in being the first state to work along this particular line. Our agricultural college staffs, the highway department and several other branches of the Michigan government, are heartily and enthusiastically co-operating in this work. I have in my hand a notice that has been sent out by the state highway commissioner of Michigan to every highway commissioner in the state. We have about two thousand of the latter. We have in the neighborhood of two thousand townships six miles square and in each of these townships we have a supervisor, we have a highway commissioner and we have members of what is known as the township board. This notice that I have, and you will see it is quite complete and goes into a number of details, is sent by our state highway commissioner to each one of the township commissioners of north Michigan, and he closes his letter accompanying it with this:
Fourth: (President Linton reads).
You will see from that that we are well under way in connection with roadside planting in our state of Michigan. I now take pleasure in presenting to you a member of our legislature who introduced the first bill that became a law along these particular lines, Senator Harvey A. Penney of Michigan.
SENATOR PENNEY: In the legislature of Michigan several bills have been introduced by its members, but as I stated at the last convention they were not drawn up in such a way that they were fitted for our laws. As Mr. Littlepage said it takes quite a while to figure out a law that fits your own state law. These several laws were introduced but in some way or another the committees of the legislature never took kindly to them and they were not passed. But two years ago I had a bill passed. Since then we have seen some imperfections and we passed another law at the last session of the legislature which provides that the cost of planting trees and caring for them shall come out of the maintenance fund, that is, the maintenance fund that provides for the maintenance of highways. I don't know how the laws are in most of your states but in Michigan the law is that the owner of land owns not only his farm but the land to the center of the highway subject to the right of the public to have the use of it for travel. Then how are you going to plant trees on a man's land if the highway belongs to that man? They did it on the theory that the trees were necessary for the maintenance of the highway. There never has been a test case on this law but the highway department has a very able lawyer who was in the attorney general's office and since then has been elected circuit judge of the county in which Lansing is located. His idea was that the trees should be planted on the highway for the purpose of protecting the highway, and the cost of planting them and taking care of them should be taken out of the maintenance fund. So that is the theory upon which they are working under this bill.
Transcribers note: The format in this section has been transcribed exactly as in the original.
A BILL to provide for and regulate the planting of useful, memorial, ornamental, nut bearing and other food producing trees, shrubs, and plants along the streets, highways and other public thoroughfares and places within the State of (Michigan); and for the maintenance, protection and care of such trees and shrubs as a part of the maintenance of the roads in certain cases; and to provide a penalty for injury thereof, or for stealing the products thereof,—
The People of the State of (Michigan) enact:
1 Section 1. The (State Highway Commissioner) is hereby authorized and empowered
2 and it shall be his duty to select and plant by seeds,
3 scions or otherwise, useful, ornamental, nut bearing and other food producing trees, shrubs and plants
4 suitable for shade, maintenance and protection of the highways
5 along State trunk line and Federal aided roads and for the use and benefit of the public, and to care for and maintain all such trees, shrubs or plants.
6 The care of such trees shall be deemed a part of the road maintenance work.
7 The varieties or species
8 so planted shall be subject to the approval of the
9 (State Department of Agriculture) and may be supplied
10 by the (State Agricultural College) or other State Institution or Department, or elsewhere acquired by the
11 (State Highway Commissioner). The (State Highway Commissioner)
12 shall make and publish rules and regulations for the
13 planting and proper placing of trees, shrubs or plants and for their proper
14 pruning, care and protection under the provisions of this act, and all
15 such planting shall belong to the State, but the owner of
16 the adjacent land shall have the right to take and use the products thereof.
17 All expenses incurred in planting or caring for such trees and shrubs along
18 trunk line and Federal aided roads of the State shall be paid in the same manner as is or may be provided
19 by law for the payment of the cost of maintaining trunk line or Federal aided roads.
1 Sec. 2. Counties, townships, cities and villages of the State are
2 hereby authorized to appropriate money for the purpose of planting,
3 caring for and protecting useful, memorial, ornamental, nut bearing and other
4 food producing trees, shrubs and plants along and within streets, highways, thoroughfares and other public places
5 other than trunk line or Federal aided
6 roads, within the respective limits of such municipalities and
7 subject to the jurisdiction thereof. The expenditure of any such fund
8 raised hereunder in a township shall be vested in the
9 (highway commissioner) of the township subject to the approval of the township board.
10 Any such fund raised by a county shall be expended by and under the
11 direction of the (board of county road commissioners;) and
12 any such fund raised in a city or village shall be expended by the highway or other proper municipal board or authority
13 thereof, in accordance with its charter laws or ordinances or under the direction of the common council
14 or legislative body of such city or village. All such
15 appropriations made under this section by any municipality shall
16 be made in the same manner as is or may be provided by law for
17 the raising of money for highway or park maintenance purposes.
Sec. 3. Trees may be planted along the highways or other public places by proper authorities and designated as memorial trees for the purpose of commemorating important military or civic events, or in memory of any person distinguished for noteworthy acts, or for conspicuous service in behalf of the nation, the State of Michigan or any local community thereof. Suitable tablets, boulders or other markers of a permanent character may be contributed by any person, or by any civic or military association and placed in conjunction with such memorial trees subject to the approval and consent of the proper authorities in control or in direct charge of such highways or public places. that
1 Sec. 4. The owner of any real estate in the state of (Michigan) that
2 borders upon a public highway other than a trunk line, Federal aided or
3 county road shall have the right to, plant useful, ornamental,
4 nut bearing and other food producing trees and shrubs along
5 the line of said highway adjoining said land, and within the limits thereof,
6 and shall receive annually a credit of twenty cents upon his
7 highway repair tax for each tree so planted and growing in good order: Provided, however,
8 That all such planting shall be done in accordance with the
9 rules and regulations prescribed by the (State Highway Commissioner)
10 for the planting of trees along trunk line and
11 Federal aided roads. Said trees and shrubs and the products
12 thereof shall be subject to the same incidents as to ownership and use as are
13 provided for in section 1 hereof with respects to trees planted
14 along and within trunk line highways. No bounty shall be paid
15 or deduction allowed under the provisions of this section upon any tree or trees for a longer period than five years.
16 The owner of the adjoining land shall have the care of such
17 trees and shrubs and shall have the duty and responsibility
18 for the trimming, spraying and cultivation thereof unless otherwise provided in the charter, ordinances, or other regulations of incorporated cities and villages.
19 In case any such tree or shrub should become diseased or shall in any manner
20 interfere with the public use of the highway the authorities
21 having jurisdiction over such highway may by written notice
22 require the owner of the adjoining land to cut and remove such trees or shrub.
23 If such notice is not complied with within thirty days after
24 service thereof such authorities may cut and remove such diseased
25 or obnoxious tree or shrub.
1 Sec. 5. The (State Board of Agriculture) and other State Departments having lands and facilities therefore are hereby
2 authorized to acquire and grow suitable seeds, scions, and
3 trees for planting under the provisions of this act and to
4 establish proper rules and regulations for the distribution thereof at
5 nominal cost, or otherwise, to the State, to municipalities of the State, and to
6 private citizens for the purposes hereby contemplated.
Sec. 6. It shall be unlawful to cut, destroy or otherwise injure any shade or ornamental tree or shrub growing within the limits of any public highway within the State of Michigan without the consent of the authorities having jurisdiction over such road. In the case of a trunk line of Federal aided road the (State Highway Commissioner) shall be deemed to have such jurisdiction in all cases. It shall also be unlawful to affix to any tree or shrub any picture, announcement, notice or advertisement, or to negligently permit any animal to break down or injure the same. Any person violating any of the provisions of this act shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail for a period not exceeding thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment within the discretion of the court.
Now some of the farmers along the road say that the trees will be diseased, but I don't think that nut trees as a rule, or shade trees, are affected very much with pests. The elm trees have been troubled somewhat. In the West where we live I don't think there is any trouble of that kind. There may be with apple trees and fruit trees.
Our agricultural college at Lansing has at the present time one hundred thousand trees ready to plant under this bill. There are some that they have been raising for a long time and some they have recently planted. They hardly knew what to do with them. Now they have agreed to turn them over to the state to be planted on our highways.
One thing that we had trouble with in Michigan was the telephone and telegraph companies stringing wires along the public highway. They have cut the top of the tree right straight off and disfigured the tree and disfigured the appearance of the highway. This bill is supposed to prevent that. Our highway department has been trying to get the telephone and telegraph companies to get the right from private owners to put their poles on private land, or to put a pole and let an arm stick out through the tree without cutting the tree down. I recently came from Detroit. There the telephone companies have started to string lines and to cut trees. The highway commissioner has notified them that they must not cut the trees down or cut them off or disfigure them and he has introduced the state constabulary to enforce this ruling. Undoubtedly sooner or later there will be a test case to determine whether or not the state has this authority.
I listened this afternoon to a discussion about walnut trees shading the highway. I have no practical experience to know whether these trees do any damage to crops on account of the shade, but supposing you raised a fine walnut tree along the highway and the tree begins to bear. Would not the products you get from that tree more than offset the damage it does to a crop close to the tree? I once had an aunt, when I was a very small boy, and it seems to me she said that she raised forty bushels of black walnuts on one tree. I saw that big hickory tree today. They claimed they raised fifteen bushels on that tree. I thought forty bushels was a lot to come off of one tree.
MR. BIXBY: That was in the husk. There have been records of that kind in the husk.
SENATOR PENNEY: This bill has been introduced and passed and Mr. Linton, who is practically the author of this bill, is desirous of having this followed up in the different states. I think it would be a good plan. What better investment could you make to beautify our highways than the planting of good trees? In the southern part of the state of Michigan there are quite a lot of good trees, black walnuts, butternuts, which not only add beauty to your highways but are useful in many ways. During the war we know that the government scoured the whole country to find walnut trees to make stocks for guns, and to use in airplanes for propeller blades. They used the shucks to make gas masks. The trees could be made of further service to man by planting them as memorial trees. And again they furnish food, not only bear leaves but food.
I would like to hear a discussion upon this bill from those who are from other states. I would like to hear what their opinion might be as to the different provisions of this bill.
PRESIDENT LINTON: The subject is now open for discussion. I am sure that there are those here who would perhaps offer amendments to that bill. They might desire to modify it some. They might desire to add other features to it. For instance, it might be well to recognize the desire at the present time to save useful bird life throughout the country. That might be stated in the title to this bill as one of the purposes of roadside planting. Certainly that would be one of the results of road side planting.
SENATOR PENNEY: The bill provides not only for planting trees, but for planting shrubs along the highway. That created quite a fight in the legislature. One fellow thought we were going to buy a whole lot of nursery stock and spend a pile of money. We are not. But here was the idea. Those shrubs are useful not only for furnishing food for birds, that are necessary to farmers, but are useful sometimes to prevent shifting sand, and also snow from covering the highways. You have often noticed that the railroad companies put up fences at different points to prevent snow from drifting on the tracks. Bushes can serve the same purpose. |
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