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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
INCORPORATED
Affiliated with THE AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
REPORT
of the proceedings of the
Twenty-fifth Annual Meeting
BATTLE CREEK, MICH.
SEPTEMBER 10 and 11, 1934
INDEX
Officers, Directors and Committees 3
State Vice-Presidents 4
List of Members 5
Constitution 8
By-Laws 9
The President 10
Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Annual Convention 11
Address of Welcome by W. K. Kellogg 11
Report of Secretary 13
Report of Treasurer 15
Reports of Standing Committees 16
Business Session 18
The Dietetic Importance of Nuts—Dr. John Harvey Kellogg 20
Nut Culture Work of the Living Tree Guild—Miss Dorothy Sawyer 28
Progress report on Nut Growing in the Ithaca, N. Y. region—Dr. L. H. MacDaniels 31
Some Random Notes on Nut Culture—D. C. Snyder 34
Winter Injury of Filberts at Geneva, 1933-34—Prof. G. L. Slate 36
Notes on Hickories—A. B. Anthony 41
Letter from Rev. Paul C. Crath—Poland 45
The Chestnut Situation in Illinois—Dr. A. S. Colby 47
Report on Commercial Cracking and Merchandising of Black Walnuts—H. F. Stokes 50
Nut Culture in Ontario—George Corsan 53
Nut Growing on a Commercial Basis—Miss Amelia Riehl 54
Some Notes on the Hardiness of the English Walnut in Michigan and Ontario—Prof. J. A. Neilson 55
Nut Tree Prospects in the Tennessee Valley—John W. Hershey 61
Some New Hicans and Pecans—J. G. Duis 62
Some Old Friends—Dr. W. C. Deming 64
Nut Growing in Vermont—Zenas H. Ellis 66
A Roll Call of the Nuts—Dr. W. C. Deming 69
Nut Culture in the North—J. F. Wilkinson 84
Varieties of Nut Trees for the Northernmost Zone—C. A. Reed 87
Notes on the TOUR, Tuesday September 11, 1934 104
Address of Prof. V. R. Gardner, Director, Experiment Station at Michigan State College, East Lansing 104
The 1934 Ohio Black Walnut Contest—Carl F. Walker 107
Mr. Ellis' Report as Delegate to Paris Horticultural Exposition 109
Report of Resolutions Committee 110
Communications from: J. U. Gellatley 111 B. D. Wallace 113 Vera Nekiassena 114 Divisional Forest Officer—Kashmir 115 John W. Hershey 116 Mrs. E. W. Freel 117 Geo. W. Gibbens 117 Fred Kettler 118
Telegram to Dr. Morris 119
Catalogue of Nut trees in Kellogg Plantings 120
Exhibits at Convention 122
Attendance 124
Books and Bulletins on Northern Nut Growing 126
Advertisement—"Hobbies Magazine" 127
OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION
President. FRANK H. FREY, ROOM 930, LA SALLE ST. STATION, CHICAGO, ILL.
Vice-President. DR. G. A. ZIMMERMAN, 32 SOUTH 13TH ST., HARRISBURG, PA.
Secretary. GEO. L. SLATE, STATE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, GENEVA, N. Y.
Treasurer.. CARL F. WALKER, 2851 E. OVERLOOK ROAD, CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OHIO
DIRECTORS
FRANK H. FREY, DR. G. A. ZIMMERMAN, GEO. L. SLATE, CARL F. WALKER, PROF. J. A. NEILSON, D. C. SNYDER.
EDITOR OF PUBLICATIONS
DR. W. C. DEMING
COMMITTEES
Executive. FRANK H. FREY, DR. G. A. ZIMMERMAN, GEO. L. SLATE, CARL F. WALKER, PROF. J. A. NEILSON, D. C. SNYDER.
Auditing. ZENAS H. ELLIS, H. BURGART.
Finance. T. P. LITTLEPAGE, DR. W. C. DEMING, H. R. WEBER.
Press and Publication. DR. W. C. DEMING, KARL W. GREENE, DR. J. RUSSELL SMITH, ZENAS H. ELLIS, GEO. L. SLATE.
Membership. COL. L. H. MITCHELL, MISS DOROTHY C. SAWYER, J. U. GELLATLY, D. C. SNYDER, CARL F. WALKER.
Program. J. F. WILKINSON, DR. W. C. DEMING, C. A. REED, KARL W. GREENE, H. R. WEBER.
Hybrids and Promising Seedlings. DR. G. A. ZIMMERMAN, PROF. N. F. DRAKE, MISS AMELIA RIEHL, H. F. STOKE, J. F. WILKINSON, C. A. REED.
Survey. C. A. REED, CARL F. WALKER, DR. A. S. COLBY, H. F. STOKE, DR. L. H. MAC DANIELS, DR. W. C. DEMING.
Exhibits. H. R. WEBER, MISS MILDRED JONES, PROF. A. S. COLBY.
DEAN OF THE ASSOCIATION
DR. ROBERT T. MORRIS, OF NEW YORK AND CONNECTICUT.
FIELD SECRETARY
ZENAS H. ELLIS, FAIR HAVEN, VERMONT.
OFFICIAL JOURNAL
AMERICAN FRUIT GROWER, 1370 ONTARIO ST., CLEVELAND, OHIO.
STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS
Argentina, S. A. Francisco M. Croce
Arkansas Prof. N. F. Drake
California Will J. Thorpe
Canada J. U. Gellatly
Canal Zone L. C. Leighton
Connecticut Dr. W. C. Deming
Dist. of Columbia L. H. Mitchell
Illinois Dr. A. S. Colby
Indiana J. F. Wilkinson
Iowa D. C. Snyder
Kansas W. P. Orth
Kentucky E. C. Rice
Maryland T. P. Littlepage
Massachusetts James H. Bowditch
Michigan Harry Burgart
Minnesota Carl Weschcke
Missouri J. W. Schmid
Nebraska William Caha
New Jersey Lee W. Jaques
New York Prof. L. H. MacDaniels
Ohio Harry R. Weber
Oregon C. E. Schuster
Pennsylvania John Rick
Rhode Island Philip Allen
Vermont Zenas H. Ellis
Virginia Dr. J. Russel Smith
Washington Major H. B. Ferris
West Virginia Andrew Cross
Wisconsin Lt. G. H. Turner
NORTHERN NUT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION
List of Members as of January 1, 1935
ARGENTINA, S. A. Croce, Francisco M., Mendoza
ARKANSAS * Drake, Prof. N. F., Fayetteville
CALIFORNIA Thorpe, William J., 1545 Divisadero St., San Francisco
CANADA Chipman, G. F., "The Country Guide," Winnipeg, Manitoba Gage, J. H., 107 Flatt Ave., Hamilton, Ont. Gellatly, J. U., West Bank, B. C. Middleton, M. S., Esq., District Horticulturist, Vernon, B. C.
CANAL ZONE Leighton, L. C., Box 1452, Cristobal
CONNECTICUT Bartlett, F. A., F. A. Bartlett Tree Expert Co., Stamford Beeman, Henry W., New Preston Deming, Dr. W. C., 31 Owen St., Hartford Little, Norman B., Rocky Hill * Morris, Dr. Robert T., Merribrooke, R. F. D., Stamford Pratt, George D., Jr., Bridgewater Rowley, Dr. John C., 1046 Asylum St., Hartford Southworth, Geo. F., Milford
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Gravatt, Dr. G. F., Forest Pathology, Plant Industry, U. S. D. A., Wash. Greene, Karl W., 2203 Foxhall Rd., N. W., Washington * Littlepage, Thomas P., Union Trust Bldg., Washington Mitchell, Col. Lennard H., 2219 California St., N. W., Washington Reed, C. A., Dep't of Agriculture, Washington
ILLINOIS Anthony, A. B., R. F. D. No. 3, Sterling Bontz, Mrs. Lillian, General Delivery, Peoria Colby, Dr. Arthur S., University of Illinois, Urbana Frey, Frank H., Room 930, LaSalle St. Station, Chicago Oakes Royal, Bluffs Ramsdell, T. A., Hotel Galt, Sterling Riehl, Miss Amelia, Evergreen Heights, Godfrey Spencer, Mrs. May R., 275 W. Decatur St., Decatur
INDIANA Galbreath, Dr. R. S., 16 W. Washington St., Huntington Minton, Charles F., 825 South Jefferson St., Huntington Wilkinson, J. F., Indiana Nut Nursery, Rockport
IOWA Helmick, J. K., Columbus Junction Iowa State Horticultural Society, State House, Des Moines Johnson, Mrs. R. T., Knoxville Rohrbacher, Wm., 811 East College St., Iowa City Schlagenbusch Bros., Route No. 3, Ft. Madison Snyder, D. C., Center Point Van Meter, W. L., Adel
KANSAS Orth, W. P., Mt. Hope
KENTUCKY Horine, Dr. Emmet F., 523 Breslin Medical Bldg., Louisville Rice, E. C., Absher
MARYLAND Close, Dr. C. P., College Park Hahn, Albert G., Route No. 6, Bethesda Porter, John J., 1199 The Terrace, Hagerstown Mehring, Upton F., Keymar Purnell, J. Edgar, Box 24, Salisbury
MASSACHUSETTS Allen, Edward E., Hotel Ambassador, Cambridge * Bowditch, James H., 903 Tremont St., Boston Brown, Daniel L., 60 State St., Boston Hale, Richard W., 60 State St., Boston Kaan, Dr. Helen W., Wellesley College, Wellesley Putnam, Mrs. Ellen M., 129 Babson St., Mattapan Russell, Mrs. Newton H., 12 Burnett Ave., South Hadley Ryan, Henry E., Sunderland Smith, Leon C., 60 Day Ave., Westfield Wellman, Sargeant H., Windridge, Topsfield
MICHIGAN Bradley, Homer L., 56 Manchester St., Battle Creek Burgart, Harry, Michigan Nut Nursery, Route No. 2, Union City Healey, Scott, Route No. 2, Otsego Healy, Oliver T., Michigan Nut Nursery, Route No. 2, Union City ** Kellogg, Dr. John Harvey, 202 Manchester St., Battle Creek ** Kellogg, W. K., Battle Creek Morrison, J. Robert, Paw Paw Neilson, Prof. J. A., Michigan State College, E. Lansing Otto, Arnold G., 4150 Three Mile Drive, Detroit Stocking, Frederick N., 3456 Cadillac St., Detroit Wieber, Frank A., Fowler
MINNESOTA Andrews, Miss Frances E., 245 Clifton Ave., Minneapolis Weschcke, Carl, 98 Wabasha St., St. Paul
MISSOURI Schmid, J. W., 615 S. Holland, Springfield
NEBRASKA Caha, Wm., Wahoo
NEW JERSEY Buckwalter, Alan R., Flemington * Jaques, Lee W., 74 Waverly Place, Jersey City Orner, George D., 751 Ridgewood Rd., Maplewood
NEW YORK Bennett, F. H., 19 East 92nd St., New York Bixby, Mrs. Willard G., 32 Grand Ave., Baldwin Collins, Joseph N., 335 W. 87th St., New York Cooke, Frank S., 341 Bowery, New York Crysdale, Stanley A., Route No. 5, Auburn Curtis, Elroy, 58 Worth St., New York Ellwanger, Mrs. Wm. D., 510 East Ave., Rochester Graham, S. H., Route No. 5, Ithaca * Huntington, A. M., 3 East 89th St., New York Kelly, Mortimer B., 17 Battery Place, New York * Lewis, Clarence, 1000 Park Ave., New York MacDaniels, Dr. L. H., c/o Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. * Montgomery, Robert H., 385 Madison Ave., New York Pickhardt, Dr. Otto C., 117 East 80th St., New York Sawyer, Miss Dorothy C., Living Tree Guild, 468 Fourth Ave., N. Y. Sefton, Pennington, 94 Lake Ave., Auburn Slate, Geo. L., State Agricultural Exp. Station, Geneva Smith, Gilbert L., State School, Wassaic Tice, David, Lockport Tukey, Dr. Harold B., State Agricultural Exp. Station, Geneva * Wissman, Mrs. F. de R., 9 W. 54th St., New York
OHIO Canaday, Ward M., Home Bank Bldg., Toledo Cranz, Eugene F., Mount Tom Farm, Ira Fickes, W. R., Route No. 7, Wooster Gerber, E. P., Route No. 1, Apple Creek Park, Dr. J. B., Ohio State University, Columbus Tabor, Rollin H., Mount Vernon Thorton, Willis, Fenway Hall Hotel, Cleveland Walker, Carl F., 2851 E. Overlook Rd., Cleveland Heights * Weber, Harry R., 123 East 6th St., Cincinnati
OREGON Schuster, C. E., Horticulturist, Corvallis
PENNSYLVANIA Baum, Dr. F. L., Yellow House Gebhardt, F. C., 140 East 29th St., Erie Hershey, John W., Downingtown Hostetter, C. F., Bird-In-Hand Hostetter, L. K., Route No. 5, Lancaster Jones Nurseries, J. F., Lancaster, Box 356 Kaufman, M. M., Clarion Leach, Will, Cornell Bldg., Scranton McIntyre, A. C., Dep't of Forestry, State College Miller, Herbert, Pinecrest Poultry Farms, Richfield * Rick, John, 438 Pennsylvania Square, Reading Ruhl, A. W., Langhorne Terrace, Langhorne Smith, Dr. J. Russell, Swarthmore, Pa., 550 Elm Ave. Theiss, Dr. Lewis E., Muncy * Wister, John C., Clarkson Ave. & Wister Sts., Germantown Wright, Ross Pier, 235 West 6th St., Erie Zimmerman, Dr. G. A., 32 So. 13th St., Harrisburg
RHODE ISLAND ** Allen, Phillip, 178 Dorance St., Providence
VERMONT Aldrich, A. W., Route No. 3, Springfield Elfgren, Ivar P., 11 Sheldon Place, Rutland * Ellis, Zenas H., Fair Haven
VIRGINIA Ricketts, E. T., Box 168-D, Route No. 5, Alexandria Stoke, H. F., 1421 Watts Ave., Roanoke
WASHINGTON Ferris, Major Hiram B., P. O. Box 74, Spokane
WEST VIRGINIA Cross, Andrew, Ripley
WISCONSIN Turner, Lieut. G. H., 932 Prospect Ave., Portage
* Life Member
** Contributing Member
CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE I
Name. This Society shall be known as the NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION, INCORPORATED.
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 this 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 exhibits, on hybrids, on survey, 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. Contributing members shall pay ten dollars annually. Life members shall make one payment of fifty dollars, and shall be exempt from further dues and will be entitled to same benefits as annual members. Honorary members shall be exempt from dues. "Perpetual" membership is eligible to any one who leaves at least five hundred dollars to the Association and such membership on payment of said sum to the Association will entitle the name of the deceased to be forever enrolled in the list of members as "Perpetual" with the words "In Memoriam" added thereto. Funds received therefor shall be invested by the Treasurer in interest bearing securities legal for trust funds in the District of Columbia. Only the interest shall be expended by the Association. When such funds are in the treasury the Treasurer shall be bonded. Provided; that in the event the Association becomes defunct or dissolves then, in that event, the Treasurer shall turn over any funds held in his hands for this purpose for such uses, individuals or companies that the donor may designate at the time he makes the bequest or the donation.
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-third vote of members present at any annual meeting.
ARTICLE V
Members shall be sent a notification of annual dues at the time they are due, and if not paid within two months, they shall be sent a second notice, telling them that they are not in good standing on account of non-payment of dues, and are not entitled to receive the annual report.
At the end of thirty days from the sending of the second notice, a third notice shall be sent notifying such members that unless dues are paid within ten days from the receipt of this notice, their names will be dropped from the rolls for non-payment of dues.
Report of the Proceedings at the Twenty-fifth Annual Convention
of the
Northern Nut Growers Association (INCORPORATED)
September 10, 11, 1934
BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN
The first session convened at 9:30 A. M., September 10, at the Kellogg Hotel with President Frey in the chair.
The President:
This is the twenty-fifth annual convention of the Northern Nut Growers' Association, our silver anniversary. Fifteen years ago the convention was held in this city. We are glad to be back again and happy to have with us Mr. W. K. Kellogg who has consented to extend a welcome.
MR. KELLOGG:
I am glad to welcome this association, and you as individuals, to Battle Creek. A year ago when an invitation was sent you thru Professor Neilson to make this your meeting place for 1934, we were very much pleased to have the invitation accepted. Now that we have the pleasure of your presence we hope you may have an enjoyable and profitable time.
Battle Creek was undoubtedly put on the map many years ago by the Battle Creek Sanitarium and has since been kept prominently before the public by the extensive advertising that has been done by the companies located here which manufacture ready-to-eat foods. The records indicate that more than 15,000 carloads of these foods are shipped every year to almost every country on the globe. More than 4,500 people are given employment. So much for the magic words, "Battle Creek."
My interest in nuts dates from my earliest recollection when my father took the children nutting. In the evening we often gathered around the kerosene lamp, the kitchen stove and father with an inverted flat iron in his lap and a pan of Ohio hickory nuts near by. These, accompanied by some red-cheeked apples, entertained us royally. No movies in those days. About ten or twelve years ago Mrs. Kellogg and I had the opportunity of listening to a talk by Mr. George Hebden Corsan, Sr. He devoted considerable time to the subject of nut culture, mentioning his own experiences in Canada and also the work of Mr. John F. Jones of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A few years later Mr. Corsan became associated with the Bird Sanctuary enterprise, a few miles west of Battle Creek, and very shortly thereafter was talking nut culture. The result was we began to order nut trees by the carloads.
With this beginning it was only a year or two when Mr. Corsan told me of the wonderful experience, as well as the ability, of Professor Neilson of Toronto in nut culture. As you are doubtless aware Professor Neilson decided to locate in Michigan and he made a connection with the Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing. Professor Neilson is present and better prepared to tell you of the work that has been accomplished thru his efforts during the last five years. He may also have an opportunity of showing you the results of some of his work in nut grafting.
Now just a word furthermore with reference to this wonderful town of Battle Creek which in 1932 celebrated its centennial. With the exception of Detroit, Chicago and New York, there is probably no city so well known the world over as Battle Creek, this having been accomplished thru the advertising of the sanitarium since its establishment in 1865, and the advertising of ready-to-eat cereal foods for more than forty years, during which time the magic words "Battle Creek" have appeared on packages of cereals, in newspapers, magazines and other advertising more than six billion times. One of the food factories located in Battle Creek frequently prints, fills and ships more than 1,500,000 packages per day, or the equivalent of 40 carloads. This same factory gives employment to more than 2,200 people, none of whom work more than six hours per day. This six hour plan has been established more than 3-1/2 years and the minimum wage paid per hour to the men is 67 cents.
In conclusion, I must admit that most of my interest in nut culture has been by proxy. Professor Neilson and Mr. Corsan are both with us today and no doubt will have an opportunity of showing you some of the progress that has been made in the vicinity of Wintergreen and Gull Lakes, the State Agricultural Farm and the Kellogg Ranch.
We assure you it has been a pleasure to have you with us on this occasion and we should be glad to have your convention meet with us annually. You have my best wishes for the continued success and prosperity of the Northern Nut Growers' Association.
* * * * *
The Vice-President,
DR. ZIMMERMAN:
It will be rather a difficult task to respond to an address of welcome of such a notable character as Mr. Kellogg's. However, I want to express my sincere appreciation for being commissioned to respond to such a hearty welcome.
I'm glad to be here for several other reasons. First, because this association represents a number of people who in themselves represent different lines of action. We have first the men and women who are in this association from an experimental standpoint. We have also a number who are here with a commercial planting standpoint. Then we have another group that represents the growing and selling of nut trees. But, in addition to that and most important of all, we have another set that represents the consuming public, notably Mr. Kellogg and his brother. About their work there need not be a great deal said.
I remember, when I first began to become interested in nut culture, I wrote to Dr. J. H. Kellogg. I don't remember at the present time where he said his plantings were, but I wrote to him in connection with pecans, and he said he had a grove of them planted. He said they were quite large but they hadn't borne and he believed that they would not bear in this section because it was so far north. He advised me to get in communication with Mr. J. H. Jones. That was practically the information I got from everybody I wrote to, so I went to see Mr. Jones.
Dr. Kellogg has advanced the idea of nuts as food. Not only that but he has continuously stood for the belief that they are more suitable for human food than many of the proteins of animal nature. In addition to that he publishes one of the best health magazines in the country. Dr. Kellogg is putting out a health magazine that is further advanced than any other magazine that I know of. It gives me great pleasure to respond to the address of welcome and I wish to thank Mr. Kellogg on the part of the association and myself.
Report of the Secretary for 1934
The present secretary assumed office in September 1933 without the benefit of previous membership in the association and knowledge of its affairs. Considerable time has been spent in getting acquainted with these affairs. President Frey, Mr. Reed, and Dr. Deming have been especially helpful in orienting the secretary and assisting in answering correspondence. The late Mr. Russell, and his successor, Mr. Walker, have handled all matters referred to them in a prompt and efficient manner. Much credit is due to Mrs. Russell for the efficient manner in which she attended to the treasurer's duties during Mr. Russell's illness.
One of the chief duties of the secretary is the answering of correspondence pertaining to association affairs and inquiries regarding nut culture. A total of 175 letters were written for the association. Fifty-three were to the officers and Mr. Reed regarding association affairs, while 122 concerned nut cultural problems and memberships. A number of letters were referred to Mr. Reed and a few to Prof. MacDaniels for reply. In addition to the correspondence addressed to the association regarding nuts, an equal or larger number of inquiries concerning nuts addressed to the station were also answered. A list of names of people interested in nuts, but not members of the association, is being accumulated from this correspondence.
The circular describing the association and its work was reprinted and a list of nut nurseries and tree seedsmen prepared by Mr. Reed was mimeographed. These were enclosed in all association and station letters sent to non-members in answer to nut inquiries. Their effect in bringing in new members and their influence on the sale of nut trees is of course unknown. Dr. MacDaniels and Dr. Colby also used these circulars in correspondence.
A list of available publications on nut culture has also been prepared and will be mimeographed shortly.
A campaign to sell many of the surplus reports of the association was planned, but owing to unforeseen obstacles the reports were not available and the plans for selling them were shelved until after this meeting. If the reports are soon assembled at Geneva it is planned to circularize agricultural and horticultural libraries and attempt to place complete or nearly complete sets in as many as possible. Attractive prices will be made on sets of those reports of which we have an oversupply.
A mimeographed list of cions available from the Bixby collection was prepared at Mr. Reed's suggestion and sent to all members and other interested persons. Mrs. Bixby received as many copies as she needed.
Mr. J. T. Bregger, editor of the American Fruit Grower, has cooperated with the secretary in publishing notes pertaining to association activities. He is desirous of publishing articles on nut culture. It is to be hoped that contributions may be received from members interested in various phases of nut growing. Other publications are eager for articles on all phases of horticulture. If nut culture is to receive its due publicity more than a few must take their pens in hand.
It is with great regret and sadness that the death on April 27, 1934, of our treasurer, Newton H. Russell, is recorded. His enthusiasm, interest and kindly personality will be greatly missed. He was very active in promoting nut culture in Massachusetts. We have lost a valuable member.
The discontinuance of the National Nut News leaves us without an official organ. This is a serious handicap to our work. The stimulation of interest provided by the regular arrival of a publication containing the latest news and newest developments in our field, is a valuable aid in nut culture and association activities. The provision of such a medium is one of our most pressing problems.
Our membership is at a low point and should be doubled. The secretary is desirous of cooperating with the membership committee in a campaign to increase the membership. With our dues at their present low figure it should not be difficult to interest many in the association. Such a campaign should follow several lines.
First: Every member should attempt to secure additional members.
Second: Many who dropped out when dues were high should be invited to return.
Third: Attempts should be made to contact certain groups. All of the northern experiment stations and agricultural colleges should have a member of their horticultural department in the association. Groups such as doctors, lawyers, nurserymen, farmers and others should be informed of the association and what it offers to each.
Fourth: The agricultural college and experiment station libraries should be induced to take out memberships and bring their sets of reports up to date.
Such a campaign is more than one person can handle, and several should participate in it.
Treasurer's Report
Year Ending August 31, 1934
RECEIPTS
Annual Memberships $266.75 Contributing Memberships 10.00 Sale of Reports 29.00 Sale of Bulletins 2.25 For Subscriptions to National Nut News 8.00
Total $316.00 $316.00
DISBURSEMENTS
Reprints, K. W. Greene (for Mr. Bixby) $ 21.10 Printing 1931 Report, Balance, American Fruits Pub. Co. 50.00 Subscriptions, National Nut News 18.00 Printing 1932 Report, Lightner Pub. Corp. 200.00 Expenses Downingtown Convention, J. W. Hershey 13.82 Membership Dues, American Horticultural Society 2.00 Expense Handling Surplus Reports, C. A. Reed 9.69 Advertising, Lightner Pub. Corp. 4.00 Printing 1933 Report, Lightner Pub. Corp. 125.32 Release Expense of Account with Litchfield Savings Society 1.68 Loss on Check 2.00 Postage, F. H. Frey 12.10 Postage and Miscl. Expense for 1933 Report, F. H. Frey 19.92 Mimeographing, G. L. Slate 2.25 Printing, Postage and Supplies, C. F. Walker 12.45 Check Charges & Taxes .68
Total $495.01 $495.01 Excess of Disbursements over Receipts $179.01
CASH ACCOUNT
Cash on hand or in bank as reported as of Aug. 31, 1933 $306.01 Account in Litchfield Savings Society as of Aug. 31, 1933 15.94
Total cash on hand or in bank as of Aug. 31, 1933 $321.95 $321.95 Excess of Disbursements over Receipts 179.01
Balance, Cash in bank, August 31, 1934 $142.94 Accounts, Due or Payable None
Press and Publication Committee
DR. DEMING:
We have had one or two articles in each issue of the National Horticultural Magazine, published by the American Horticultural Society in Washington. The editor has promised to have in each issue of his magazine something relating to nuts. He is particularly anxious to get short articles with a single illustration, articles about a page long which will attract attention, be easy to read and stimulate interest in nuts. I would be glad to receive articles of that nature for submission to the editor.
It is unfortunate that we no longer have an official journal, the National Nut News having gone out of existence. We have an opportunity to make the American Fruit Grower, with which we have been acquainted a good many years, our official journal, and that will come up in the course of this meeting.
Membership Committee
MR. WALKER:
From our increase in membership—forty new members—and from their addresses, one is able to judge of the work of Prof. Neilson, he being very active in obtaining new members. There are others of our members who also have been active and to whom credit is due for the increase in membership.
An analysis of the membership of the past six years indicates that we are on the increase again. We have retained over 90% of those who were members last year. I feel as though we need not try to get everybody in the world to plant nut trees. But there is no reason why we should not greatly increase our membership.
Program Committee
PROF. NEILSON:
At nine o'clock tomorrow morning busses will be at the hotel to take us to the Kellogg plant. About 10:30 we will proceed to the sanitarium. We will try and meet at the Kellogg Hotel at 12:00 P.M. where we are to be the guest of Mr. W. K. Kellogg for luncheon. After lunch, at one o'clock, we will board the busses and proceed to the Kellogg farm. At the farm we will look over the buildings for a few minutes, call at the Kellogg School, and then stop for a few moments and look over our bittersweet plantation. Then we will go on to the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary and see what is being done there in conserving wild fowl.
After we leave the sanctuary we will visit a block of about fifteen acres of hickory trees, where I have been doing top working experiments for the last three or four years. Then we will inspect our variety plantation of nut trees and proceed to Mr. Kellogg's estate. At 5:30 the Kellogg Company will provide motor boats to take us for a cruise on Gull Lake. At 6:30 we will have our dinner at Bunbury Inn on Gull Lake and then have a few addresses and a business session.
Report of Committee on Hybrids and Promising Seedlings
DR. ZIMMERMAN:
One or two interesting seedlings have come to our attention during the past year. One a hickory nut that was drawn to the attention of the Pennsylvania Nut Growers' Association January last. It is a rather good nut and bears very well. I think Mr. Hershey has some of the trees for sale.
The other, a very interesting shellbark, came to my attention. The nut is large, the best cracker for a shellbark that I have seen, the tree itself is beautiful and, although the party who owns it says it bears every other year, it seems to me to produce a good many nuts every year that I have seen it.
Another, probably worthless, but interesting, seems to me to be an English walnut x butternut hybrid. The party insists she planted walnuts from a typical English walnut tree, but the trees from these nuts, of which there are a number bearing small nuts, certainly have the earmarks of the butternut. These plants will be kept under observation and a later report given concerning them.
We have a number of first generation hybrids, but so far as I am aware we have no second or following generation hybrids in the nut line. It seems to me that if we plant a lot of the nuts from these first generation hybrids and, when the plants are large enough, distribute them to parties who will give them space and care for them until they come into bearing, somebody sooner or later will get hold of some valuable material. Work along this line I expect to advance through our committee as rapidly as practical. It seems to me that the seedlings of our first generation hybrids should not be destroyed as has frequently been done in the past.
PROF. NEILSON:
I have seen quite a few hybrids between the heartnut and the butternut. I believe the Mitchel is about the best.
DR. MACDANIELS:
We found that the tree had stood the winter very well and that it was bearing a good crop. We brought along a few samples labeled the Mitchel hybrid heartnut. It looked to me to be a promising nut.
PROF. NEILSON:
Mr. Mitchel thought it was a worthless butternut. I told Mr. Mitchel that I thought it was well worth saving and I hope that one of these days we shall succeed in propagating it.
THE PRESIDENT:
Mr. Stokes, in Virginia, has located some black walnuts that will be excellent. Mr. Hershey's name and work have been mentioned. He writes me that the territory of the Tennessee Valley is a wonderful lay-out and he is putting on a contest for different kinds of nuts. He may have some desirable nuts to present later on.
MR. SLATE:
If Mr. Reed is not planning to discuss those Jones hybrids in his paper I wish he, or someone else who is acquainted with them, would make some remarks to be placed on record.
MR. REED:
We think that the two most promising of the Jones hybrids are numbers 92 and 200. Those were Mr. Jones' own numbers. About three years ago we began making an intensive study of them. Ninety-two seemed to bear better and be a little more promising than 200, and so it was named first. It was named Buchanan in honor of the only president of the United States who came from Pennsylvania. Last year number 200 showed up so favorably that it seemed well to name that one also, so just about a year ago the name of Bixby was suggested and it met with universal approval. That, I think, is all that I have to say about the hybrids. We are watching them very closely.
From here east we had a very severe winter last year. Apple orchards very, very old were killed all through the east and with them thousands and thousands of English walnut trees. In Washington we have practically no crop of filberts and our English walnuts were affected generally.
We have yet to find a single hybrid between black walnut and English walnut which appears to be promising. There is a record, but I think we should have brought to our attention from time to time what was known as the James River hybrid. It was an enormous black walnut tree that grew on the James River near Jamestown. It was visited in 1928 by Mr. Karl Greene and Mr. Hershey. Mr. Greene said that the tree measured thirteen feet in circumference. You don't often see trees as large as that in any part of the country. That is in a part of the country where the English walnut has not done well. The tree must have been somewhere around 200 years old when it died. It was probably grown from a hybrid between an English walnut and a black walnut. Our American colonists brought the English walnut with them about the same time they brought our first apples and peaches and plums and everything else. This tree throws some light on the question as to when the first English walnut first came to this country.
A week ago yesterday I was riding along a country road down in Maryland. I saw a row of trees. One tree in the middle of that row was as big as any other three there. I slowed up and looked at them more closely. The large tree was a hybrid and the others were not.
Committee on Exhibits:
On the tables Prof. Neilson has a number of plates of the northern pecan at its best. Besides that he has two remarkable specimens of hybrid hickories. One is a McCallister, and the other is of unknown origin. There are also on the tables other remarkable nuts grown in this part of the United States, in Ontario and in British Columbia. There are chestnuts, English walnuts, Japanese heartnuts and others.
MR. REED:
You will recall that one year ago I was made custodian of the back records of the association. Within two weeks of the time of last year's meeting I personally procured the reports which were stacked away in Mr. Bixby's barn, and took them to Washington. A little later Dr. Deming and the late Mr. Russell made a trip to Redding, Connecticut, and sent me 500 pounds of back reports. Still later Mr. Karl Greene brought to me about another 500 pounds of reports. I had then about 1900 pounds. We put them in the basement of the building where our office was and then we began to move around. It began to cost something to move them.
I communicated with Mr. Slate and found that there was abundant space at Geneva, and the authorities were willing that they should be housed there. So I had the reports tied up and arranged with a truck man to move them to Geneva. I made the arrangements with a man who agreed to move them for $25. Then he backed out. I didn't feel like incurring a greater expense by sending them by railroad, so I waited until last week and took a bundle from each year in my own car. They are in the secretary's care at Geneva at the present time. The rest of the reports will presently be stored in Mr. Littlepage's packing shed out in his apple orchard. There are still a few reports in the Bixby's barn and Dr. Deming can tell how many more he has.
THE PRESIDENT:
Each current report will be sold at $1.00 per copy and old reports at 50c a copy. If someone wanted an entire set we would sell all eighteen or nineteen numbers now for $6.00.
The American Fruit Grower, published in Cleveland, Ohio, has agreed to have the magazine appear as the official journal of the Northern Nut Growers' Association.
MR. J. T. BREGGER:
We will deem it a privilege, and I'm sure an obligation, to take on this responsibility of acting as official journal of your society and give to you at least a column each month. We are already acting as official organ of other horticultural societies and it seems to work out very well. In addition to the column that your secretary would have each month you could run further articles on nut growing, which would be of additional interest to your members. You would have some 150,000 of our readers who are interested in fruit growing, and who would be interested in nut growing, as possible new members for your organization. They would receive your announcements and articles each month and you could get in touch with them, through that column, for additional membership.
MR. WALKER:
I move that the American Fruit Grower be made the official organ of the Northern Nut Growers' Association, that the secretary be the official correspondent with the American Fruit Grower, that the subscription price be paid by the treasurer direct to the American Fruit Grower, that the present membership fee remain the same, two dollars, to all members, with the privilege of receiving the American Fruit Grower. The motion was seconded by Prof. Neilson.
THE PRESIDENT:
Mr. Ellis has offered to donate $10.00 this year, if it is necessary, to apply on subscriptions for the membership. I don't know that we will have to call on him for this but it is certainly a display of fine spirit.
DR. DEMING:
I want to express my great satisfaction that the American Fruit Grower has offered to act as our official organ on such advantageous terms. Fourteen years ago, before Mr. Bregger's career as an editor began, I edited a nut column in the Fruit Grower. The motion was carried.
The following named were elected as committee to nominate officers for next year: Dr. Deming, Colonel Mitchell, Professor Neilson, Mr. Weber, and Dr. Colby.
Resolutions Committee: Professor Slate, Mr. C. A. Reed, and Dr. Colby.
Motion was duly made, seconded and carried that; honorary membership in this association may be conferred upon any person by a majority vote of members present at any business session or by letter ballot of members in good standing and honorary membership should be conferred only on individuals who have rendered outstanding or meritorious service in connection with the promotion of interest in nut bearing plants, their products and their culture.
Mr. W. K. Kellogg and Dr. John H. Kellogg were nominated for honorary members of the Association and unanimously elected.
The Dietetic Importance of Nuts
By DR. JOHN HARVEY KELLOGG, Michigan
Nuts, which supply the finest edible fats and proteins which science has discovered, occupy the smallest place in the nation's food budget of any of our substantial native foods. This is a remarkable situation well worthy of consideration in view of the fact that, according to Prof. Elliot of Oxford University and the eminent Prof. Ami of Montreal, and many other paleontologists, nuts were the chief diet of the earliest representatives of the race who appeared in the Eocene period of geologic time. At that time, according to Prof. Elliot, the regions inhabited by man bore great forests of walnut, hickory, and other nut trees, the fossil relics of which are found in great abundance in association with the remains of prehistoric man. It is significant, also, that man's nearest relatives, the gorilla, orangutan, and chimpanzee still stick to the original bill of fare. I once made an ape so angry by offering him a bit of meat that he threatened to attack me and finally, as I persisted in offering him the meat, seized it and flung it as far away as possible, then scrubbed his soiled hand with dust and wiped it on the grass to get rid of the taint of the meat. He gave every evidence of feeling deeply insulted. Biology classifies man as a primate along with the great apes and, according to the great Cuvier, assigns to him along with other primates, a diet consisting of nuts, fruits, soft grains, tender shoots and succulent roots.
The great ice sheet which crept down over the greater part of the northern hemisphere during the glacial period destroyed the nut forests. The greater part of the primate family, including man, moved South and survive today in Central Africa, where, along with their furry cousins, the gorilla and the chimpanzee, they still adhere to a dietary almost wholly of plant foods. Those who remained behind were compelled to resort to a flesh diet to avoid starvation. Flesh eating naturally led to cannibalism, and the historians tell us that only a few thousand years ago, the survivors of the glacial terrors who roamed the British Isles, from which the ancestors of most Americans emigrated, roamed the forests clad in the skins of animals and feasted upon their enemies.
When the grain-eating Romans conquered and civilized our barbarian ancestors and taught them agriculture, plant foods again became the chief sources of nutriment, but a meat appetite had been developed and is still characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon race, while most of the rest of the world are almost exclusively plant feeders. Four hundred millions of Chinese eat so little meat that it is, in the case of south China, not even mentioned in the national food budget. Sixty millions of Japanese eat an average of 4 pounds per capita. Two hundred millions of East Indians never taste meat. As a matter of fact, only Americans, English, Germans and Scandinavians are large meat eaters.
Evidently, the American meat appetite as well as the American sugar tooth is enormously exaggerated. It is somewhat encouraging, however, to note that the eating habits of the American people are changing. Within a generation, and especially since the World War, there has been a notable change in the national bill of fare.
More cereals are consumed than formerly, but the greatest per capita increase is shown in the consumption of fruits and vegetables, and especially greenstuffs, such as lettuce, spinach, kale, and other greens. This increase in the use of certain foods is not due to the fact that the American appetite is increasing or the American stomach enlarging, but to the spread among the people of scientific information concerning nutrition.
Through experiments upon rats and various other animals, including man himself, fundamental principles have been discovered and a real science of nutrition has been developed, the axioms, formulae, and basic ideas of which are as clearly established as are those of geometry and chemistry. We are no longer left to be led astray by guess-work or fancy in supplying our nutritive needs, and have verified the truth so aptly expressed by that shrewd old Roman philosopher, Seneca, who said, "There is nothing against which we ought to be more on our guard than, like a flock of sheep, following the crowd of those who preceded us."
This change in the eating habits of the American people has been brought about by disillusionment respecting the importance of meats. Fifty years ago, every physiologist taught that the liberal consumption of meat was essential. This idea was based, first, upon the supposition that protein, the chief constituent of lean meat, is the most important source of energy; and, second, the belief that food of animal origin is better adapted to human sustenance than plant foods, through having undergone a process of refinement and concentration in the transformation from plant to animal. Modern studies of nutrition have shown that both these ideas are without scientific basis.
Unfortunately for the nut-growing industry, and still more unfortunately for the American people, the claims of nuts to consideration in this re-adjustment of the bill of fare have been generally overlooked, and it seems evident that the only hope for the nut industry lies in the creation of a larger demand for these nutrients from the plant world by acquainting the public with their superlative merits. Of course, room must be made for the increased intake of nuts by lessened consumption of something which nuts may advantageously replace in the bill of fare. Most nuts consist almost exclusively of proteins and fat. Proteins and fats likewise are almost the sole constituents of meat. Nuts are thus the vegetable analogues of meat and are competitors for a place on the bill of fare.
Physiologists are agreed that the American people are eating too much meat, and it is the general spread of this conviction that has lessened the consumption of flesh foods in this country and has crippled the packing industry.
A few years ago, the meat packers, finding that the consumption of meat had fallen off nearly one-fourth since the beginning of the century, began a vigorous campaign of publicity to increase the demand for their products. A special board was established for the purpose and through the activities of this board an enormous amount of misinformation has been broadcasted which has influenced a number of people to "eat more meat to save the live stock industry," to use the packers' appealing slogan and incidentally to help the packing industry, and there has been some increase in the use of pork, although the falling off in the consumption of beef has continued in spite of unscrupulous efforts to deceive and mislead the people, to their injury.
The two greatest obstacles in the way of the nut growing industry are the ignorance of the people with respect to the value of nuts as staple foods and the frantic efforts being made by those interested in the meat industry to increase the demand for their products.
A counter campaign of education is needed to set before the people the true facts as revealed by modern chemical and bacteriological research, by the discoveries of nutrition laboratories and by the clinical observations of thousands of eminent clinicians.
The false claims for meat must be met, for it is only by lessening the consumption of meat that room can be made for the dietetic use of nuts. Here are some of the errors that should be corrected.
Claim 1
That meat is an essential food staple, and that without it there would result loss of vitality and of individual and racial stamina.
No respectable physiologist will support this claim today, although half a century ago all physiologists held these now obsolete views.
Claim 2
That flesh foods are necessary for blood building, especially red meats, because of their iron content.
This claim is wholly without scientific support. Modern experiments have shown that anemic animals recover most quickly on a diet rich in plant iron. Green foods have been proven to be sources of the best iron, which is associated with chlorophyl.
The iron of meat has been once used and is of the same sort as that which the body throws away. It is inferior to the iron of green plants, from which the ox makes his red blood.
Nuts contain a rich store of this precious plant iron, as do also beans.
Claim 3
That beef and other flesh meats are muscle and strength builders par excellence.
This claim no longer has scientific support. Sugar is fuel of the body engine. When the butcher's daughter, Gertrude Ederle, failed in her first attempt to swim the English Channel, she very justly charged her collapse before reaching the English shore to the mutton stew her trainer gave her before starting. When in a second attempt, she adopted my suggestion through a mutual acquaintance, to eat sugar instead of meat, she made a world record. This practice is, I believe, now adopted by all successful channel swimmers.
Non-flesh eaters are far superior to meat-eaters in endurance under special strains.
When Dempsey defeated the Argentinean giant, he had trained on modest allowances of meat and his last meal had consisted of vitamin-rich fresh vegetables, while Firpo loaded himself up with steaks and chops.
When Battling Nelson lost his championship, he explained to a newspaper reporter, "'Twas the beefsteak that done it. I swiped an extra beefsteak when my trainer was not looking, and it made me tired."
De Lesseps, the famous French engineer, became a confirmed and enthusiastic flesh abstainer when he found his sturdy beef-fed Englishmen could not compete in work on the Suez Canal with the Arab laborers, who subsisted on wheat bread and onions, as did the builders of the pyramids, according to Herodotus, 5,000 years before. He declared, in fact, that without the hardy Arabs, he could not have done the work.
Theodore Roosevelt, in his story of his East Africa hunting expedition, said in Scribners Magazine that a horse with a heavy man on his back could always run down a lion fleeing for his life in a mile and a half.
Claim 4
That a man can live on a flesh or muscle meat diet such as chops and steaks.
The famous pedestrian, Weston, informed me that on his long walks, he never ate meat and on his walk across the continent lived on corn flakes and milk.
Carl Mann, a grocer's clerk not professionally trained, competing in a government supervised walking race from Dresden to Berlin, 123 miles, against the picked pedestrians of the German army and several professionals, won easily on a fleshless diet consisting of nuts and fresh vegetables which he pulled out of the vegetable gardens as he hurried by. The only protein he ate was derived from nuts.
The Tarahumari Indians of Mexico are the most tireless runners in the world. Their ancestors were the dispatch runners of Montezuma in pre-Colombian days, and they still adhere to the simple plant regimen of their forbears.
At the time of the Boxer uprising in China some years ago, the rice-fed Japanese were the first to arrive of the military representatives of numerous nations who raced to the rescue of the foreign embassies besieged by the fanatical and bloodthirsty Boxers.
Claim 5
That a man can live and enjoy good health for a year or many years on a purely flesh or muscle-meat diet.
The packers' much heralded Stefansson stunt of living a year on an exclusive meat diet was a discreditable fake. Stefansson did not live on a meat diet, but on a diet consisting of one-fifth protein and four-fifths fat (caloric intake). When compelled against his protest to eat steaks and chops, he was made very ill with acidosis within two days, vomiting and purging so violently that he was compelled to make a complete and immediate change. Prof. Newburgh of our State University stated that Stefansson ate no more real muscle meat than the average man usually eats. The Stefansson experiment proved but one thing, namely, that a man even when accustomed to a meat diet, cannot live on lean meat alone for more than two days without becoming ill.
Dr. Newburgh produced nephritis, or acute inflammation of the kidneys, in rats by feeding them exclusively on meat for a few weeks.
Claim 6
That Eskimos thrive on a meat diet.
Captain McMillan who accompanied Peary on his discovery of the North Pole, a year or two ago informed me that the Eskimo is short lived. That he becomes at 50 years very old and useless and at 55 infirm and helpless, and rarely lives to the age of 60 years.
The Arctic traveler Stefansson said to me, "I do not claim to have proven that a man can live better or longer on a flesh diet, but only that he can live. Of course the scientific argument is against such a diet."
Prof. Irving Fisher of Yale University some years ago made a series of endurance tests in which the endurance of the athletes of the Yale gymnasium was compared with that of physicians and men nurses of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. As Prof. Fisher said in his report, which was published in the Yale Scientific Review, the endurance of the Battle Creek flesh-abstainers was found to be not only "greater" in all the tests, but far greater. In the arm holding (arms extended sidewise) tests, the Battle Creek men held their arms out longer than any Yale man and nine times as long as the same number of Yale men.
Vegetarian bicyclists have for many years held all the championships in endurance riding tests from Land's End to John O'Groats.
Through Finland's minister to the United States I have learned that Nurmi, the Finnish runner whose record stands unequalled, was trained on a non-flesh dietary.
The Great War taught the world among many other important lessons, the fact that meat may be dispensed with not only without injury, but with great and very definite benefits.
During the World War, Denmark sold her cattle to Germany and reduced her meat ration to a very low minimum, with the result that her death rate was reduced one-third.
In Germany, where at the beginning of the war the cattle were killed to save food and a practically meatless ration was maintained for more than three years, diabetes, Bright's disease, and many other chronic maladies were reduced in frequency to an extraordinary degree. After the war, as I was informed by the medical director of one of the largest life insurance companies in this country, it was discovered that the death losses among the company's German policy holders, not excepting war casualties, were far below the prewar average.
The Chittenden standard now universally accepted, fixes the protein intake at 10 per cent of the total ration. This leaves little room for meat, and not a few authorities reduce the protein to a still lower level.
For some years, McCollum of Johns Hopkins has been calling attention to the evils of the "meat and bread" diet, which he declares to be about the worst diet one can adopt, and adds, "We could entirely dispense with meats without suffering any ill effects whatever."
Chalmers Watson of Edinburgh found that rats on a lean meat diet deteriorated so rapidly that after two or three generations they became deformed and dwarfed and ceased to reproduce.
The International Scientific Food Commission appointed by the Allies at the time of the Great War and charged with the duty of fixing the minimum ration of different food essentials, declared it to be unnecessary to fix a minimum meat ration, "in view of the fact that no absolute physiological need exists for meat, since the proteins of meat can be replaced by other proteins of animal origin, such as those contained in milk, cheese and eggs, as well as by proteins of vegetable origin."
It is evident from the above facts that an effort to induce the American people to eat less meat and more nuts would do no harm and should prove substantially beneficial.
A leading textbook on "Nutrition and Clinical Dietetics" by Carter, Howe and Mason of Columbia University, calls attention to the encouraging fact that "Of late there has been a distinct reaction in the meat-eating of the wealthier classes, and one sees less meat and more vegetable habits as they progress upward in the scale of civilization. Also, on account of their sedentary habits, people find that the ingestion of considerable quantities of animal protein, with the consequent increase in intestinal putrefaction, gives rise to symptoms of toxemia, which have assumed a very definite place in the pathology of disease."
That meat enormously increases intestinal putrefaction cannot be questioned. It is this fact which makes the difference between the excreta of a dog or lion and that of a cow or horse. All carnivorous animals suffer from autointoxication.
The eminent pathologist of the Philadelphia Zoo states that all dogs over three years of age have hardened arteries, while horses practically never show arterial changes even when very old.
Dr. Charles Mayo states that three out of four dogs over 12 years have cancer.
I quote the following paragraphs from a poster prepared some years ago as a reply to "Meat Is Wholesome" poster distributed by the packers through the post office department which presents ample evidence that meat is by no means always wholesome:
A bacteriological examination made in the laboratory of the Battle Creek Sanitarium of fresh meats purchased at seven different markets, all in apparently fresh condition, showed the following number of bacteria per ounce:
Bacteria Per Ounce Beefsteak 37,500,000- 45,000,000 Pork Chops 5,100,000- 87,000,000 Beef Liver 3,000,000- 945,000,000 Corned Beef 300,000- 910,000,000 Hamburger Steak 5,100,000-2,250,000,000 Pork Liver 3,000,000-2,862,000,000
The above figures agree with the findings of Tissier, Distaso, Weinzirl, Farger, Walpole, and other bacteriological authorities.
The Fresh Droppings of Animals
Bacteria Per Ounce Calf 450,000,000 Horse 750,000,000 Goat 2,070,000,000 Cow 2,400,000,000 Oyster Juice 102,000,000
The bacteria in meats are identical in character with those of manure, and are more numerous in some meats than in fresh manure. All meats become infected with manure germs in the process of slaughtering, and the number increases the longer the meat is kept in storage.
Ordinary cooking does not destroy all of the germs of meat.
The importance of suppressing this intestinal putrefaction is becoming more and more evident as medical investigation and discoveries are continually bringing out new facts which show an intimate relation between intestinal poisons and many chronic maladies, including gall bladder disease, high blood pressure, heart disease which kills 300,000 Americans annually, Bright's disease, insanity and premature senility. Many physicians are on this account saying daily to patients, "Eat less meat." "Cut out beefsteak and chops," and "Change your intestinal flora so as to clear your coated tongue and eliminate the poison that taints your breath."
Nuts have the great advantage that although richer in protein than is meat, they are much less putrescible. Fresh meats are practically always in a state of putrefaction when eaten while nuts are delivered to us by the generous hand of Nature in aseptic packages, ready to eat, and presenting pure nutriment in the most condensed and refined form known to science. Fresh meats are always contaminated with colon and putrefactive germs with which they become contaminated in the slaughtering process. If flesh is to be used as food, animals should be killed with the same antiseptic precautions which are employed in modern surgery. This is never done, and within a few days after killing, the flesh of a slaughtered animal is swarming with colon germs, and when long kept for use of hotels and many restaurants, is covered with a beard of green mold. Such food is fit only for scavengers. Hamburger steak and pork liver often contain more manure germs than the fresh droppings of animals.
The liberal substitution of nuts for meats would save billions annually.
According to Prof. Baker, of the Department of Agriculture, fully 80 per cent of the total feed and food products in the United States is consumed by live stock. Most of these animals are consumed as food.
The enormous loss involved is shown by the fact that 100 pounds of digestible foodstuffs are required to produce 3 pounds of beef.
According to an announcement by the United States Bureau of Statistics, the per capita annual cost of meat in the United States is more than $80.00, which totals for the whole population nearly $10,000,000,000 per annum.
Prof. Baker suggests that the annual per capita consumption of meat might without injury be reduced from the present 170 pounds to fifty pounds, which would make a saving of $6,000,000,000 at least, for $1,000,000,000 would easily supply from nuts and other plant sources more than enough food to replace the discarded meats.
The general belief that nuts are an expensive food is an error. When a man pays a dollar for three pounds of steak, he is probably not aware of the fact that three-fourths of what he buys is simply water, so that the actual solid nutriment purchased amounts to not more than three-quarters of a pound, making the actual cost of the water-free food $1.33 per pound.
Two pounds of almonds or other nut meats which might be purchased at the same cost, would yield twice as much and better food.
If the whole beef industry were wiped out, the country would be the gainer.
What the nut industry needs most is a campaign of education to tell the American public about the superior values of nuts and to correct the errors broadcasted by the Meat Board. The public must not only be taught the value of nuts as set forth in Mr. Russell's admirable book, but should be encouraged by government aid to plant nut trees on barren mountain sides and areas devastated by lumbering operations. If every lumberman had been required by law to plant a nut tree for every ten timber trees cut down during the last 50 years, a food source would have been provided which would insure more than an ample supply of precious protein and satisfying fat to feed 120,000,000 of Americans if the cereal food crops were destroyed by a drouth or predatory insects.
If nut trees were planted along all our highways and railway thoroughfares, a food crop would be produced of greater nutrient value than that yielded at the present time by the entire live stock industry.
That an educational campaign may be made to succeed was shown by the experience of the raisin producers of California.
Some years ago, when the raisin industry was prostrate, I received a letter from the secretary of an association organized for the purpose of trying to revive the industry, asking for information concerning the food value of raisins. I called attention to the fact that the raisin is rich in food iron and a good source for this food mineral and suggested that if the people were made acquainted with this fact through a broad advertising campaign, the demand for this delectable fruit might be greatly increased. "Have you eaten your iron?" soon appeared in the newspapers throughout the land, and the raisin farmers of California found it necessary to enlarge their vineyards.
A discouraging feature of the nut industry to beginners is the long time required to bring trees to bearing. On this account, it seems to me that state and federal governments should lend the industry a helping hand. I would suggest that this association should instruct its president and secretary to make an earnest effort to persuade state and federal governments to give more attention to the planting of nut trees in their reforesting operations.
A broad belt of nut trees running the length of the great timberline which is to be created for the protection of the western states from a recurrence of drouth, might prove a more dependable protection to our food supply than the possible effect of a narrow strip of woodland upon the country's climate.
I append a table which shows the high food value of nuts as compared with other common foods. One pound of walnut meats equals in food value each of the following:
Pounds Beef loin, lean 4.00 Beef ribs, lean 6.50 Beef neck, lean 9.50 Veal 5.50 Mutton leg, lean 4.20 Ham, lean 3.00 Fowls 4.00 Chicken, broilers 10.00 Red Bass 25.00 Trout 4.80 Frog's legs 15.00 Oysters 13.50 Lobsters 22.00 Eggs 5.00 Milk 9.50 Evaporated cream 4.00
DR. DEMING:
I am sure everyone feels that the trip here would be worth while if we didn't receive another bit of information but your paper, and they would really like to develop some kind of an ailment so that they could place themselves under your care.
MR. REED:
About five years ago I spent a few hours here in Battle Creek, largely as a guest of Dr. Kellogg over at his home. While I was there he introduced me to quite a variety of soy bean products and he rather disturbed me by telling me that beans had much the same food values as nuts. He reminded me that you could grow a crop of beans every year. You can't be sure of doing that with nut trees. He gave me an economic idea to think about. I wonder if he has anything to say about beans now. Are beans going to supplant nuts?
DR. KELLOGG:
I confess that it seems to me, from a practical and economic standpoint, that the soy bean is a very strong rival of the nut industry. I would like to inquire how many acres are at the present time planted in nuts. How many acres have been added in the last twenty years? There are, at the present time, more than 3,000,000 acres of soy beans being planted every year. It has only been a short time since they were first introduced and there are more being planted every year.
I believe that the government ought to take an interest in this matter of nut tree planting, for I believe that is the best way in which it can be promoted. I have for several years been trying to find someone who has made a fortune out of raising nuts but I have not yet found such a man. I believe, however, that it is a veritable gold mine of value but will have to have governmental aid. I think the government should require all of these slaughtering lumbermen to plant nut trees in the place of the trees they are cutting down.
MR. CORSAN:
The nut tree is one of the things that will make the boys and girls of the farm love their homes. In a few years boys and girls will be going back to a beautiful farm, not to pig pens, but where there are beautiful trees.
Nut Culture Work of the Living Tree Guild
By MISS DOROTHY C. SAWYER, New York
The Living Tree Guild appreciates the privilege of presenting a paper at the silver anniversary convention of the Northern Nut Growers' Association. We feel in a humble mood when talking to you. We are new comers in the field and the work we have done in furthering interest in the subject of northern nut culture is only taking what you have created and endeavoring to make it intelligible and useful to the public. It is something which arouses our enthusiasm. We have great faith in the value of planting grafted nut trees in the North. This new resource for beautifying and making idle land productive is no longer restricted to this small group of nut culturists, but it is now practical, for anyone with a little land and the urge to grow things, to enjoy the planting of nut trees.
Our function is in educating more people to an appreciation of what improved nut trees are and what they can do as they are at present developed. Nut growing is just beginning to come into its own and the nut tree should take its place as a valuable shade tree, should be included in the home orchard and used as a paying crop by the farmer in the North. The Guild is especially interested in introducing and popularizing new horticultural developments. It publishes a new type of tree as a publisher does a book. We serve as a connecting link between the horticulturist and the layman, aiming to coordinate the work of horticulturists and to interpret the meaning of this work to prospective planters of trees. We act as a sort of educational sieve, our aim being to extend the number of tree planters. This is a sales job and the Living Tree Guild is a sales organization. We work through the press by means of conservative advertising and publicity articles, through personal contact by means of exhibits and individual interviews and through the mails by means of carefully prepared bulletins of information and well selected photographs. We work to gather all the authentic information and offer this to our customers as a unique service. Frankly we believe that there is no other organization in the country that is as closely associated as we are with the authorities on tree planting. Dr. Morris, whom we all know as the dean of northern nut culture, is a member of our Board of Advisors.
In order to symbolize the grafted nut tree the Guild has adopted a brand name, Guild Pedigree, based on the fact that the mother trees have been carefully selected and are well known for their quality. Experiments have shown that they represent a selected family line and develop true to its characteristics.
We have been in touch with northern nut tree planting for a good many years, but our sales work has been limited to the past three years which, of course, means that we have never tried to sell nut trees in so-called normal times. Yet Guild Pedigrees have bucked these economic obstacles and they are becoming recognized as offering a remarkable opportunity to the business man who has property and to the busy farmer to make their idle land productive with a minimum amount of care and attention. They realize that the difficult operation of grafting has been successfully accomplished and that they need only prepare the ground for planting according to the character of the soil and with a little pruning and cultivation within a few years may be assured of a new type of crop for which there is a growing demand. They recognize the value of these trees over ordinary fruit trees which require numerous sprayings a year and whose extremely perishable crop must be carefully picked from the trees. Everyone knows that a certain amount of effort is required to get good returns from farming, but comparatively speaking improved nut trees have a decided advantage in their facility of growth, which means that they can be planted by a much wider range of growers than almost any other kind of crop.
In all of this we speak primarily of the black walnut which we recognize as the best nut tree for extensive planting in the North. We believe the hazel hybrids and filberts are of value as a secondary nut crop, as fillers-in between the black walnuts or used as ornamental bushes for screening around the grounds. Where local conditions justify it we recommend that the home orchard include a variety of nut trees, the English walnut, the northern pecan, certain hybrid hickories and a highly blight-resistant chestnut. The Guild has realized from the start that most laymen know little or nothing about the planting of nut trees. We, therefore, work with them individually, advising them in detail on their particular plantings. We keep a record of all Guild Pedigree nut trees, particularly of the black walnut, each one of which bears a tag with a serial number. We keep a record of this number and are gradually building up a case history of each tree, in so far as possible, in some instances complete with photographs. We include the conditions under which the tree was planted, whether as an orchard or as an ornamental tree, the amount of care and attention given it and its gradual development and increase in bearing. This is also being done with every tree that is included in the experimental orchard the Guild is operating in the Connecticut River valley.
The data that we are obtaining in this way is aiding us in publishing the latest authentic information on what happens when nut trees are planted by laymen under varying conditions. We believe these records will be a unique contribution of the Guild to northern nut culture. By this means we can already point to certain Guild Pedigrees as having made unusual growth or only average development, together with the probable explanation, and of course to some that have died from natural causes or from attacks by woodchucks or the like. We can offer records of plantings of Pedigrees that have been made in practically all the leading states, Canada and even abroad. Perhaps one of the most interesting case histories is that of Pedigree No. 1527 which was planted in the spring of 1932 as a Washington Bicentennial tree. This tree, set as a single specimen, came into full leaf immediately after planting and a year later was all of seven feet tall and had three mature black walnuts for its first crop. It is the proud possession of two small boys.
Young as we are in the field we have given authentic information on the planting of northern nut trees to several thousands of tree lovers. We have found a definite demand for detailed knowledge, and recognition of our work has been shown by the great interests in exhibits we have staged and from several awards which we have received from such organizations as the Horticultural Society of New York. An analysis shows that Guild nut tree plantings range from the true farmer to the gentleman farmer, from the small lot owner to the owner of hundreds of acres of non-dividend paying land, from the keen horticulturist to the youth who is taking his first step in following a fascinating new hobby.
The selling of nut trees is a very special problem. It is not like selling other kinds of trees. We recognize the fact that those who plant Pedigree nut trees are in a class by themselves and we, therefore, set up a separate department for them, making a special study of the subject. We feel certain that there is a great future ahead for nut growing in the North with our associations cooperating in the distribution of information and stock developed from actual experimentation over a period of years. Above all it is important to understand what others are doing, and appreciate that the commercial side should go hand in hand with the purely horticultural.
Progress Report on Nut Growing in the Ithaca, N. Y. Region
By DR. L. H. MACDANIELS
New York
The status of nut growing in the Ithaca region was reported at the Washington, D. C. meeting of this association in 1932. Since that time there has been little change in the situation except that a few more of the varieties have come into bearing, and the severe winter of 1933-34 has injured the trees of many varieties.
The plantings in the vicinity of Ithaca are confined chiefly to those of the Department of Pomology at Cornell University, and those of Mr. S. H. Graham who is a member of this association and has been planting nut trees for many years. Other than these there are only scattered trees either native or planted around the dooryards by amateurs without any very keen interest in northern nut growing. The purpose of the plantings at Cornell University is primarily to test out varieties for their suitability for growing in the rather rigorous climate of the region. Farmers and others throughout New York state look to the experiment stations for information regarding the possibilities of nut culture and the varieties which might be planted to advantage.
As has been pointed out previously, the number of varieties adapted to the region is distinctly limited because of unfavorable climatic conditions. These climatic conditions are more fully described in Bulletin 573 of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Cornell entitled "Nut Growing in New York State." The breeding of new varieties and other investigational work is being carried on at the Geneva Experiment Station where, as you know, Prof. G. L. Slate has been growing many varieties of filberts for some years.
The university plantings at Ithaca consist of about an acre set about 20 years ago, including a number of varieties of different nuts recommended for planting at that time. There is also about an acre of "butterjaps" which are growing vigorously but have shown little promise of value because of a lack of hardiness and generally poor cracking quality. The most important planting is about 5 acres of cleared woodland in which many hickories have come up naturally. These have been top worked to many of the leading hickory varieties. A considerable number of walnut stocks have also been planted in this area and top-worked to walnut varieties. Plans are under way to acquire 10 or 15 additional acres to be used for further variety tests as new varieties are brought to light in the various nut variety contests which are being carried on.
Up to and including 1934 the black walnuts that have fruited are the Thomas, the Ohio, and the Stabler. Of these the Thomas is the only one which is at all satisfactory. This variety has fruited 3 years in succession and has matured well-filled nuts every year. The Ohio and Stabler have been shy bearers and in addition the nuts have been small and not well filled. Both are evidently adapted to a longer growing season than that at Ithaca. In 1934 one Stambaugh graft matured about 40 nuts. This variety appears promising but needs further testing. In another year or two at least a dozen more of the promising varieties of black walnuts should come into bearing.
Among the hickories the Barnes, of which there are 3 trees, has fruited several times but in no case have the nuts been filled. The Brooks, the Stanley, and the Weiker have also fruited sparingly but the nuts have not been filled. During the past season, 1934, a few nuts were borne on the Taylor, Kentucky, and Vest hickory trees, which were well filled. It may be that these varieties will prove suitable for the region. The Kentucky looks particularly promising. The Beaver and the Fairbanks have borne a few nuts but the quality is not sufficiently good to make them worth growing. The Burlington hybrid pecan makes a very beautiful tree and has set nuts in several seasons, but they are not well filled. About half a dozen varieties of northern pecans have been fairly hardy but the seasons are too short to mature the nuts. They have always been frozen on the trees while still very green.
During the past winter the temperature went down to -35 deg. F. at the University orchard. This killed most of the Persian walnuts outright. Even the hardy varieties, Rush and Hall, were killed back to a few buds on the trunks and larger branches. This experience has been quite general throughout New York where the temperature went down below -25 deg. F. It is to be hoped that some of the new sorts being introduced from the Ukraine will be better able to stand the low temperatures experienced in New York. The low temperature very seriously damaged the 60 Chinese chestnuts growing in the University orchard, killing the terminals back for several feet and the sapwood all the way out to the combium and down to the snow line. The trees so injured made only fair recovery and it is doubtful if they are worth saving. Some Chinese chestnut trees nearer Cayuga Lake where the temperature only reached -27 deg. F. were only slightly injured. It would seem, therefore, that around -30 deg. F. was the critical temperature for the Chinese chestnut. The Japanese walnuts were not injured seriously by the cold weather of the winter. Many of the more tender seedlings had already been eliminated by the cold winters of the past. The Japanese walnuts were, however, badly damaged by the late spring frost which froze off the catkins and new shoots. This has occurred several times in the last ten years and is a serious drawback to the bearing of this species. Hickories and black walnuts for the most part showed no injury except in the case of rapidly growing grafts. All of the McCallister hican grafts were killed outright as were a number of grafts of the shellbark hickory (Carya laciniosa). At Enfield Park where the probable temperature was about -27 deg. F. one McCallister pecan graft survived. The filberts were quite generally damaged both in wood and catkins, except the Rush, which fruited heavily. Northern pecans had their terminals killed back about 6 inches but were otherwise uninjured.
In my judgment the greatest need of northern nut growing is the discovery and testing of new varieties adapted to the different northern regions. To find and test these varieties is probably the greatest service that the Northern Nut Growers' Association can perform. We cannot expect that nurserymen will propagate commercially the new nuts which are discovered until they are sufficiently tested to establish the value of the variety for different regions. As has been pointed out, the Northern Nut Growers' Association is in much the same position as was the American Pomological Society 100 or more years ago when information regarding new varieties was the main interest of the fruit industry. In this connection it would seem to me well worth while to carry out the idea proposed by Dr. Deming last year which he called the Roll Call of Nut Varieties. The older sorts have now been planted sufficiently widely by members of the association to make it possible to get some adequate idea of their suitability for growing in various localities. Those who have the interest of the association at heart should do all they can to obtain and grow any new varieties that offer any promise of being adapted to their locality. It is only by carrying out such a program that we shall have any real basis for making recommendations as to varieties adapted to different regions.
I must confess that I am still skeptical about a commercial nut industry in New York on the basis of our present varieties. After more than 20 years of variety testing in Ithaca only the Thomas black walnut has shown any real merit. All the other sorts that were propagated and recommended have shown themselves to be quite unsuitable to the climate. A grower setting out a commercial orchard 20 years ago on the basis of our knowledge of varieties at that time would now have practically nothing to show, except as he happened to have the Thomas black walnut, or possibly some of the hickories of northern origin. At the present time the number of promising varieties known has been greatly increased. They are, however, not available in the trade, nor will they be until they have been adequately tested to establish their merit. Fortunately some of the nurserymen growing nut trees are willing to run test orchards as well. They are few in number and of course their work must be augmented by the work of others in the association. What we need more than anything else are test orchards in different localities in which the relative yield of the different varieties over a period of years will be kept. On the basis of such data recommendations as to varieties to plant can be made with some degree of assurance that the information given is sound.
MR. C. A. REED:
Prof. MacDaniels may have told you of a number of promising varieties which he personally has been responsible for bringing to light during the last year. If he didn't I hope that he will tell as a matter of record how he came to get them and just what they are.
PROF. MACDANIELS:
Prof. O. F. Curtis of Cornell University and I made a pilgrimage of about a thousand miles back to the stamping ground of our youth with the avowed purpose of hunting down some of the best black walnuts of the region. The trip, though a hurried one, was packed with interest. In all, four walnuts were located which seemed well worth testing. Probably the best of these is the Albert Todd. The nut is thin hulled, a little smaller than the Thomas but with a thicker kernel. The tree was about dead when found but scions were procured and are now growing at Ithaca and Geneva. Another variety is the Emerson, located at Madison, Ohio. This is a large round nut with a rather tough shell and high proportion of kernel. Mr. Emerson has a good stand of native walnut growing on bottom land. A few years ago he sold 25 trees to a furniture company for $1000.
The third nut Dr. Curtis found on a previous journey to Ohio. It is a large nut of rather unusual shape being higher than it is long. It has good cracking quality and deserves further testing. The fourth walnut, the Chase, is growing in a dooryard at Oberlin, Ohio. It is larger than any of the others, with good shell conformation. It has the reputation of not always filling out the kernels, a condition which may be seasonal or possibly an inherent defect. Grafts of all four of these walnuts are growing at Ithaca and at Geneva and will be available after a year or two.
We had one disappointment in that a tree that we particularly wanted was found to have died only two years before. It was the old story of being too late. Certainly such experiences ought to spur this association to new efforts in trying to locate the best nut trees before they are destroyed.
Some Random Notes on Nut Culture
By D. C. SNYDER, Iowa
Any notes concerning the behavior of nut trees in Iowa this year necessarily recall the trying weather conditions and these must be referred to again and again. Although winter temperatures were quite mild, catkins on the filberts and hazels were so badly injured that none bloomed on the filberts and very few on the Jones hybrids which had previously been hardy. The native hazels bloomed but set very few nuts, apparently because of their repeatedly freezing during the blooming period. The Winkler hazel seems to be a phenomenal individual and a poor parent, not reproducing anywhere nearly true. Thus far all its seedlings have produced nuts inferior to the parent variety even when they were from seed which was cross-pollinated by other choice hazels or filberts. They do, however, show much variation in foliage, bushes and fruit and what the second generation may bring forth is yet to be determined. Established hazel plants endured the extreme heat and drought splendidly, but newly planted bushes did not. Well-rooted layers and divisions planted out early made a splendid start, then backed up and were a total failure before the July rains came.
That you may know how dry it was in Iowa the first six months of 1934, let me tell you that only about two-thirds of the oats sown in April in well prepared soil got moisture enough to germinate then, and about the same part of the corn planted in May germinated. Well, along in June a shower furnished enough moisture to germinate the remaining part, so we had corn 2 to 3 feet high and in adjacent hills only 2 or 3 inches high, and oats which were headed out mixed with others of the same sowing which were just up.
The walnuts endured these extremely dry conditions better than any fruit or nut bearing trees. Young seedlings made quite a satisfactory growth and year old seedlings lined out for future grafting made almost a perfect stand, as did the grafted trees which were unsold and lined out at the end of the selling season. The heavy loss in walnuts was in the grafts set in May. This will be mentioned later.
The shortage of moisture in 1933 apparently was responsible for considerable winter killing of young hickories which were in sod. There was no loss in cultivated ground. The hickories were like the apples this year in that they did not bloom much, and unlike them in that the apples ripened ahead of their normal season, while the hickories ripened later. Stratford nuts are usually ready to gather September 1 but this year are still clinging to the trees. Fairbanks is our most prolific kind. Nuts closely resembling Fairbanks, yet somewhat different from it, keep bobbing up on different sides of us when there is a good crop of hickory nuts. None of them have yet been superior to Fairbanks. Perhaps one should give each a good testing and keep up a search for one with better quality than Fairbanks. Certainly there is no reason for calling Stratford a hybrid. It is one of a group of shagbarks with smaller leaves and buds, and thinner husks than are found in what we would call a typical shagbark. The shagbarks might be divided into several species and be as distinct as some of the species of other trees, such as the ash for example. Vest and Hand represent another group with thin, wavy shells and thereby are quite distinct from the typical shagbarks.
On account of extremely hot weather coming so early the nut trees were grafted earlier than usual and in this order: chestnuts, bitternuts, hickory stocks, shagbark stocks and, after a few days, the walnuts and pecans. The grafting was successful in the order worked. Immediately after the walnuts and pecans were worked the temperature began mounting, reaching 114 deg. F. in the shade at one time, and of course much more in the sun and just above the bare dry ground. The chestnuts and bitternuts had time to knit together before the extreme heat and gave a splendid stand. The shagbarks also made a good stand. But the walnuts and pecan stocks were near a total failure. Apparently what occurred was that the grafting wax and paraffin which was coated over the scion melted and penetrated the union, like that much kerosene or penetrating oil, and prevented callusing. The cions remained plump and green for a long time except for a thin layer at the cut surfaces. The usual resin, beeswax, linseed oil and lamp black grafting wax was used. Can anyone suggest a wax which will remain absolutely dry under the conditions described above? What happened, as near as I can tell, is that the extremely hot weather and the continuation of it melted the grafting wax and the paraffin. They fused and made a new combination which looked like grease and absolutely prevented any growth. The shagbark hickories gave a good stand, about as perfect a stand as you could expect in hickories. Last of all the pecan stocks were worked. They should have been the easiest to work but they were a total failure. That is because the hot weather set in less than a week after they were set, while the others had more time. The problem I would like to see solved is one of a wax which will remain absolutely dry during such times, and I think then we will have solved one of the big problems of propagation.
PROF. NEILSON:
I've had more or less trouble with grafting waxes since I began to graft nut trees, and I have therefore been looking for a wax that would stand up under extremely hot weather and which could be applied cold and was not too costly. I think I have found one that comes nearest to the ideal. It is an asphalt tree emulsion made by the Flintkote Co. of New York City. This emulsion can be purchased in five gallon drums at 60c a gallon in Detroit. It can be diluted with water and applied in a thin or heavy coating. I used this wax last summer and I am better pleased with it than any other wax I have ever tried.
MR. WEBER:
I thought a few years ago that I had eliminated wax trouble, but finally I came to the conclusion that when you have a temperature that runs beyond the place that will melt ordinary paraffin the heat will kill the grafts.
MR. WALKER:
This question is an old one. Last winter and the winter before I did a little work on the old reports. You will find some mighty good winter reading there. I find things hashed and rehashed over and over again. The subject of grafting wax, of course, was discussed years ago. I might caution you on the asphalt. It will have to be the highest, purest grade.
MEMBER:
You can easily prevent wax from getting in between the scion and the stock by using a paper or cellophane.
MR. SNYDER:
These grafts were tied with tape. I'm sure that this oil would penetrate anything which was not absolutely air tight.
Winter Injury of Filberts at Geneva 1933-34[A]
By G. L. SLATE
New York Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y.
Last year I reported to you the winter injury to the Geneva filbert collection resulting from a very mild winter. This year I am reporting the damage resulting from the coldest winter on record in western New York. Varieties that have withstood both winters may be considered sufficiently hardy for anything western New York and regions with a similar climate have to offer in climate.
A brief summary of the winter and its effects on other fruit plants in the vicinity of Geneva will serve as a background for the data on filberts. The first severe cold occurred on December 29 when the temperature dropped to -21 deg. F. This equalled the previous low record established in February, 1896. On February 9 the minimum temperature recorded was -31 deg. F. or ten degrees lower than anything previously recorded in the history of the Station. The minimum on February 8 was -16 deg. F. and on February 10, -18 deg. F.
Fruit trees suffered severe injury from these extreme temperatures. Nearly all the older Baldwin apple trees in the vicinity were killed or so severely injured as to be of no further value for fruit production. Peach fruit buds were all killed and many of the trees succumbed, even in well cared for orchards. Very few sweet cherry buds survived, and many trees were injured or killed. Delaware, Catawba and Niagara grapes were also killed to the ground or lost most of their buds. Japanese plums failed to bloom, and the trees were severely injured. Nearly all climbing roses were killed to the ground. Even the native elderberry, Sambucus canadensis, was killed back in many cases. Such was the winter experienced by the filberts.
Before classifying the filbert varieties as to their hardiness, some general statements regarding the effect of the cold on the filberts may be of interest.
The injury to the wood seemed to be due to a gradual drying out and the clear cut distinction between winter killed wood and live wood so evident in peaches, apples, and pears did not show in the filberts. The wood of the filberts had a dried out appearance with a few brown streaks so that one could not predict definitely in February the amount of injury. It was not until midsummer that a true picture of the injury to the wood could be obtained. This gradual drying out of the wood without the clear cut distinctions between dead and live wood also characterized the winter killing of the wood of grapes and raspberries. In the spring new growth on the injured filbert wood started late. If the injury was slight the foliage soon reached normal size. In some cases the early leaves were very small, but later attained normal size. With trees that were severely injured the leaves remained small until midsummer and then gradually turned yellow and died. Many branches were killed outright and failed to start or only a bud here and there would start. On the trees of a few varieties that were injured the least, a few small leaves were the chief evidence of winter injury.
The recuperative power of the filbert seems to be nearly as great as that of the peach and pear insofar as this may be determined by observation in the orchard. In spite of the past winter the station filbert orchards present a fairly good appearance except for a few varieties. It is probably safe to consider filberts as hardy as peaches and sweet cherries.
The flowers of the filbert show a greater range in hardiness than those of peaches and sweet cherries. The staminate flowers or catkins of a few varieties are definitely hardier than peach flowers. Not a single peach blossom survived but three filberts bloomed with only slightly more than the usual amount of catkin killing. The pistillate or female flowers are much hardier than peach flowers. The pistillate flowers are also hardier than the wood as flowers were observed on trees the wood of which was nearly dead by midsummer. In the older orchard about 16 varieties bore a number of pistillate flowers that were recorded as medium or greater. These did not all set nuts, however, owing to the scarcity of pollen, but the crop on seven varieties was about medium. It should be emphasized at this point that there were no peaches, practically no Japanese plums, very few sweet cherries, and very few grapes in the Station orchards and vineyards this year. Trees in the partially protected orchard fared somewhat better in regard to catkin injury than those in the more exposed orchard. That full exposure to the wind has much to do with winter killing of catkins is shown by the following. After the severe freeze of December 29 and 30 when -21 deg. F. was experienced, catkins of several varieties were forced in the office. These all opened and shed pollen normally. January 29 and 30 near zero temperatures were experienced with very strong winds. Catkins forced in the office immediately after this were nearly all killed. Since zero temperatures are not uncommon at Geneva in winter, but are rare with strong winds, much of the injury may be attributed to the combination of wind and cold. |
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