THE PRESIDENT: Wasn't there one tree there with a spread of 125 feet?

MR. WILKINSON: This was in Greenview. That was the largest pecan tree known in Indiana, 70 feet to the first limb, just a straight column. The spread of the top was 140 to 150 feet. The wind blew the tree down.

MR. HERSHEY: That tree according to Mr. Wilkinson never missed a crop. While I was there they took me to a tree that had 600 pounds one year. It was on a cheap piece of land that was bought for $425.00. The year we were there it produced 250 pounds, a light crop. Another lady told us of a family that bought a piece of land that had about 50 pecans scattered over it. That kept them in ample supply of money and they didn't have to do much more to make a living.

THE PRESIDENT: The next is a report by Dr. J. H. Kellogg. Mr. Kellogg is not able to be with us and Dr. Colby will now read it.



MORE NUTS—LESS MEAT

Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Michigan

The oft reiterated appeals to the American public to "Eat more meat to save the livestock industry" and exploitation of a so-called "all-meat diet experiment" by Stefansson and Anderson, justify the presentation of the special claims of other foodstuffs, so that those who desire to regulate their eating in accordance with their bodily needs, rather than to meet the exigencies of business, even to aid a declining industry, may have a fair opportunity to judge comparative merits and draw sound conclusions based upon scientific facts, rather than misleading statements or the biased dictates of custom.

If the American people are really suffering for lack of meat the efforts of the Meat Board of Chicago should be regarded as a noble philanthropic effort to correct a national fault and to avert the dire consequences of the physical collapse which must necessarily result from a deficiency diet. But if it is not true that the average American eats less beefsteaks, chops, sausage, etc., than he needs, but as a matter of fact is actually suffering notable injury because of the great consumption of flesh foods of all sorts, then this persistent appeal to the American stomach to render economic service as well as to do its work of digestion, is not only a most extraordinary business anomaly but a grave menace to the health and welfare of the American people.

The discussion of this question is germane to the objects of this convention, since nuts are the vegetable analogues of meats, and hence we cannot reasonably ask nor expect that more nuts will be eaten simultaneously with an increased consumption of meat. And so I shall undertake to give in this paper some of the reasons why we may properly urge the people of this country to eat more nuts and less meat.

Nut meats are the real and original meat. Says Prof. Henry C. Sherman, of Columbia University in his admirable textbook, "Food Products":

"To speak of nuts as 'meat substitute' is natural under the present conditions and reflects the prominence which has been given to meat and the casual way in which nuts have been regarded for some generations. Looking at the matter in evolutionary perspective, it might be more logical to speak of meats as 'nut substitute' instead."

Evidently Professor Sherman believes, as do many other eminent scientists, that nuts were a staple in the diet of primitive man. Professor Elliot, of Oxford University, in his work, "Prehistoric Man," calls attention to the fact that in the early ages of his long career, man was not a flesh eater; and the famous Professor Ami, editor of the Ethnological History of North America, and other paleontologists, hold that man began the use of meat only after the glacial period had destroyed the great forests of nut trees on which he had formerly feasted.

This, however, likewise agrees with Holy Writ. We read in Genesis 1:29: "And God said, behold I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." So the real meat grew on trees and herbs. Beefsteak and chops are poor substitutes for the real meat, which still constitutes the food of the human race, for with the exception of the Anglo-Saxon race and a few savage tribes, meat forms no substantial part of the human diet. The teeming millions of India and China, which constitute nearly half of the whole human race, eat practically no meat. The thronging millions of Central Africa thrive on corn, nuts, bananas, peanuts, manioc, sweet potatoes and melons. The same is true at the present time of the natives of Mexico, Central and South America, who find in maize, beans, potatoes and various tropical fruits ample and satisfying sustenance.

The average American consumes 165 pounds of meat a year; the Japanese, four pounds; the people of South China less—practically none at all. Taking the human race as a whole, meat fills only a very insignificant place in the world's bill of fare. Bread is the staff of life, and nuts, the real meat, are gradually recovering their old prestige. It is only in comparatively recent years that meat has entered so largely into the bill of fare of civilized nations. Major J. B. Paget, a writer in the English Review, calls attention to the fact that there has been in England a deterioration in stature and otherwise since the Peninsular War, the reason for which he thinks "is not difficult to discover. We are the same race with the same climate and the same water. The only difference is our diet."

According to Wellington's Quartermaster General's Report, the rations of the men who fought the Peninsular War under the Iron Duke, was one pound of wheat per day and a quarter of a pound of goat's flesh. But they had to catch the goats who ran wild in the mountains and so they seldom got that part of their ration.

According to General Sir William Butler these soldiers were "splendid men with figures and faces like Greek gods." And he adds with regret, "Such men have passed away."

Major Paget tells us that the Spaniards were greatly impressed by the fine teeth of these English soldiers and especially of their wives who accompanied them. Of their diet the Major says:

"These men before they enlisted were nearly all agricultural laborers who were brought up on a hard, wholemeal bread, garden produce, and apparently very little meat, as the consumption of meat was then three pounds per head per annum."

It is to be remembered also that nuts form a substantial part of the diet of that large and interesting family of vertebrates, the primates, represented by the gorilla, the chimpanzee, the orang-utan and the gibbon, animals that do not eat meat, and that man is also a primate. No authority has ever offered any reason why man's diet should differ from that of other primates.

Man is not naturally a flesh-eater. Infants usually evince a dislike for flesh when it is first given them.

Adults who use flesh foods are attracted by their flavors rather than by the nutritive elements which they supply. As a matter of fact, more and better food material is supplied by plant foods and at a far less cost.

Meats are notably deficient in vitamins, while nuts are rich in vitamin B, some, as the hazel nut, containing one-fifth as much as dry yeast. The precious vitamin A, found in only very meager amounts in meats, is found in the almond, the pine nut, coconuts and peanuts.

The minerals, too, are found in better proportions and in larger amounts in nuts than in meats.

The deficiencies in essential elements in a lean meat diet are so pronounced that when Chalmers Watson fed rats on meat they became deformed and sterile, their mammary and other sex glands degenerated and in three generations they ran out completely. Watson attributes the steady and very pronounced lowering of the birth-rate in Great Britain to the increased consumption of meat in that country, which has risen in a little more than a century from 3 pounds to more than 100 pounds per capita, while the birth-rate has fallen until it closely approximates the mortality rate. The same thing has happened in the older sections of this country, especially the New England states.

According to Newburgh, of the University of Michigan, the large consumption of meat in this country may be responsible for the high death rate from Bright's disease, which is mounting higher every year. And the same is true of diseases of the heart and blood vessels, which now claim more lives annually than any other cause. He finds that when rabbits are fed meat meal mixed with flour in bread, they soon become diseased through changes in the bloodvessels and die of old age before they are a year old.

Hindhede, of Copenhagen, a physiologist of world-wide renown, and food commissioner for Denmark, in a notable paper read before the Race Betterment Conference at Battle Creek, January, 1928, remarked as follows:

"One notices the terrible death toll in America due to Bright's disease. I can no longer doubt that the high meat diet ruins the kidneys, especially in view of Dr. Newburgh's experiments, proving as they do that we may, with mathematical certainty, produce Bright's disease even in rats by placing them on a high meat diet.

"I feared that you might doubt my statistics, and might consider me merely another 'crank,' so I placed my figures before Dr. Sundwall, Professor of Hygiene of the University of Michigan, and asked him to check their correctness. Dr. Sundwall and Dr. Newburgh recalculated the data, and authorized the publication."

Hindhede found the number of deaths per 100,000 from six causes—alcoholism, apoplexy, disorders of digestion, cirrhosis or hardening of the liver, nephritis (Bright's disease), and diabetes—to be in this country 255 and in Denmark on a low meat diet, 112. He calculates that the adoption in this country of the Danish diet, which would eliminate more than half our meats, would save the lives of not less than 200,000 of our citizens annually. And yet there are vested interests which continually clamor for the increased consumption of meats. Fortunately the American people are becoming enlightened on the subject of diet and are using less meat and more green vegetables, with less bread and cereal breakfast foods and more milk and potatoes.

Nutrition researches are daily teaching us new lessons in dietetics, some of which are of commanding importance. One of the most significant of these is the necessity for taking account of the nature of the ash left by a foodstuff in the body. There are basic or alkali-ash foods and acid-ash foods. Foods of the latter class when freely used cause acidosis. Meats are high up in the list of acid-ash foods. It is for this reason that such animals as the lion and flesh-eating men have little endurance. The American team made a poor showing at the last International Olympic meet, in the writer's opinion because of their excessive meat-eating. According to Roosevelt, a vegetarian horse, with a heavy man on his back (Teddy), was able to run down a lion in a mile and a half.

Thousands of short-winded, asthmatic people who are tired all the time and take cold at every change of the wind and think they are overworked because they find it so hard to work, are victims of acidosis from a heavy meat diet. If such persons will eliminate meat from their diet and add a pint of milk or buttermilk, they will experience an immediate physical uplift which, in some cases, will seem almost incredible.

Meat contains poisons, the natural wastes of the body. By its use, the labor of the kidneys is more than doubled.

Besides, fresh meats are always swarming with bacteria, and not the harmless sort that are found in buttermilk but the pernicious germs which have their headquarters in the colons of animals. Meats always become infected with these filthy colon germs in the process of slaughtering and the longer it is kept the more numerous the colon germs become, for they multiply amazingly fast, and this is the reason the meat becomes more tender when "hung" for a long time.

I was consulted not long ago by the manager of a large popular hotel who wanted suggestions about feeding his guests. I recommended special care in the selection of meats and the choosing of that which had been most recently killed.

"Oh!" said the manager, "my chef is on to that. He is very particular. You know our hotel meat usually has a beard of green mold on it an inch long. My chef is very careful. He never allows the beard to be more than a quarter of an inch long."

Another hotel manager told me they often had to cut away nearly half of the meat because it was so green and rotten.

This is not pleasant information but it is simply commonplace, every-day fact. Sausage, hamburger steak and "game" with a high flavor, are little if any better than carrion, and the poisons which such foods introduce into the body must all be detoxicated by the liver and eliminated by the kidneys, and thus they are worn out prematurely by overwork.

"As sweet as a nut," is an old bon mot which hides no such repulsive picture. The nut, inside its germ-proof shell, is solid nutriment of the purest sort, the very quintessence of nutrient value, sunlight in cold storage. The nut represents food energy in its most delectable and concentrated form.

From an economic standpoint, the nut leaves flesh foods so far behind that they are almost out of sight.

Experiments to determine the digestibility and nutritive value of nuts were conducted several years ago by the eminent Professor Jaffa of the University of California. His researches conducted over many months, using human volunteers as subjects, showed that nuts were well digested and created no intestinal disturbances. Later experiments confirmed and extended the observations of Professor Jaffa. These experiments, conducted by Professor Cajori of Yale University in the Yale laboratory and in the laboratory of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, have finally definitely settled the question.

Says Professor Cajori, with reference to his results: "A few years ago a rather extensive series of digestion experiments were inaugurated at Yale University in an effort to settle the question of the indigestibility of nuts and also to test out some of the commercial nut products to find what effect roasting, boiling, and other processes that nuts are subjected to had on their digestibility. Through the courtesy of Dr. Kellogg of Battle Creek, it was possible to follow up these experiments with a series at Battle Creek. It is of the result of these tests that I wish to speak."

* * * * *

"Our digestion experiments show the following results: For protein digestion of nuts—almond 89%, pecan 84%, pine nut 89%, English walnut 83%, Brazil nut 88%, and coconut 88%."

"How, then, explain the undoubted discomfort that many people experience after eating nuts? I believe the explanation rests on the fact that our common American way of eating nuts is not the rational way. We would not consider topping off a heavy meal with eggs, meat, or cereals, or eating these in large quantities between meals without realizing that we were exposing ourselves to possible digestive discomfort. No more, then, can we expect to eat nuts, which are even more concentrated or "heavy" than meats or eggs, merely as an adjunct, without occasional discomfort. Unpleasant results from so eating does not condemn the nut as indigestible; rather it condemns our mode of using that nut. Further, we must recognize that a nut is a hard compact substance, and that unless completely masticated is not readily penetrated by the digestive juices of the alimentary canal. This was very well brought out in our experiments with dogs. The dog bolts his food and where there were large fragments of the nuts in the food they appear unchanged in the feces, while if the nut was ground fine before feeding it was readily digested. Comparisons of nut butters and nut pastes with the whole nut also brought out this point. The completely comminuted nut butters showed consistently higher degrees of digestion than the whole nut."

Nuts should be used as a food staple, a major element in the bill of fare, rather than as a dessert, and special care must be taken as to thorough mastication, which is almost equally true of apples, bananas and numerous other fruits which possess a firm flesh.

To overcome the objection that some people are unable to masticate nuts properly on account of defective teeth, and to insure the proper assimilation even if not properly chewed, the writer some forty years ago conceived the idea of converting the nuts by crushing and grinding into a paste, in other words, chewing the nuts by machinery. The peanut was first utilized in this way and rapidly won its way to public favor. Now, many scores of carloads of that nut are eaten under the name of "peanut butter."

Almonds were next used, and were found to make a delicious nut paste, or butter, which by the addition of water and a little salt, became a most delicious cream. In the form of almond cream or milk nothing could be conceived in the way of nourishment which the body can more easily appropriate and more fully utilize.

As regards the necessity for eating meat, this question was definitely settled by the Inter-allied Scientific Food Commission which met during the war, without doubt the most authoritative body on the subject of food and nutrition that was ever brought together.

The question of a minimum meat ration was discussed by the Commission, and it was decided to be unnecessary to fix a minimum meat ration, since, in the words of the commissioners in their report, "no absolute physiological need exists for meat, since the proteins of meat can be replaced by other proteins, such as those contained in milk, cheese and eggs, as well as those of vegetable origin."

Quite in line with this official action was an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which states that "man's health and strength are not dependent on the assumed superior virtues of animal flesh as a dietary constituent."

A supreme advantage of nuts over meats is that they are absolutely free from any possible taint of disease. Those delectable foods, the walnut, the pecan, the hickory nut and the almond, are never the vehicle for parasites or other infections. Nuts are not subject to tuberculosis or any other disease which may be communicated to human beings.

Speaking of his childhood diet, Professor Stephen Mizwa says: "We had chicken, too, but I rarely tasted one unless I was sick and the chicken was sick." The voluntary eating of sick animals may be less common in this country than in Poland, but the eating of the flesh of diseased animals may nevertheless be much more extensive.

Within the year 1918 there were slaughtered in the United States a hundred million beeves, sheep, pigs and goats, one whole beast for every man, woman and child in the United States. Of this vast multitude of animals the Federal inspectors examined nearly two-thirds (60,000,000) and found one and a half per cent so badly diseased that the whole or part of the carcass was condemned. In other words, nearly a million (900,000) carcasses were found seriously diseased. But there were 40,000,000 other beasts killed and eaten which were not inspected; and they were without doubt much more badly diseased, a fact which was in many cases, most likely, the reason why no inspection was made. Allowing that three per cent of these were diseased, which is a low estimate, the total number of diseased animals found in the 100,000,000 slaughtered was not less than 2,000,000, or one in fifty of the total number. And most of these were eaten by human beings either wholly or in part.

If we should abandon meat eating in favor of nuts we would not have to worry about what our victuals died of.

By the substitution of nuts for meats all dangers associated with flesh eating may be avoided; hence their use should be encouraged in every practical way. National and state legislators should make liberal appropriations for the study of the soil and climatic conditions best suited to nut culture, and otherwise encourage this infant but most important industry.

* * * * *

MR. BRICKER: Have any of you come in contact with a black walnut, seemingly deformed, in which there is only one lobe in the shell?

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Deming, what is your observation of the Stabler with one lobe?

DR. DEMING: 50% are one lobe.

MR. HERSHEY: Mr. Bixby found, I think, 60%. We don't know why there should be nuts with one lobe.

DR. SMITH: In my observation of the Stabler, the percentage of one lobe nuts is very small, not more than 5%.

MR. BRICKER: Also there is a large black walnut at Atalissa, with a very thin shell. I have seen some of them, however, that were not very well filled last year.

THE PRESIDENT: Is that a little town in Iowa?

MR. BRICKER: Yes. Below Iowa City, east of West Liberty.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Wilkinson has something interesting to tell us about the discovery of a black walnut valued for its lumber.

MR. WILKINSON: Possibly Professor Smith knows more about that than I do. The first I knew of it Mr. Lamb wrote that he had found an unusual figured walnut. He had already sent scions to Dr. Morris and Mr. Bixby, and Dr. Morris suggested he send me some. When the log came Mr. Lamb found it unusually highly figured. He traced it to where it was loaded. They went to the fields and chopped into the tops until they found the tree by the figure of the wood. It had been cut two months and the wood was entirely dry. Mr. Bixby sent me two very tiny grafts. The tree sawed out something over 60,000 feet of veneer that sold from 16 to 18 cents per square foot; quite a large tree. It sawed out five logs and the stump sawed out 500 feet. Several thousand dollars for the tree. I saw several pieces of the tree last year. The most beautiful thing I ever saw. Most highly figured log that ever came into the mill at Chicago.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: Prof. Lake sent me scions named the Lion.

DR. DEMING: The figure is not in the scion wood.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: The scion wood I put on was quite curly.

DR. SMITH: Does the curly character show in the sap wood or the heart?

THE PRESIDENT: You have to go away from home to know what is going on there. It is the first I have known about that very interesting tree. I would like to get some trees of that curly type. Mr. W. K. Kellogg is very much interested in having us propagate that type.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: Mr. Link told me Mr. Linton had some.

MR. HARRINGTON: It seems to me very strange that the stump didn't sprout.

MR. WILKINSON: The stump was used.

DR. DEMING: There must have been roots.

THE PRESIDENT: Sometimes it is difficult to get them to grow.

MR. WEBER: Three miles northwest of Blufftown there is a natural hybrid between the white and chinquapin oaks. There are some samples out on the table. We picked up some of the nuts and found them edible. No trace of any bitterness whatever. You come out of Blufftown on No. 30. About a half mile above the town you turn to the left and go about a mile or more. It is at the intersection of the Erie Quarry road. It has a wire fence around it.

DR. SMITH: How do you know it is a hybrid?

MR. WEBER: From Richard Leber. It was discovered by a man by the name of Williamson, and he suggested that the state acquire the land in order to preserve the tree.

DR. SMITH: It will be another source of carbo-hydrate food.

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Zimmerman is a specialist on chestnut blight, and particularly on inducing immunity.



INDUCED IMMUNITY TO CHESTNUT BLIGHT

Dr. G. A. Zimmerman, Piketown, Pa.

Several years ago I started out to get rid of the chestnut blight. On several occasions before this notable body I told of the successes and failures I had encountered, still believing that I was on the right road and insisting that an antigen would be absorbed in sufficient amount to stimulate immunity. Science has since vindicated that assertion and men are now injecting all sorts of chemicals, and even dyes to stain the grain of the wood.

I have been very cautious in the past and perhaps should be more so now, in view of the fact that only a comparatively few years have elapsed since I began my work on plants. Still, after having used vaccines on human beings and animals for twenty-one years, and observing that plant life reacts to an antigen in a similar manner, I am at least entitled to the same conclusions. This gives me an opportunity of knowing years in advance just what to expect.

While my work is still going on as an experiment I have no hesitancy in saying that I can and have put as much active immunity to the blight into the chestnut in five years as nature has been able to place in perhaps four or five thousand years by her usual method. However it is only fair to state that such results cannot be accomplished by mere oratory. Injections must be made and the antigen must go into the plants, not in single doses, if you please, but by the thousands.

In recent years there has been considerable discussion relative to the chestnut coming back. This simply means further delay. The chestnut will come back but not before from 25 to 150 years yet. There are few roots that will stand mutilation for that period, and the few plants that do survive will have taken the shrub form like the chinquapin, and the nuts will likely be as insignificant. I have plants from a tree that holds as much immunity in the natural way as any I know, being rated at 2X, and these plants have inherited an immunity equal to the parent, no more and no less. I have, however, a lot of seedlings from Paragon and Champion trees rated at from 6X to 7X. These seedlings may confidently be expected to perform as their parents and produce many plants of equal resistance.

I shall not discuss the antigen or its method of administration. That has been covered rather carefully in former papers. I do want to say a word, however, about root stock. In a blight region it is preferable to have chestnuts on their own roots. The nearest to own-rooted plants is a graft on their own seedlings. The Chinese and Japanese chestnut in my hands has made a very poor root stock for the American chestnut or its hybrids. The European chestnut is only fair, with the chinquapin somewhat better, but having the disadvantage of being troublesome to get from the seed. The American chestnut, or its American hybrids, is by far the best, providing we can get one with immunity. I think the Rochester will shortly fill this need.

The chestnut oak has made a rather interesting stock for a few varieties, notably a Chinese and 20 No. 3, a native American chestnut sent to me from Bloomsburg, Pa. I now have a few of these double grafted with other varieties.

I might say that I am no longer interested in any chestnut, no matter how resistant it may be, unless the nut is of large size and fine quality, because I can immunize a plant bearing a good size, fine quality chestnut much easier and in a shorter time than one can be developed through hybridization from an inferior nut. I am usually, like most folks, looking for the path of least resistance.

My work has been a good deal divided during the past few years because, while I started out with the chestnut alone, now I am carrying a dozen other fruits, nuts and berries.

In closing let me state that my principle of induced immunity is sound and the procedure feasible and practical.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: About the result of grafting the chestnut on a species of oak. How long have these scions been growing?

DR. ZIMMERMAN: About three years.

MR. HERSHEY: How long?

DR. ZIMMERMAN: This is not the oak that I had reference to when you were up there. These are about three years old. I think they grow a little better than on the chestnut. Many of them died. I have another scheme now; that is grafting the scions as high as I can. Get them united and then bend them over and get them to root. Some are doing nicely, others have died.

DR. SMITH. I think you complimented us by thinking we could follow you. Do you intend to vaccinate the chestnut and make it immune and then expect it to transmit that immunity in its seed? Have you checked up in the second generation?

DR. ZIMMERMAN: I haven't had time yet.

DR. SMITH: Thus far you have established immunity in the living tree?

DR. ZIMMERMAN: Yes, and I have a bunch of seedlings now from nuts from immunized trees that I planted last spring. I have 200 of those. I expect them to inherit immunization from their parents.

DR. SMITH: We vaccinate each generation of youngsters.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: I was speaking of the experiments with guinea pigs.

DR. SMITH: Isn't smallpox vaccination against your theory?

DR. ZIMMERMAN: I don't think so. They are doing it with other things. I found a human being giving the reaction for typhoid for seventeen years after he had been immunized.

DR. SMITH: Have you any evidence for or against the decline of immunity in the tree?

DR. ZIMMERMAN: I think it will decline.

DR. SMITH: Then we have got to keep on immunizing like spraying. I didn't mean necessarily annually. I mean perhaps it is not a permanent achievement.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: I imagine that the tree will be sufficiently attacked by blight to keep the immunity up. It is wise to have it attacked once in a while.

MR. HERSHEY: Isn't this only carried on until you get natural resistance?

DR. ZIMMERMAN: I know that it will be a long time before I can have chestnut trees to produce like Mr. Harrington's. But I am going ahead. I can't wait 17 years. All I need is some time and I will produce chestnuts of the finest varieties, as Mr. Harrington has.

DR. SMITH: How long will it take?

DR. ZIMMERMAN: They will hold their immunity as well as the Chinese. The ones I have are worth planting right now. I have trees that are standing up better than any Chinese chestnuts are. It takes a long time before the immunizing principle is so disseminated that every part of the tree will have an equal resistance. I can easily see that by cutting off a scion and grafting it I may get hold of one that has not had its immunization distributed as it should be.

DR. SMITH: A fairly ignorant man can take machinery and spray an orchard. Can he do the same with immunizing?

DR. ZIMMERMAN: No sir, he can not.

DR. SMITH: Perhaps I should not have used the word ignorant. A farm hand can spray and make a pretty good crop of apples.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: No, he can't do it. It hasn't been easy. I have run into all kinds of obstacles. As soon as I injure the stock a little bit the blight takes it. As soon as I can raise them on their own roots it will be all right. That will come.

DR. SMITH: Have you seen chestnut grafts root as the apple does?

DR. ZIMMERMAN: Yes, right below the surface. A couple of them were that long. They will send out roots. Then I have noticed on some, that at the place where I grafted the callus got quite large. It got too dry and died off. I have never rooted American chestnut cuttings. I have rooted some Chinese chestnuts.

THE PRESIDENT: Some of the Chinese chestnuts root quite readily from those small shoots that come up from the ground. I conducted a little experiment in trying to propagate the Chinese chestnuts by cuttings. I made 144 cuttings. They all dutifully and beautifully died. I don't mean to say that the Chinese chestnut cannot be rooted by cuttings.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: I noticed one chestnut that was toppling over and the leaves were withering. The rats had taken it off just below the ground. I couldn't find a root anywhere, but it was callused. I cut it back and planted it again. It must have roots now for it is still green. Otherwise it wouldn't live this long.

THE PRESIDENT: Your experiments are of very great interest. If you are successful you will deserve the gratitude of this and future generations.

MR. HARRINGTON: Do you remember when we were down at the Riehl nursery that we ran into a chestnut that produces 7 to 9 in a burr?

THE PRESIDENT: I remember one tree that had a great many nuts.

MR. HARRINGTON: I had one with 7 nuts and they said there were some with 9. Was that the one named Gibbons?

DR. COLBY: That has three nuts to the burr.

DR. DEMING: Dr. Colby, there have been two instances of blight infection in Illinois. Could you tell us how the eradication was done?

DR. COLBY: In each case the tree was burned and the disease entirely eradicated by fire on the spot.

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Colby has a paper from Mr. Littlepage on the plant patent law.



"PLANT PATENT ACT"

By Thomas P. Littlepage, District of Columbia Bar, Washington, D. C.

The plant patent act is an effort by Congress, as stated in the Committee reports on this bill, "to afford agriculture, so far as practicable, the same opportunity to participate in the benefits of the patent system as has been given industry, and thus assist in placing agriculture on a basis of economic equality with industry." The act is rather short and is set forth below:

[PUBLIC—NO. 245—71ST CONGRESS]

[S. 4015]

An Act To provide for plant patents.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That sections 4884 and 4886 of the Revised Statutes, as amended. (U. S. C., title 35, secs. 40 and 31), are amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 4884. Every patent shall contain a short title or description of the invention or discovery, correctly indicating its nature and design, and a grant to the patentee, his heirs or assigns, for the term of seventeen years, of the exclusive right to make, use, and vend the invention or discovery (including in the case of a plant patent the exclusive right to asexually reproduce the plant) throughout the United States and the Territories thereof, referring to the specification for the particulars thereof. A copy of the specification and drawings shall be annexed to the patent and be a part thereof.

"SEC. 4886. Any person who has invented or discovered any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvements thereof, or who has invented or discovered and asexually reproduced any distinct and new variety of plant, other than a tuber-propagated plant, not known or used by others in this country, before his invention or discovery thereof, and not patented or described in any printed publication in this or any foreign country, before his invention or discovery thereof, or more than two years prior to his application, and not in public use or on sale in this country for more than two years prior to his application, unless the same is proved to have been abandoned, may, upon payment of the fees required by law, and other due proceeding had, obtain a patent therefor."

SEC. 2, Section 4888 of the Revised Statutes, as amended (U. S. C., title 35, sec. 33), is amended by adding at the end thereof the following sentence: "No plant patent shall be declared invalid on the ground of noncompliance with this section if the description is made as complete as is reasonably possible."

SEC. 3. The first sentence of section 4892 of the Revised Statutes, as amended (U. S. C., title 35, sec. 35), is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 4892. The applicant shall make oath that he does verily believe himself to be the original and first inventor or discoverer of the art, machine, manufacture, composition, or improvement, or of the variety of plant, for which he solicits a patent; that he does not know and does not believe that the same was ever before known or used; and shall state of what country he is a citizen."

SEC. 4. The President may by Executive order direct the Secretary of Agriculture (1) to furnish the Commissioner of Patents such available information of the Department of Agriculture, or (2) to conduct through the appropriate bureau or division of the department such research upon special problems, or (3) to detail to the Commissioner of Patents such officers and employees of the department, as the commissioner may request for the purposes of carrying this Act into effect.

SEC. 5. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this Act, no variety of plant which has been introduced to the public prior to the approval of this Act shall be subject to patent.

SEC. 6. If any provision of this Act is declared unconstitutional or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of the Act and the application thereof to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

Approved, May 23, 1930.

* * * * *

It is admitted by all who understand anything about horticulture that this act is intended to meet a long-felt want. The world owes much to many hard working scientists who have developed many valuable plants, both ornamental and edible, and up to the date of this act such producer had no way of reaping any very material financial benefit from his labors. The man who might invent some new and useful gadget for an automobile or other machinery was protected under the patent law, if he availed himself of it, but the man who developed a beautiful flower, a fine apple or a fine nut was wholly without protection.

The term "asexually" as used in the act, is generally understood by horticulturists to mean any method of producing a plant except from seed. It will be observed, in referring again to the act, that the man who discovers some new plant and propagates it by any of the methods covered by the term "asexually" can have such plant patented under the terms of this law, but the patent law is one that is always construed strictly and obviously the application for patent would have to be made in the name of the man who actually discovered the plant. Of course, after securing such patent, he could assign it the same as any other patent is assigned, but the question would constantly arise in this connection as to who actually was the first discoverer. Most of the sporadic fine plants, especially fruit and nut bearing trees, were matters of neighborhood knowledge many years before they actually attracted the attention of some one who recognized their full value and knew how to propagate them, and the question would arise immediately as to who was the real discoverer. Undoubtedly the man who tramped constantly around in the neighborhood of a fine nut or fruit tree and actually saw the tree but did not recognize its value, is like the man the poet describes when he said:

"A primrose by the river's brim, A primrose only was to him, And nothing more."

This man could not be said to be a discoverer under the terms of this law; but on the other hand the plowman who might be plodding his weary way homeward and see a fruit or nut tree bearing something unusual and who would recognize its unusual and distinct differences would be the real discoverer, but unless he could prove the fact that he had called it to the attention of others in some manner he would have difficulty in complying with the patent law and making a proper showing of originality as required by that law. But he would also, in addition to being the discoverer, have to asexually reproduce it and this he might not be able to do on account of his lack of knowledge of propagating methods.

The language of the law presents some very interesting problems to those of us who have tramped the fields and valleys in search of nut trees producing better nuts than those already propagated, and it incidently brings into the patent practice a brand new requirement. The ablest patent lawyer in America might not know the difference between a bud and a graft, a layer or cross-pollination. I have frequently had some very able lawyers who visited my farm and had their attention called to a pecan tree grafted onto a hickory, ask what kind of nuts it would bear. Of course when they ask such questions as that I promptly change the subject and begin to talk about the weather or something else; I certainly do not try to educate them in the fundamentals of tree propagation. It will also require specialists in the patent office who likewise know something of horticulture and reproduction methods of plants.

It will also be noted that the law excludes tuber-propagated plants. The Committee report states that:

"The bill excepts from the right to a patent the invention or discovery of a distinct and new variety of a tuber-propagated plant. The term "tuber" is used in its narrow horticultural sense as meaning a short, thickened portion of an underground branch. It does not cover, for instance, bulbs, corms, stolons, and rhizomes. Substantially, the only plants covered by the term "tuber-propagated" would be the Irish potato and the Jerusalem artichoke. This exception is made because this group alone, among asexually reproduced plants, is propagated by the same part of the plant that is sold as food."

It will be noted that there is quite a spread, however, between the exact language of the law and the Committee report, for example: under the law it would appear that a dahlia might be excluded, and it also raises the question, under the language of the law, as to many of the root plants, such as peonies and others. Obviously, Congress did not intend to exclude plants such as the dahlia, peony and others, as evidenced from the excerpt in the Committee report above quoted, and whether the matter of the production of a new dahlia by cross-pollination and tested out through the growth of the bulbs, can be made to harmonize with the language of the law is the question. The Committee report says that tubers mean only "Irish potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes." It always occurred to me that the sweet-potato is also a tuber, but the Committee report apparently attempts to exclude it.

There are any number of interesting questions that occur to those of us who are fortunate enough to have some knowledge of the law as well as a few fundamental principles of horticulture, but in spite of whatever weakness the law may or may not have, it is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, and meets a long-felt want.

The Secretary of Agriculture said in his letter to the Committee:

"The proposed legislation would appear to be desirable and to lend far-reaching encouragement to agriculture and benefit to the general public."

Thomas A. Edison, who is also quoted in the Committee report, said:

"Nothing that Congress could do to help farming would be of greater value and permanence than to give to the plant breeder the same status as the mechanical and chemical inventors now have through the patent law. There are but few plant breeders. This (the bill) will, I feel sure, give us many Burbanks."

It is certainly to be hoped that many of those interested in northern nut culture, as well as in fruits and ornamentals, will avail themselves of the privileges of this bill to give us something better. We are not satisfied with our varieties today and should not be. The greatest problem in nut culture, as well as fruit and ornamentals, is the question of variety. It will also be the most important question a hundred years from now, but the man who produces these better varieties should do so with the knowledge that under this law the fruits of his labor will be protected and he will at least have the same opportunity to receive remuneration therefrom as the inventor of a gadget.

* * * * *

DR. COLBY: I have talked with a number of men interested in the law. While they agree that it is a step in the right direction they feel that it will be a rather difficult thing to administer it. Plants differ from other objects or things or "gadgets" and considerable experience will be necessary on the part of the administration before the law will be made workable.

* * * * *

A banquet was held at the Hotel Montrose on the evening of September 17 at which about forty members and guests were present. The menu follows, and it will be noted that nuts were featured:

Canape, Montrose (Dates stuffed with Nuts) Iced Celery Mixed Nuts Queen Olives Soup, Rothschild (Garnished with Chestnuts) Roast Young Capon Stuffed, Hickory Nut Dressing, Jelly Au Gratin Potatoes Puree of Chestnuts, Baked Frozen Fruit & Nut Salad, Cream Nut Dressing Wafers Hot Parkerhouse Rolls Black Walnut Ice Cream Nut Layer Cake Coffee

After the banquet the President spoke as follows:

Once upon a time I read a poem, which unfortunately I do not have here but in effect it was this: In our progress through life a great deal of injury is wrought by not showing our appreciation of people while they are with us. Let us give them our flowers now. We do want now to say a few things about the founder of our organization. In my history of this association Dr. Deming was the person who first proposed an association of this kind. I believe this was about 21 or 22 years ago, perhaps longer than that. At any rate the association has been going for some time and it was brought into existence through the thought of Dr. Deming. We should be very glad to hear from Dr. Deming.

DR. DEMING: Thank you. It is very gratifying indeed but I wish you hadn't. It is very difficult to express gratitude properly. I cannot make a speech like our friend Dr. Smith here, who I hope will make one. I can't tell a good story like our President. In fact, I feel like that man who said, "How happy is the moron, he does not give a damn. I wish I were a moron. My God! perhaps I am."

David Fairchild says that it takes the energies, the fortunes and the lives of pioneers, the best people of our country, to build up a new plant industry. I congratulate you all in being included in that class of pioneers, the best people of this country. But we haven't yet built up the great nut industry that we would like to build.

I might tell you how the idea of the nut growers association arose. In 1907 I got a little farm of forty acres in Connecticut. In 1908 I read an article by Dr. Morris, "Nut Culture as a Side Line for Physicians." I immediately wrote the doctor and he said in fifteen years I could have an income of $100.00 an acre from nuts alone. That seemed to me exactly what I wanted, $4,000 a year and live very comfortably. So I bought all the nut trees I could find. I bought nut trees from every nursery in this country that offered them in the North. I got pecans from the South. I sent to California and got filberts and English walnuts. I sent to Europe for English walnut seeds. I bought twenty acres of chestnut sprout land and grafted the sprouts. Just as the chestnuts were beginning to bear the blight came along. That ended them. The English walnuts I set around in fence corners and they grew a little smaller every year and, finally disappeared. That was the end of the English walnuts. At that time I couldn't graft hickories. With great labor I collected hickory scions and sent them to nurseries in the South and had them grafted. They arrived in the North after the ground had frozen. I told the hired man to heel them in. He heeled them in but left the top of the roots out. In the spring they were all dead. By that time my dander was up a little. I thought there must be other men who were having the same trouble. If we could have a little organization we could tell each other our troubles and perhaps work them out together. I wrote Dr. Morris, John Craig, Professor Close, Mr. Hales, and one or two others, and we met together in the Botanical Museum in Bronx Park and organized the Northern Nut Growers Association. That is all I had to do with it. Whether we will ever come to the place where they will have bands out and ticker tape flying, when we come to town—that is the thing I used to dream about a little when we first started. But I don't think we are destined to burst wide the gates of fame yet. We may after we have achieved our objects. As Dr. Fairchild has said, all our money, lives and energies must be devoted to them. We then may achieve post-mortem fame.

I want to say one thing, however, before I stop. We can't advocate the planting of nut trees if there are no nut trees to be had. Therefore, I think the Northern Nut Growers Association should do all that is possible to encourage the nursery men who are propagating nut trees. We should consider the propagating nursery men as a vital and essential part of the work we are trying to do.

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Deming made some reference to stories. Once in a while a story does flit across my mental horizon. I want to tell you how the word "nut" may have a very humorous interpretation. Once upon a time in Michigan a man died. After he died the local minister went around to console the widow. When he came of course the lady was grieving. This clergyman was a very young man and he attempted to console her thus: "Now, my dear Mrs. Smith; that which you see is just the husk, the nut has gone to heaven." Another time I addressed the Women's Canadian Club. I was invited to address this group on nut culture and the President in introducing me told a story about a minister too. In this case the minister got up in his pulpit and made an announcement: "My dear friends, my sermon is on liars. I am glad to see so many present." This lady said, "Of course, Mr. Neilson cannot say 'I am going to talk today on nuts, I am glad to see so many present'." I would like to give you an outline of the progress made during the past year. In writing this I had to inject into it a great deal of my own activities. I simply couldn't get out of it. I ask you to overlook the frequent references of a personal nature.



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

Prof. J. A. Neilson, East Lansing, Mich.

This is our twenty-first meeting and the first one to be held in the state of Iowa where tall corn grows, where good nuts thrive and good people live. We are glad to come to the midwest and meet some of its people, and see what our friends the Snyder Brothers and others are doing to extend the culture of nut trees in Iowa and other midwest states.

In looking over the records of the past year we find the usual experiences common to the lot of man. We find loss and gain, sorrow and joy. Our sense of loss and sorrow is heightened when we think of the passing of our good friend and efficient secretary Mr. Henry D. Spencer of Decatur, Ill. His sudden death was a shock to us all and we feel that his passing is a distinct loss not only to our association but to his city and state. It is also a loss to us as individuals in the severance of those helpful friendships which do so much to cheer us on our way and make life worth while.

In association matters, Mr. Spencer was most active and efficient. He was zealous, original and energetic, and did a lot to create interest in nut culture in his state and other midwest areas. Of him, as of others who have labored faithfully for an ideal and passed to their reward, may it be truly said, "The just die in their turn, but falling as the flowers, they leave on earth their fruit that outlives them."

While we have lost a capable secretary and good friend we have been fortunate in securing the services of Dr. A. S. Colby as a successor to Mr. Spencer. The news of Mr. Spencer's passing came just before your president left Lansing to address the Illinois State Horticulture Society on nut culture. In casting about for a new secretary, it occurred to me that Dr. Colby was the logical man for the position. While at Urbana where the Horticultural Society met I broached the matter to Dr. Colby. At first he was unwilling but after some discussion he finally consented to take the position provided the university authorities at Urbana would agree to his taking on new duties. Dr. Blair, head of the Horticultural Department at Urbana, was then approached on the matter and graciously consented to allow Dr. Colby to assume the secretaryship for the balance of the year. Dr. Colby has fulfilled his position in a very capable manner and I am sure the other executives and members are grateful to Dr. Colby and Dr. Blair for their cordial cooperation and help in our time of need.

As president I am also deeply grateful to our good and faithful friend Dr. W. C. Deming for taking over the duties of secretary while Dr. Colby was in England attending the World's Horticultural Congress in London, and enjoying a well deserved holiday. I trust Dr. Colby has returned to his duties with renewed zeal and increased knowledge and I hope he will be able to share some of that knowledge with those of us who were not fortunate enough to attend that great congress of horticulturists.

At our last meeting our late Secretary, Mr. Spencer, outlined the worthy scheme of staging a nut exhibit at the Chicago Garden and Flower Show, held in the stadium at Chicago. Considerable work was done by Mr. Spencer before he died, and afterward by Dr. Colby when he took over the secretaryship. Your president was able to assist Dr. Colby in various ways, such as staging the exhibit, in helping financially, and in personally attending the exhibit for five days. This exhibit of nuts was made up of entries from Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Ontario and British Columbia. It attracted a great deal of attention and I am sure was the means of creating interest and disseminating a lot of useful information on nut culture. We were ably assisted in this project by Mr. J. W. Wilkinson of Rockport, Indiana, and Mr. Frank Frey of the Rock Island Railway, Chicago. Both of these gentlemen contributed valuable exhibits and gave generously of their time during the progress of the exhibition. Our past president, Mr. Snyder, also sent very useful exhibits.

In the carrying out of his duties as Specialist in Nut Culture for the Michigan State College, your President feels that some progress has been made since April, 1929. During that period arrangements have been definitely made, or are about to be made, by that princely public benefactor, Mr. W. K. Kellogg, which will set aside several hundred acres for nut culture. About thirty acres of this area have already been planted to seedlings and grafted walnuts, chestnuts, hickories, heartnuts, hazels, and filberts. These trees have done as well as could be expected under the hot, dry weather of these past two summers. Arrangements are actively under way for planting 55 acres next spring and a much larger area in the following spring. We expect to assemble a first class collection of the best hardy varieties of native and introduced nut trees and hope as the years roll on that definite progress will be made.

In September 1929, a nut contest was drawn up and announced to the public of Michigan and adjoining states. This contest created a great deal of interest and many entries were received. Cash prizes of $50.00 each were offered for walnuts and hickories and awards of merit were given for other species. There were 451 plates composed as follows: black walnuts 313, English walnuts 11, butternuts 7, heartnuts 7, Japanese walnuts 13, hybrid walnuts 4, hickories 85, chestnuts 10, hazels 1.

These entries were used in staging what is said to be the largest exhibit of nuts ever displayed in the northern United States. From these numerous entries several selections of value were made. From these selections, six black walnuts, two heartnuts, three hickories and four chestnuts were chosen for propagation. Some of these have been propagated and plans are made to propagate a greater number next year.

The writer spent one week in Ontario during March for the purpose of introducing scionwood and trees of promising varieties of English walnuts, heartnuts and hybrid walnuts. Thirty trees of the Carpathian strain of the Persian walnut were introduced and all are now alive on our grounds at Lansing. These Carpathian walnuts have endured several winters at Toronto and Montreal and so far have not shown any winter injury. If further trials show that this strain is hardy it will be a decided improvement over any other Persian strain in the northern states or Canada.

Good varieties of heartnuts and filberts were brought in from British Columbia and are now growing nicely at the Kellogg Farm.

Grafting demonstrations were given at nine different places throughout the state during the month of May. These demonstrations were attended by fair sized audiences and much interest was shown in the operation.

In addition to the address before the Illinois Horticultural Society, your president gave an address on nut culture to the Michigan State Horticultural Society at Grand Rapids in December last, and also had on display a large collection of Michigan nuts. The address on nut culture and the display of nuts created considerable interest. He was also invited to address the Iowa State Horticultural Society on nut culture and the Iowa State Nurserymen's Association on the paraffin treatment of nursery stock, but could not do so because of a previous engagement. Arrangements have been made however to give these addresses at the meeting of the above associations at Shenandoah, Iowa, in November next.

The ancient parable of the sower who went forth to sow and who scattered seed on stony ground, by the wayside and on good soil, had a successful manifestation in the president's experience this last year. In March, 1929, I gave an address on nut culture to a small but influential audience in St. Thomas, Ontario. This meeting was due to the enterprise of Dr. C. C. Lumley, the capable secretary of the Chamber of Commerce in St. Thomas and one of our valued members. At this meeting I displayed a collection of Canadian grown nuts and suggested the use of nut trees for roadside and ornamental planting as well as for other purposes. These suggestions fell on rich soil, figuratively speaking, and bore fruit in an astonishing manner. In a short time an Elgin County Nut Tree Growers' Association was organized and a definite plan of operations outlined. One of the projects consisted in planting the Kings Highway, No. 3 in Elgin county, with walnut trees. With the cooperation of horticultural societies, service clubs, schools, etc., over 7000 nut trees were planted in one day last spring, and besides that more than 4000 other nut trees were planted on the home grounds of the people in this county. The encouraging feature of this project was the statement by Dr. Lumley that your president was the inspiration of all this planting. Without a sympathetic and energetic audience I could not possibly have done much by myself, and I am sure Dr. Lumley and his associates deserve great credit for their vision and energy. May their numbers be multiplied and their shadow never grow less. "And some seed fell on rich soil and brought forth a hundred fold."

You will very likely be pleased to learn that your president is interested in an advisory capacity in a project having for its object the gift of a good nut tree to every member of the Women's Institute of Ontario. This organization is composed almost entirely of rural women and is one of the most active and helpful societies in the country. The institute gave me hearty support in my efforts to promote the culture of nut trees in Ontario, and on several occasions passed resolutions asking the government to adequately support my work. There are over 40,000 women in this organization and it will take time and money to accomplish the objective, but no worthwhile movement ever progressed without a vision and a plan.

In conclusion I would like to read a beautiful little selection entitled "Save the Trees in Portugal." In reading this I am going to ask you to transpose the title to "Save the Trees in the Mid-West," and to think in terms of nut trees.

SAVE THE TREES IN PORTUGAL

Travellers in Portugal report that in many places where timber trees are to be found, in woods, parks and gardens, one sees the following inscription headed, "To the Wayfarer":

"Ye who pass by and would raise your hand against me, hearken ere you harm me.

"I am the heat of your hearth on the cold winter night, the friendly shade screening you from the summer sun, and my fruits are refreshing draughts, quenching your thirst as you journey on.

"I am the beam that holds your house, the board of your table, the bed on which you lie, and the timber that builds your boat.

"I am the handle of your hoe, the door of your homestead, the wood of your cradle, and the shell of your coffin.

"I am the bread of kindness and the flower of beauty.

"Ye who pass by, listen to my prayer; harm me not."

A practical application of this beautiful message would add to the beauty and productive capacity of this country and would give pleasure and profit to its people.

Dr. J. Russell Smith was here called upon and gave entertaining and amusing accounts of his early struggles with nut culture and of some of his travels in foreign lands.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: I would just like to add to what I have said that the Rev. Paul Krath of the United Church of Canada is now about to leave for a five year absence in central Europe. He tells me he would like to sell the balance of those hardy Carpathian walnuts. I have faith in them. I think they are worth the price he asks for them for an experimental purpose alone.

DR. SMITH: Do you know where the seed was procured?

THE PRESIDENT: On the high slopes of the Carpathian mountains. The winter temperatures go down rather low. In fact lower than in Toronto.

MR. HERSHEY: Juglan regia?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. In early September the buds were quite matured, wood was ripened up and favorable for enduring the winter temperatures of Toronto. I have an impression that it gets 15 to 18 below zero. The trees have come through the winter at Montreal where they have even lower temperatures.

MEMBER: How would we get them in? Get a permit from Washington?

THE PRESIDENT: It can be done.

DR. SMITH: An application for the lot can be made.

The President then asked for the report of the Secretary.



REPORT OF THE SECRETARY

The year 1929-30 has been one of growing interest on the part of the public, laying the foundation for a more rapidly increasing membership and wider influence on the part of the association.

Following the untimely death of Secretary H. D. Spencer, of Decatur, Illinois, we were asked by your president, Professor Neilson, to carry on the work of the office for the remainder of the year, in view of our previous experience. This we were glad to do because of our interest in the work. The great loss of the association in the death of Mr. Spencer should be here recorded. Mr. Spencer was keenly interested in nut growing in the North. He believed in its future and because of his retirement from active professional work could give his attention to the many details connected with the development of our program. His loss is keenly felt among the membership.

Your secretary has attempted to make the public, only more or less awake to the possibilities of our work so far, more nut culture minded. The burden of correspondence has become increasingly heavy. Hundreds of inquiries have been received, many from those mildly curious, but a large share from people anxious to learn of the possibilities of northern nut culture both for pleasure and profit. We have noted an increasing interest among those able to take up our new enterprise and have done what we could to make it an intelligent interest through radio, newspaper, and magazine publicity, speaking engagements at horticultural society and farmers' institute meetings and classroom instruction. The enthusiastic support of officials of these and similar organizations should be noted here. Space has been freely offered for use in fruit growing magazines and state horticultural society publications to supplement the columns of our official organ to spread the information regarding our activities, thus reaching a wider circle of potential members. We are glad to report some membership gains the past season.

In these activities we are handicapped by lack of funds. We have been particularly fortunate these past few months in having the co-operation of the University of Illinois in that your secretary has been able to handle hundreds of letters through the Department of Horticulture channels free of cost to the association except for the stationery and postage.

One outstanding event of the season in the line of publicity sponsored by the association was the exhibit at the Central States Garden and Flower Show held in the Chicago Stadium April 5-13, 1930. Preliminary arrangements had been made by Mr. Spencer with the manager, Mr. John Servas, insuring us free space. Mr. Servas cooperated with us to the fullest extent and the appreciation of the association was expressed to him by your secretary at the close of the show. We spent considerable time both in the preliminary arrangements and on the ground, being in attendance throughout the week except when President Neilson, Mr. Wilkinson, and Mr. Frey were in charge. To these gentlemen, as well as to Dr. Robert T. Morris, Dr. J. R. Smith, and Mr. S. W. Snyder, who with President Neilson contributed the $30.00 necessary for rental of the glass show case, and to many of our members in the Middle West who sent samples of nuts, we owe a debt of gratitude. Our exhibit also included books and magazines on nut culture, nut-cracking machinery, grafting tools and waxes, and other material of interest to the prospective grower, all contributed by members or others interested in our work. The exhibit attracted much interest as a part of the magnificent show. We were busy from morning until night answering questions, most of them intelligent, and made many friends among a group of people whose intelligence level is high. Two hundred people asked for further information relative to some particular subject and a mimeographed sheet was prepared in the secretary's office after our return which went out to them.

We have had the cooperation of the Illinois State Department of Agriculture more than ever this past year, as evidenced by their support of our exhibit at Chicago, through providing funds for the preparation of a case of nut varieties suitable for planting in Illinois and, secondly, through the cooperation of the State Forestry Department. An immense tract of land has been acquired for reforestation in southern Illinois and money was available this past spring for the purchase of nut trees for planting there. Your secretary has been working with R. B. Miller, of the state department, in the selection and planting of the better named varieties of nuts. Additional plantings will be made there and it is believed that a fine beginning has been made toward the establishment of a nut arboretum in that section.

There are many new things of interest developing in our field and those relating to it which need further study as a means of developing our usefulness.

The plant patent law, new methods of propagation, the variety question, the disease factor, new methods of harvesting, grading and marketing, to mention a few problems, are bringing about a new era in northern nut growing and need our combined efforts in their solution. We believe that the time is fast approaching for the appointment of a paid secretary who can devote more time to the development of our work. We will leave to you the working out of the details.

Dr. Colby supplemented his report with a talk about his trip to Europe during the summer where he went primarily to attend the World Horticultural conference in London. After some further informal discussion the meeting adjourned.

FIELD TRIPS

The second day, September 18, 1930, was given over to a visit to the Snyder Fruit and Nut Orchards at Center Point in the morning, where the group inspected the varieties being grown with great interest, an excellent lunch at noon under the trees, prepared and served by the Snyder brothers and Miss Snyder, their sister, and an afternoon spent in the Snyder nursery where the various nut trees which can be grown in Iowa were observed.

BUSINESS SESSION AT SNYDER FARM

Meeting called to order by President Neilson. A vote of thanks was extended to Miss Snyder and the Snyder brothers for their hospitality. S. W. Snyder responded briefly.

The meeting place for next year was then discussed. Invitations were extended from Rochester, New York, Downingtown, Pennsylvania, Geneva, New York, and other places. It was finally voted to meet in Geneva, New York, in September 1931 during the week of the annual meeting of the New York Fruit Testing Association. The selection of the date was left in the hands of the executive committee.

The report of the nominating committee was then called for. The association re-elected Professor J. A. Neilson as president, C. F. Walker as vice-president, and Karl Green as treasurer for the ensuing year. Professor A. S. Colby was unable to continue as secretary and that office was held open. The president and board of directors were instructed to appoint a new secretary.[A]

The financial status of the association was next discussed at length. It was voted that a letter be prepared and sent to the membership asking for contributions.

The report of the nut survey was then briefly presented by C. F. Walker, chairman of the committee, as a progress report. He stated that 1600 nut trees of various varieties had been recorded and data concerning tree performance and adaptation were being collected.

Frank H. Frey reported that he did not feel it advisable at this time to affiliate with the American Fruit & Vegetable Shippers' Association because of the expense to be incurred.

The secretary extended greetings of Mr. Ellis of Vermont whom he met at the meetings of the International Horticultural Congress in England last summer, and of Mr. Howard Spence of England to the association. It was a pleasure to report that Mr. Spence had been instrumental in having experimental work with nuts initiated in England.

The third day was devoted to a tour of the country round about Burlington where Mr. Snyder and Mr. John Witte showed us many of the most valuable parent trees found in that section. Some of these trees included the Witte and Elmer pecans, the two varieties recommended by Mr. Snyder for planting in that section; the Hill and Iowa shellbark hickories, the two best so far found in Iowa; the Burlington, Tama Queen, and Eureka hickories, the Oberman and Campbell pecans, and the Swartz black walnut.

[Footnote A: NOTE: Mr. W. G. Bixby was appointed and accepted the office.]



TREASURER'S REPORT

RECEIPTS

Balance, Sept. 1st, 1929: In bank in Washington, D. C. $194.41 Litchfield Savings Society 15.94 $ 210.35 84 paid in advance memberships @ $3.50 294.00 9 back memberships @ $3.00 27.00 Sub. to American Nut Journal 100.50 Contributions and sale of Annual Reports 70.92 Loan, Merchants Bank and Trust Co., Washington, D. C. 325.00 Total to be accounted for $1,027.77

DISBURSEMENTS

American Nut Journal, subscriptions $ 101.75 Hotel Pennsylvania, N. Y., rent for projector 30.00 Reporting New York meeting 122.18 Mimeographing 11.45 Stenographer, Secretary's office 42.85 Printing, Secretary's office 51.38 Expenses, Secretary's office 24.78 Printing, Treasurer's office, two years 98.00 Printing Annual Report 428.88 H. D. Spencer, expenses to New York meeting 122.48 Stamps 3.00 Expressage 3.75 Exchange, Canadian check .15 Curtailment on loan 50.00 Interest on loan 10.40 Total expenses $1,101.05 Deficit 73.28 Balance due on loan 275.00

NOTE—Although the expenses exceeded the receipts, no actual overdraft occurred because certain bills were not paid until funds from the next year came in. However, both overdraft and loan have been taken care of through contributions made during November and December, 1930.

Respectfully submitted, KARL W. GREENE, Treasurer.



HARVESTING AND MARKETING THE NATIVE NUT CROPS OF THE NORTH

By C. A. Reed, Associate Pomologist, U. S. Department of Agriculture

The native nut crops in the northern portion of the country, east of the Rocky Mountains, offer a possible source of considerable income, if gathered while in prime condition and properly prepared for market. Thousands of bushels of highly edible nuts annually go to waste in that portion of the country covered by the great Mississippi Valley, the Appalachian region and the Middle Atlantic seaboard. These are chiefly black walnuts, hickory nuts, and butternuts, although it is probable that several hundred tons of beechnuts which annually go ungathered should be included. These last are too small for human consumption in this country, under the existing relations between human labor and the quality of available food. Nevertheless, there are ways by which they can be put to profitable use.

The kernels of black walnuts and butternuts are in great demand. The potential supply of the former is usually abundant but the small number of butternut trees in the country automatically makes the possible supply of nuts of that kind very limited. The kernels of both these, walnuts and butternuts, and also of the best northern hickories, particularly the shagbarks and shellbarks, are highly palatable and nutritious. In these respects they compare favorably with any other kinds of nuts on the market. These northern species are singularly free from an impregnation of tannin in the pellicles which leaves a bitter after taste so familiar with certain of their chief competitors in the nut market.

Black walnut kernels in particular appear to be firmly entrenched in the markets of this country. They are in keen demand with many classes of manufacturers. This demand is on the increase with no apparent possibility of foreign competition, as the eastern black walnut, Juglans nigra, the finest of the American blacks, is grown nowhere outside of the United States except in certain districts of a narrow adjoining fringe of neighboring Canada.

The present year may be one of the best likely to occur soon in which to harvest and prepare these nuts for the market or home consumption on the farm. The drought has undoubtedly reduced the crop as a whole, although at this writing the yield appears considerably greater than that of 1929. At harvest time it will probably be found that many of the nuts are below normal size and that the kernels are imperfectly developed. The quantity of the finished product which it would be possible to place on the market would therefore appear likely to be small.

On its face, with a light crop of poor grade in prospect, it may be difficult to understand why this should be a propitious year to inaugurate a systematic harvesting and marketing campaign. However, in explanation of this, first, there are no carry-overs from last year. So short was the crop of 1929 that manufacturers found the supply exhausted before the end of last January. Many sent out urgent appeals hoping to find some source of supply. They offered the inviting price of 65 cents a pound for good grade kernels, f. o. b. the farmers' shipping point. Yet it was all in vain as the kernels were not forthcoming.

Second, as a result of the recent extreme drought and the consequent shortage of some of the more staple crops, there will likely be considerable slack time on many farms. Where this is the case and there are nut crops in the field it will likely be found in many cases that they may be gathered and sold to good financial advantage, assuming that right methods are employed in harvesting and preparing for market.

Third, where there are nuts in quantity too limited to justify gathering and preparing for market, they should still be gathered and as carefully prepared as though for the market and used on the home table. They will be found to be most excellent and pleasing food.

To obtain the highest prices for black walnuts or butternuts, certain fundamentals should be kept in mind.

1. They should be sold only in the shelled condition.

2. The kernels must be delivered early.

3. They should present an attractive appearance.

4. They should be in thoroughly sanitary condition.

The explanation as to why they should be sold in the shelled condition is simple. The weight of shell is too great to justify shipment in that condition. In the shell, walnuts and butternuts seldom bring more than $1.50 or $2.00 per bushel and the demand is exceedingly limited, especially after the earliest part of the season. Again, the shells are of no value except for fuel. Fuel of this kind by freight or express is exceedingly costly. Again, the nuts must be cracked somewhere and the kernels removed before they can be used, and farm labor is much cheaper than that of the city. Regardless of where the labor is from, the cost of cracking the nuts and picking out the kernels, or "shelling" as the operation is called in the trade, is charged back to the farmer. The shelling of these nuts is something in which the whole family on the farm can join.

Delivery should be early as it is then that prices are best. The use of shelled nuts is practically an all-year affair, yet, just as soon as the supply begins to bulk up in the hands of the wholesalers, prices promptly go lower.

The condition in which black walnut kernels reach the market is ordinarily very poor. Little attention appears to be paid to the matter of sanitation, and practically no thought is given to their appearance. As a rule, shipment is made in burlap bags of double thickness. Little thought is ever paid to separating the kernels according to shade of color and it is rare that the kernels are properly cured after being removed from the shells. Oil and moisture given off by the kernels are taken up by the burlap bags, and by the time delivery is made to the wholesaler, the kernels are in no sense attractive and are often unsanitary. Fortunately, the kernels are carefully gone over by employees of the wholesaler by whom all spoiled pieces are removed and, in the process of manufacture, the kernels are usually so heated as to dispel any danger from ill effects due to the unsanitary condition.

The successive steps essential to harvesting and preparing for market may be grouped as follows:

1. Harvest the nuts as soon as mature.

2. Remove the hulls promptly.

3. Cure the nuts somewhat.

4. Crack the shells and remove the kernels very soon.

5. In cracking, the kernels should be separated into five grades—Lights, darks, intermediates as to color, small pieces and crumbs.

6. Before packing for shipment the kernels must be artificially cured until they no longer feel moist to the hand when it is run through the container.

7. Barrels or boxes of wood, or strawboard lined with water-proof paper, should be used in packing for shipment. These should not be closed until immediately before shipment.

8. As soon as received by the buyer the containers should be opened and the kernels spread out in clean bins where they may receive frequent inspection.

Harvesting

The nuts should be picked from the ground within three or four days from the time they fall. If possible the limbs should be jarred so as to shake the nuts from the tree. Good nuts will usually be found to mature within a very few days and may readily be shaken down.

At this time the hulls will be perfectly sound and not objectionable, in so far as staining the hands is concerned. But if the hulls be broken open the juice which they emit will leave a lasting stain on the hands or garments. But the hulls need not be broken to any great extent.

Hulling

The ordinary corn sheller on the farm is undoubtedly the most practicable instrument for removing the hulls, generally available at this time. If the hulls are still green enough to be firm, the nuts may be placed in the machine by hand. Otherwise, some arrangement may be worked out by which the nuts may automatically be fed into the machine. After hulling by this method the nuts should be put into a tub or tank of water and thoroughly washed with a broom or stiff brush. When the nuts are hulled promptly and well washed it will be discovered that the natural color of walnuts is light or whitish and not black. The dark color is wholly due to stain from the green hulls. This stain, by the way, loses its effectiveness as soon as the hulls turn dark. Stains from nut hulls which have lost all trace of green color, so that the hulls are black, are readily washed from the hands.

After the nuts have come from the sheller they may be handled by shovels or by forks with tines close together. They should then be cured for a few days. For this purpose they should never be placed in piles or deep layers. Preferably they should be spread out in trays with bottoms of wire mesh or narrow cleats so as to be open. These should be put where there will be a free circulation of air all about. Where trays are not available the nuts may be spread on a barn floor and the doors left open during the day. If the weather is bright they may be spread on boards laid on the ground directly in the sun, although it is probable that they should be given partial shade during extremely hot days.

Various methods of hulling other than by the corn sheller are in use. Some involve merely stepping on the nuts with a forward movement of the foot, just as the hulls are softening. This is not particularly satisfactory as the nuts must still be picked out of the mashed hulls by hand. Besides leaving a very persistent stain on the hands this method is unsatisfactory for two reasons; it is not at all rapid and very far from perfect in the degree to which it removes the hulls.

Other methods involve the use of automobile wheels. Sometimes machines are driven over the nuts as they are thinly spread on the ground. Again a wheel is jacked up and set in motion in a tub of water in which the nuts have been placed. Both methods have their advocates. The writer has had experience with the former only, yet he can conceive of little to commend either method.

Still another method is that of pounding off the hulls by hand. Of all common methods this has the fewest conceivable advantages. It is slow, thoroughly inefficient, and extremely objectionable from the standpoint of the stain.

What is perhaps far the most satisfactory method of any yet used for removing the hulls, from every standpoint except that of expense, is one evolved by the Department of Agriculture in 1926. It consists merely of running the nuts through large-sized vegetable paring machines. These machines consist of metal containers, circular in form and having a capacity of approximately 1-1/2 bushels. The inner walls are lined with hard abrasive surfaces. A bushel of nuts is placed inside, the lid closed, a stream of water turned into the container, and the machine set in operation. By means of gears attached to the bottom of the container which is separate from the walls, plated and perforated, the bottom spins around several hundred times per minute. The nuts are made to beat violently against the rough walls with the result that, in from 2-1/2 to 5 minutes, depending upon the firmness of the hulls, the nuts are ready to be taken out. They are then perfectly hulled, thoroughly washed and light or whitish in color.

With a few days of drying, the nuts should be ready for cracking.

Cracking

As soon as fit for cracking, and before becoming so dry that the kernels break badly, the nuts should be shelled. The hammer and a solid block of wood, or a piece of metal with a shallow cupped depression in which to place the nuts while held for hitting, is the most common outfit in use. Various handpower machines are appearing on the market, and already designers are at work attempting to devise power machines. The former have been in use for several years. The latter are mostly quite new and untried. About all that can be said regarding such machines is that they are much needed and that it is not improbable that there will soon be several makes of efficient machines in the field.

Grading the Kernels

As soon as the shells have been cracked, the kernels should be extracted. All large pieces, including chiefly quarters and whatever halves there are, should be separated into three shades: lights, darks and intermediates, as previously mentioned. All sound, small pieces, regardless of shade, should be put into a fourth grade and all unsound kernels and particles too small to separate from minute particles of shell, should be put into a fifth grade and fed to poultry in moderate quantity at one time.

Unless given artificial heat before packing for shipment, the kernels are fairly certain to become moldy and even to cake together in a solid mass while in transit. To do this they should be placed in trays or pans and put above or back of a kitchen stove where they will not get hot enough to be injured. The hand should be run through the kernels not infrequently so as to detect any excessive heat and also to determine by experience the proper degree of dryness.

After being kept warm and being frequently stirred until the kernels seem properly dry they may be removed and allowed to become cool. They should then be re-examined with the hand so as to determine the apparent dryness. If they feel at all moist, they should be returned to the drying position and the operation repeated. The writer has had no personal experience in this matter and so cannot give precise directions. However, the farm wife can probably work out a very satisfactory system in her kitchen.

Packing and Shipping

Although previously discussed, the importance of clean, sanitary and attractive containers for shipment can scarcely be overstressed. Without such precaution no one need hope to work up a permanent business, for, regardless of how secure he may feel with the trade he will eventually find his customers turning to others who are willing to go to this trouble.

When the time comes for shipping the boxes may be closed up and delivered promptly to the transporting agency. The containers should again be opened as soon as the destination is reached and an examination made as to the moisture condition of the kernels.

Handling Other Nuts

So far as harvesting and hulling hickory nuts is concerned, the matter is not at all complicated. Good nuts drop with the first sharp frost. Those with good kernels inside become automatically separated from the hulls. Those which do not easily become separated from the hulls should be discarded as they are rarely of any value and should not become mixed with the good nuts. With a moderate amount of curing these nuts should be ready for market. They usually bring better prices in the shell than do walnuts; but on the other hand they are in less demand after being shelled. Perhaps this is because the trade has not been built up but it is a recognized fact that black walnut kernels are practically in a class by themselves among the nuts of the world, in the extent to which they retain an agreeable flavor in cooking. Hickory nut kernels should be given a much greater place than they now occupy in the cooking and baking for the farm table. A few finely chopped kernels mixed with breads, cakes, or cereals will be found highly acceptable to most palates.