The Project Gutenberg EBook of Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Eighth Annual Meeting, by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Eighth Annual Meeting Stamford, Connecticut, September 5 and 6, 1917 Author: Various Editor: Northern Nut Growers Association Release Date: August 15, 2006 [EBook #19050] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORTHERN NUT GROWERS *** Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, E. Grimo, Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net DISCLAIMER The articles published in the Annual Reports of the Northern Nut Growers Association are the findings and thoughts solely of the authors and are not to be construed as an endorsement by the Northern Nut Growers Association, its board of directors, or its members. No endorsement is intended for products mentioned, nor is criticism meant for products not mentioned. The laws and recommendations for pesticide application may have changed since the articles were written. It is always the pesticide applicator's responsibility, by law, to read and follow all current label directions for the specific pesticide being used. The discussion of specific nut tree cultivars and of specific techniques to grow nut trees that might have been successful in one area and at a particular time is not a guarantee that similar results will occur elsewhere. NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS AT THE EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT SEPTEMBER 5 AND 6, 1917 CONCORD, N.H. THE RUMFORD PRESS 1916 Annapolis Pub. Co. Print. CONTENTS PAGE Officers and Committees of the Association 4 Members of the Association 5 Constitution of the Association 9 By-laws of the Association 11 Proceedings of the Meeting held at Stamford, Connecticut, September 5 and 6, 1917 12 Report of the Secretary-Treasurer 12 Presidents Address 15 Reasons for our Limited Knowledge as to What Varieties of Nut Trees to Plant 18 The Diseases of Nut Trees 26 Notes on Nut Bearing Pines and Allied Conifers 29 Notes taken on an Excursion to Merribrooke 34 A Visit to the Estate of the Late Lowell M. Palmer 45 Advent of Nuts into the Nations List of Staple Foods 46 The Importance of Nut Growing 58 The Proper Place of Nut Trees in the Planting Program 64 Some Insects Injuring Nut Trees 73 The Extent of the Hardy Nut Tree Nursery Business 81 Nut Trees for Shade 92 Appendix 101 Attendance 103 OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION. President W. C. Reed University of Pennsylvania Vice-President W. N. Hutt Indiana Secretary and Treasurer W. C. Deming Georgetown, Connecticut COMMITTEES Auditing—C. P. Close, C. A. Reed Executive—T. P. Littlepage, J. Russell Smith and the Officers Finance—T. P. Littlepage, Willard G. Bixby, W. C. Deming Hybrids—R. T. Morris, C. P. Close, W. C. Deming, J. G. Rush Membership—Harry E. Weber, R. T. Olcott, F. N. Fagan, W. O. Potter, W. C. Deming, Wendell P. Williams, J. Russell Smith Nomenclature—C. A. Reed, R. T. Morris, J. F. Jones Press and Publication—Ralph T. Olcott, J. Russell Smith, W. C. Deming Programme—W. C. Deming, J. Russell Smith, C. A. Reed, W. N. Hutt, R. T. Morris Promising Seedlings—C. A. Reed, J. F. Jones STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS California T. C. Tucker 311 California St., San Francisco Canada G. H. Corsan 63 Avenue Road, Toronto Connecticut Henry Leroy Lewis Stratford Delaware E. R. Angst 527 Dupont Building, Wilmington Georgia J. B. Wight Cairo Illinois E. A. Riehl Alton Indiana M. P. Reed Vincennes Iowa Wendell P. Williams Danville Kentucky Prof. C. W. Matthews State Agricultural Station Lexington Maryland C. P. Close College Park Massachusetts James H. Bowditch 903 Tremont Building, Boston Michigan Dr. J. H. Kellogg Battle Creek Minnesota L. L. Powers 1018 Hudson Ave., St. Paul Missouri P. C. Stark Louisiana New Jersey C. S. Ridgway Lumberton New York M. E. Wile 37 Calumet St., Rochester North Carolina W. N. Hutt Raleigh Ohio Harry R. Weber 601 Gerke Building, Cincinnati Pennsylvania J. G. Rush West Willow Texas R. S. Trumbull M. S. R. R. Co., El Paso Virginia Lawrence R. Lee Leesburg Washington A. E. Baldwin Kettle Falls West Virginia B. F. Hartzell Shepherdstown MEMBERS OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION Alabama Baker, Samuel C., Centerville Arkansas *Drake, Prof. N. F., University of Arkansas, Fayetteville California Dawson, L. H., Llano Kelley, M. C., San Dimas Tucker, T. C., Manager California Almond Growers Exchange, 311 California St., San Francisco Canada Corsan, G. H., University of Toronto, Athletic Association, Toronto Sager, Dr. D. S., Brantford Connecticut Barnes, John R., Yalesville Bartlett, Francis A., Stamford Barrows, Paul M., May Apple Farm, High Ridge, Stamford Deming, Dr. W. C., Georgetown Deming, Mrs. W. C., Georgetown Donning, George W., North Stamford Filley, W. O., State Forester, Drawer 1, New Haven Glover, James L., Shelton Goodwin, James L., Hartford, Box 447 Hungerford, Newman, Hartford, Box 1082 Irwin, Mrs. Payson, 575 Main St., Stamford Ives, Ernest M., Sterling Orchards, Meriden Lewis, Henry Leroy, Stratford *McGlashan, Archibald, Kent Mikkelsen, Mrs. M. A., Georgetown *Morris, Dr. Robert T., Cos Cob, Route 28, Box 95 Randel, Noble P., 157 Grove St., Stamford Sessions, Albert L., Bristol Southworth, George E., Milford, Box 172 Staunton, Gray, Stamford, Route 30 Stocking, Wilber F., Stratford, Route 13 Walworth, C. W., Belle Haven, Greenwich White, Gerrard, North Granby Williams, W. W., Milldale Delaware Angst, E. R., 527 DuPont Building, Wilmington District of Columbia Close, Prof. C. P., Pomologist, Department of Agriculture, Washington *Littlepage, T. P., Union Trust Building, Washington Reed, C. A., Nut Culturist, Department of Agriculture, Washington Taylor, Dr. Lewis H., The Cecil, Washington England Spence, Howard, Eskdale, Knutsford, Cheshire Georgia Bullard, William P., Albany Van Duzee, C. A., Judson Orchard Farm, Cairo Wight, J. B., Cairo Illinois Casper, O. H., Anna Librarian, University of Illinois, Urbana Poll, Carl J., 1009 Maple St., Danville Potter, Hon. W. O., Marion Riehl, E. A., Godfrey Indiana Burton, Joe A., Mitchel Phelps, Henry, Remington Reed, M. P., Vincennes Reed, W. C, Vincennes Simpson, H. D., Vincennes Stadermann, A. L., 120 S. Seventh St., Terre Haute Woolbright, Clarence, Elnora, R 3, Box 76 Iowa Snyder, D. C., Center Point (Linn Co. Nurseries) Williams, Wendell P., Danville Kansas Sharpe, James, Council Grove, (Morris Co. Nurseries) Kentucky Matthews, Prof. C. W., Horticulturist, State Agricultural Station, Lexington Louisiana Montgomery, Dr. Mary, Weyanoke Maryland Darby, R. U., Suite 804, Continental Building, Baltimore Fisher, John H. Jr., Bradshaw Hayden, Charles S., 200 E. Lexington St., Baltimore Hoopes, Wilmer P., Forest Hill Keenan, Dr. John, Brentwood Kyner, James H., Bladensburg Littlepage, Miss Louise, Bowie Stabler, Henry, Hancock Massachusetts *Bowditch, James H., 903 Tremont Building Boston Cleaver, C. Leroy, Hingham Center Cole, Mrs. George B., 15 Mystic Ave., Winchester Hoffman, Bernhard, Overbrook Orchard, Stockbridge (103 Park Ave. N. Y. City) Simmons, Alfred L., 72 Edison Park, Quincy Smith, Fred A., Hathorne Michigan Kellogg, Dr. J. H., Battle Creek, 202 Manchester St. Linton, W. S., President Board of Trade, Saginaw Ritchey, Paul H., 12 South Rose Lawn Drive, Pontiac Missouri Bauman, X. C., Sainte Genevieve Darche, J. H., Parkville Dod, Mrs. Nettie L., Knox City Stark, P. C., Louisiana. Nebraska Kurtz, John W., 5304 Bedford St., Omaha Warta, Dr. J. J., 1223 First National Bank Building, Omaha New Jersey Hoecker, R. B., Tenafly, Box 703 Jaques, Lee W., 74 Waverly St., Jersey City Heights Marston, Edwin S., Florham Park, Box 72 Ridgeway, C. S., Floralia, Lumberton Roberts, Horace, Moorestown Roffe, John C., 720 Boulevard, E. Weehawken New York Abbott, Frederick B., 419 Ninth St., Brooklyn Atwater, C. C., The Barrett Co., 17 Battery Place, New York City Baker, Prof. J. Fred, Director of Forest Investigations, State College of Forestry, Syracuse Bixby, Willard G., 46th St. and 2nd Ave., Brooklyn Brown, Ronald J., 320 Broadway, New York City Buist, Dr. George J., 3 Hancock St., Brooklyn Crane, Alfred J., Monroe, Box 342 Ellwanger, Mrs. W. D., 510 East Ave., Rochester Haywood, Albert, Flushing Hicks, Henry, Westbury, Long Island Hickox, Ralph, 3832 White Plains Ave. New York City Hodgson, Casper W., World Book Co., Yonkers Holden, E. B., Hilton *Huntington, A. M., 15 W. 81st St., New York City Hupfel, Adolph, 611 W. 107th St., New York City McGlennon, James S., 406 Cutler Building, Rochester Manley, Dr. Mark, 261 Monroe St., Brooklyn Martin, Harold, 140 Continental Ave., Forest Hills Gardens, L. I. N. Y. Miller, Milton R., Batavia, Box 394 Nelson, Dr. James Robert, 23 Main St., Kingston-on-Hudson Olcott, Ralph T., Editor American Nut Journal, Ellwanger and Barry Building, Rochester Palmer, A. C., New York Military Academy, Cornwall-on-Hudson. Pannell, W. B., Pittsford Pomeroy, A. C., Lockport Rice, Mrs. Lillian McKee, Adelano, Pawling Stuart, C. W., Newark Teele, A. W., 30 Broad St., New York City Thomson, Adelbert, East Avon Tuckerman, Bayard, 118 E 37th St., New York City Ulman, Dr. Ira, 213 W. 147th St., New York City Wile, M. E., 37 Calumet St., Rochester Williams, Dr. Charles Mallory, 48 E. 49th St., New York City *Wissman, Mrs. F. deR., Westchester, New York City North Carolina Hadley, Z. T., Graham Hutchings, Miss Lida G., Pine Bluff Hutt, Prof. W. N., State Horticulturist, Raleigh Le Fevre, Revere, Johns Van Lindley, J., J. Van Lindley Nursery Co., Pomona Ohio Burton, J. Howard, Casstown Cruickshank, Prof. R. R., State College of Agriculture Extension Service, Columbus Dayton, J. H., Storrs & Harrison Co., Painesville Dysart, J. T., Belmont, Route 3 Ketchum, C. S., Middlefield Thorne, Charles E., Agricultural Experiment Station, Wooster Weber, Harry R., 601 Gerke Building, Cincinnati Yunck, E. G., 706 Central Ave., Sandusky Oklahoma Heffner, Chris, Collinsville, Box 255 Pennsylvania Corcoran, Charles A., Wind Rush Fruit Farm, New Albany Druckemiller, W. C., Sunbury Fagan, Prof. F. N., Department of Horticulture, State College Heffner, H., Highland Chestnut Grove, Leeper Hile, Anthony, Curwensville National Bank, Curwensville Hoopes, Wilmer W., Hoopes Brothers & Thomas Co., Westchester Hutchinson, Mahlon, Ashwood Farm, Devon Jenkins, Charles Francis, Farm Journal, Philadelphia *Jones, J. F., Lancaster, Box 527 Kaufman, M. M., Clarion Leas, F. C., Merion Station Murphy, P. J., Vice President L. & W. R. R. Co., Scranton O'Neill, William C., 328 Walnut St., Philadelphia Rheam, J. F., 45 North Walnut St., Lewiston *Rick, John, 438 Pennsylvania Square, Reading Rife, Jacob A., Camp Hill Rush, J. G., West Willow Smedley, Samuel L., 902 Stephen Girard Building, Philadelphia *Sober, Col. C. K., Lewisburg Thomas, Joseph W., Jos. W. Thomas & Sons, King of Prussia Weaver, William S., McCungie *Wister, John C., Wister St. & Clarkson Ave., Germantown Wright, R. P., 235 W. 6th St., Erie South Carolina Shanklin, Prof. A. G., Clemson College Tennessee Marr, Thomas S., 701 Stahlmam Building, Nashville Texas Burkett, J. H., Nut Specialist, State Department of Agriculture, Clyde Trumbull, R. S., Agricultural Agent, El Paso & S. W. System, Morenci Southern R. R. Co., El Paso Virginia Crockett, E. B., Monroe Lee, Lawrence R., Leesburg Smith, Dr. J. Russell, Roundhill West Virginia Cather, L. A., 215 Murry St., Fairmont Hartzell, B. F., Shepherdstown Cannaday, Dr. John Egerton, Charleston, Box 693 * Life Member CONSTITUTION Article I Name. This society shall be known as the Northern Nut Growers Association. Article II Object. Its object shall be the promotion of interest in nut-bearing plants, their products and their culture. Article III Membership. Membership in the society shall be open to all persons who desire to further nut culture, without reference to place of residence or nationality, subject to the rules and regulations of the committee on membership. Article IV Officers. There shall be a president, a vice-president and a secretary-treasurer, who shall be elected by ballot at the annual meeting; and an executive committee of five persons, of which the president, two last retiring presidents, vice-president and secretary-treasurer shall be members. There shall be a state vice-president from each state, dependency or country represented in the membership of the association, who shall be appointed by the president. Article V Election of Officers. A committee of five members shall be elected at the annual meeting for the purpose of nominating officers for the following year. Article VI Meetings. The place and time of the annual meeting shall be selected by the membership in session or, in the event of no selection being made at this time, the executive committee shall choose the place and time for the holding of the annual convention. Such other meetings as may seem desirable may be called by the president and executive committee. Article VII Quorum. Ten members of the association shall constitute a quorum, but must include a majority of the executive committee or two of the three elected officers. Article VIII Amendments. This constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the members present at any annual meeting, notice of such amendment having been read at the previous annual meeting, or a copy of the proposed amendment having been mailed by any member to each member thirty days before the date of the annual meeting. BY-LAWS Article I Committees. The association shall appoint standing committees as follows: On membership, on finance, on programme, on press and publication, on nomenclature, on promising seedlings, on hybrids, and an auditing committee. The committee on membership may make recommendations to the association as to the discipline or expulsion of any member. Article II Fees. The fees shall be of two kinds, annual and life. The former shall be two dollars, the latter twenty dollars. Article III Membership. All annual memberships shall begin with the first day of the calendar quarter following the date of joining the association. Article IV Amendments. By-laws may be amended by a two-thirds vote of members present at any annual meeting. Northern Nut Growers' Association EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING September 5 and 6, 1917 Stamford, Connecticut. The eighth annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers' Association was called to order at the Hotel Davenport, Stamford, Connecticut, at 9.30 A. M., the Vice-President, Prof. W. N. Hutt, presiding in the absence of the President, Mr. W. C. Reed. The meeting opened without formalities with a short business session. The report of the Secretary was read and adopted as follows: REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-TREASURER. Balance on hand date of last report $ 21.45 Receipts: Dues 255.00 Advertisements 36.00 Contributions 15.00 Sale of reports. 26.65 Contributions for prizes 46.75 Miscellaneous .89 ——— $401.74 Expenses: Printing report $158.60 Miscellaneous printing 19.00 Postage and stationery 45.91 Stenographer 40.30 Prizes 57.00 Litchfield Savings Society 65.00 ——— $385.81 ——— Balance on hand $15.93 Total receipts were a little greater than the year before, receipts from dues a little less. There are several new life members, ten in all now, and the secretary has followed the course adopted some time ago of depositing receipts from life memberships in a savings bank as a contingent fund. There are 138 paid up members, compared with 154 last year. Fifty members have not paid their dues and there seems to be no other course but to drop them, after repeated notice, though some are old friends. Four members have resigned and there has been one death, that of Mrs. Charles Miller, of Waterbury, Connecticut. We have added but 28 new members during the year, while we have lost 55. There have been 358 members since organization, of whom we still have 138, 220 having dropped out. Mr. T. P. Littlepage, as chairman of the Committee on Incorporation, reported at some length on the advisability and the possibilities. On motion of Mr. R. T. Olcott, the question of incorporation was left in the hands of the committee with power. The following Nominating Committee was elected: Col. Van Duzee, Mr. Weber, Mr. Bixby, Mr. Smith, Mr. Ridgeway. The following Committee on Resolutions was appointed by the Chair: Dr. Morris, Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Olcott. Moved by Mr. Littlepage: That the association request the Secretary of Agriculture to include in his estimates of appropriations for the next fiscal year a sum sufficient, in his judgment, to enable the department to carry on a continuous survey of nut culture, including the investigation and study of nut trees throughout the northern states, such nut trees including all the native varieties of nuts, hickories, walnuts, butternuts and any sub-divisions of those varieties, and that a committee of three be appointed to interview the secretary personally to have this amount included in the appropriation. [Motion carried.] Mr. Olcott recalled that last year the National Nut Growers' Association secured an appropriation, and he suggested that this would make it easier for the Northern Nut Growers to do so this year. Mr. Bartlett: It occurred to me that the boy scouts, with their great membership and being often out in the woods, would be valuable to the nut growers' association in hunting native nuts. I took up the matter with Dr. Bigelow of the Agassiz Association, who is also Scout Naturalist and I think he can tell us more about getting the boy scouts interested. Dr. Bigelow: I would suggest that you enlist also the interest of other organizations for outdoor life. If I knew a little more definitely what is wanted it could be exploited in definite terms in Boys' Life, the official organ of the Boy Scouts of America, which has a mailing list of over 100,000, and which reaches ten or twenty boys each copy. So you have nigh on to 1,000,000 members who would be reached in this way. My predecessor, Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton, has organized the Woodcrafters, which consists of both boys and girls. It seems to me that their service should be enlisted. They have done remarkably good work. And there are other organizations such as the Camp Fire Girls. I would suggest that some of you formulate a resolution and let me have a copy of it to publish in Boys' Life. Dr. Morris: I will say one word in harmony with Dr. Bigelow and the possibility of enlisting the interest of these organizations. One of our members, I think Mr. Weber, has found on a tributary of the Ohio River a thin shelled black walnut that came down with the flood. He has found two specimens at the mouth of the stream and he knows that this particular thin shelled black walnut grows somewhere up that stream. He would give $50 to anybody who would find that black walnut tree. I will give five dollars every year to any boy scout who wins any of our prizes. That is a permanent offer. Or I will enlarge it perhaps, after we discuss the matter further by including the Camp Fire Girls. I will add others to that list. I will give five dollars to any member of one of those organizations affiliated with us who wins any nut prize in any year, in addition to our regular prizes. Furthermore we will offer to name any prize nut after the discoverer, so that his or her name will go down in history, perhaps causing much fame. Dr. Bigelow: I have had my attention called to the fact that in the West the beech trees are heavily laden with nuts. It suddenly dawned on me that in all of my boyhood experience as a hunter and tramper, I had never seen one edible beech nut in Connecticut. I know there are many beech trees around Stamford, but I have not been able to find any nuts. I have advertised for them but although I have received more than a hundred packages from over the rest of the country, I have not seen one single beech nut from Connecticut. Some of the old-timers say they were once plentiful. I wonder whether beech nuts have disappeared from Connecticut as have potato balls. Dr. Morris: In the lime stone regions they commonly fill well. I have a great many beech trees on my place from one year to more than one hundred years of age, and they came from natural seeding, but the seeds in this part of Connecticut are very small and shrivelled. They are not valuable like the ones in western New York, for instance, and I do not remember even as a boy to have known of eastern beech trees with well-filled nuts. Many of these inferior nuts will sprout, however. Mr. Littlepage: I think Dr. Bigelow has hit upon a point of a great deal of interest. For example, on my farm in Maryland I think there are perhaps three or four hundred beech trees of various sizes, probably none of them under ten years of age and up to fifty, and in the four years that I have been observing these beech trees, there has never grown upon them a single full, fertile beech nut. I have observed very carefully. On my farm in Indiana I have been observing the same thing for probably ten or twelve years, and I have never seen a single filled beech nut. There are some beech trees there two feet in diameter. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. W. C. Reed, Indiana. (Read by the Secretary.) Fellow Members Northern Nut Growers' Association, Ladies and Gentlemen: Our association convenes today under changed conditions not only in this country but throughout the world. Upon the United States rests the burden of feeding the world, or at least a large portion of it. With seven-tenths of the globe's population at war, surely this is a mammoth undertaking. The government is urging the farmer to increase his acreage of all leading grain crops, to give them better cultivation, and is guaranteeing him a liberal price. Crop Values. Crop values have increased until today there is land bringing more than $100.00 per acre for a single wheat crop. Corn has sold above $2.00 per bushel, beans at 20 cents per pound, and hogs at $20.00 per 100 pounds on foot. Labor Advances. With these high prices all along the line the price of labor has advanced to the highest point ever known. Surely it is up to the American farmer to husband his resources by the use of labor-saving machinery, by using the tractor and other power machines to conserve horse feed, by the cultivation of all waste land possible and by practicing economy and thrift. More Intensive Agriculture. In the more intensive agriculture that is urged upon us the Northern Nut Growers' Association can do a splendid work by the interesting of all land owners in the conservation of the native nut trees and the planting of grafted nut trees in gardens, orchards and yards, to take the place of many worthless shade trees. Highway Planting. With the government and states working together in the establishment of market highways and the building of permanent roads, now is the time to urge the planting of trees that will last for this generation and the ones that are to follow. In sections of the country the different kind of nut trees suitable could be selected and, if planted and given proper care, would be a source of large income in the years that are to come. Community effort is needed for such work and if the members of this association will use their influence it will help to bring this about. There is one county in England where all the roadsides have been planted to Damson plums, which has not only made the landscape more beautiful and furnished the people with much fruit, but the past season has furnished many tons of plums that were picked half ripe for the manufacture of dyes that had become scarce owing to the war. If such a movement as this had been taken in this country in the planting of nut trees in former years our roadsides today would be more beautiful, the country more healthy, the farmer more independent, having these side crops that require little labor and that could be marketed at leisure. Our soldier boys might today have sealed cartons of nut meats included in their rations on the European battle fronts that would be very acceptable as food and add little to their burden. Nut Meats in Place of Pork. If every land owner had enough nut trees to furnish his family with all the nut meats they cared to use, and all the nut bread they would eat, it would go a long way in solving the high cost of pork and beef. The better grafted varieties of the black walnut are specially well adapted for use in nut bread and can be grown in many places where pecans and English walnuts will not succeed so well. What This Association Has Accomplished. In looking backward over the past eight years since this association was organized it might be well to review some of the things accomplished. When this organization first came into existence there was a small demand for budded and grafted nut trees, but none were to be had in the hardy northern varieties. Interest was created, best individual trees have been located and new varieties introduced. Methods of propagation have been worked out, public opinion has been moulded, government investigation has been fostered, commercial planting of northern nut trees made possible, and today pecans, English walnuts and best varieties of grafted black walnuts may be had in quantity. This association has caused thousands of nut trees to be planted that would otherwise not have been. Some may ask the question, has it paid? Individually I would say it has not, but collectively it has, and will pay large dividends to future generations by making it possible for a larger food supply at a minimum cost. Care of Transplanted Nut Trees. It might be well to urge greater care in the cultivation of transplanted nut trees. Trees should be set fall or early spring while perfectly dormant. If bodies are wrapped the first summer and first winter it will prevent much trouble from sun scald. If mounds of earth one foot high are banked around trees before first cold weather it will often prevent bark bursting which may be caused by freezing of the trees when full of sap, caused by late growth. This mound can be removed the next spring and in case of any winter injury you have plenty of fresh healthy wood to produce a top. Cultivation should commence early in the spring and be kept up until September first. Never allow weeds to grow or ground to become crusted. Nut trees form new rootlets slowly the first summer and require special care. After the second summer they will stand more neglect, but extra cultivation will be rewarded with extra growth at all times. Finances. In looking over the treasurer's report at Washington I find a balance of $21.45, reported at last meeting under date August 14th, 1917. Treasurer reports balance on hand of $14.13 and no obligations. I think he is to be congratulated on being able to make ends meet and issue the reports. After going over the budget for the coming year I think that we may be able to keep up this record if the membership committee will look after new members and see that all old members renew their membership promptly. Place of Meetings. Owing to present war conditions the president would recommend that selection of the next place of meeting be left to executive committee to be fixed later after conditions and crops for next year are better assured. It would seem that some central location might draw the largest attendance and be of greatest benefit to the association for the coming year. Nut Exhibits. Nut exhibits should be encouraged as much as possible and prizes offered when finances will permit, or where members offer special premiums. This effort will bring out varieties that are worthy of propagation and valuable trees will be saved to posterity. These exhibits can often be held in connection with local horticultural meetings. It is well for our members to keep a watch for such chances. REASONS FOR OUR LIMITED KNOWLEDGE AS TO WHAT VARIETIES OF NUT TREES TO PLANT. Prof. W. N. Hutt, North Carolina. Agriculturally this continent is about three centuries old. Horticulturally its experience has scarcely reached the century mark. Practically all the commercial fruit industry of the United States is the product of the last half century. Relatively speaking we are quite young and therefore there are a great many things about nut-growing that we may not be expected to know. In the older lands of Europe and Asia they have a horticultural experience going back from ten to twenty centuries. In this new country the pioneers had necessarily to confine themselves to the fundamentals and it is to be expected that their horticultural operations were confined to a very narrow maintenance ratio. As the country was cleared up and developed certain sections were found to be especially suited to fruit culture. About these centers specialized fruit- growing industries were developed. These planters tried out all available varieties and developed their own methods of culture. As these industries developed horticultural societies were formed for the exchanging of ideas and experiences. In 1847 the American Pomological Society was formed as a national clearing house of horticultural ideas. The first work the society undertook was to determine the varieties of the different classes of fruits suitable for planting in different sections of the country. Patrick Barry, of Rochester, one of the pioneers of American horticulture was for years the chairman of the committees on varietal adaptation and did an immense amount of work on that line. At the meetings of the society he went alphabetically over the variety lists of fruits and called for reports on each one from growers all over the country. This practice was kept up for years and the resulting data were collated and compiled in the society's reports. In this systematic way the varietal adaptations of the different classes of fruits were accurately worked out for all parts of the country. A similar systematic roll call of classes and varieties of nuts grown by the members of this association would be of immense value to intending planters of nut trees. In northern nut-growing, however, it may be questioned if we are yet arrived at the Patrick Barry stage. What we need is pioneer planters who have the courage to plant nut trees and take a chance against failure and not wait for others to blaze the trail. It needs men of vision and courage to plant the unknown and look with hope and optimism to the future. So many are deterred from planting by the fact that nut trees are tardy in coming into bearing and uncertain of results. In these stirring times we want men of nerve in the orchard as well as in the trenches. We need tree planters like Prof. Corsan who, at a former meeting of this association when joked about planting hickories, replied that he wasn't nervous and could watch a hickory tree grow. It takes nerve to be an innovator and to plant some radically different crop from what your conservative neighbors all about you are planting. The Georgia cotton planters wagged their heads and tapped their foreheads when Col. Stuart and Major Bacon turned good cotton land into pecan groves. But the thousands of acres of commercial pecan orchards now surrounding these original plantings showed that these pioneer pecan planters were not lunatics or impractical dreamers, but courageous men of vision, thirty years ahead of their time. Nut tree planting is not all waiting. It will give the busy man some surprises as I have reason to know from my own limited experience. Ten years ago when I planted my first experimental orchard I set about preparing several other lines of quick maturing experimental work, for I did not expect those trees would have any thing to report for a decade or so. You can imagine how surprised and delighted I was when on the third year there was a sprinkling of nuts, enough to be able to identify the most precocious varieties. The surprise increased to wonder the next year when there was an increased number of nuts on the trees that had borne last year and a number of new varieties came into bearing. In the eighth year when an 800-pound crop of nuts changed that experimental planting into a commercial pecan orchard, I was, to use a sporting phrase, "completely knocked out of the box." The man who thinks there are no thrills in tree planting has something yet to learn. It is the surest sign of a real true-blue horticulturist that he wants to set some kind of new tree or plant. It is the rarest kind of a plantation that has on it no waste land. Fence rows, ditch banks and rough or stony places are to be found on practically every farm. Such spots too often lie waste or galled or at best are covered with weeds, briars, bushes or useless scrubby trees. These waste places would make a fine trial ground for testing out nut trees. A few fine walnuts, pecans or hickories, or rows of chinquapins and hazels would add profit as well as beauty to these waste and unsightly places found on most farms. Following old conservative methods the average farmer sets about his house and buildings unproductive oaks, elms and maples, with scarcely a question of a thought that there are as handsome shade trees that will produce pleasure and profit as well. On our lawns and about our door yards we could plant to advantage the Japanese walnut and the hardier types of pecans and Persian walnuts. It would be of interest to try a few seedlings of these classes of nuts. If such practices were followed in the planting of nut trees it would not be long until new and valuable sorts would be found and a great deal of data made available to intending nut planters. I believe that a great deal of good would result from the preparation and dissemination of a circular encouraging farmers in nut planting. This association is doing a valuable work in offering prizes to locate high class seedling nut trees that will be worthy of propagating. Sooner or later valuable sorts will be found in this way. In this connection it will be wise for this association to solicit the active co-operation of the horticultural workers in the different states. The workers of the agricultural colleges, experiment stations and extension service do a great deal of traveling and have special facilities for getting in touch with promising varieties. The horticulturists of some states have made nut surveys of their states to ascertain their resources in the way of valuable varieties and of conditions suitable for nut culture. The interesting bulletin, "Nut Growing in Maryland," gotten out by Prof. Close, when he was State Horticulturist in Maryland, is a very valuable contribution along this line. It would be well for this association to solicit the co-operation of the trained horticulturists in the northern states to make nut surveys and ascertain definitely the valuable varieties already growing within their borders and what are the possibilities for the production of these types for home purposes for commercial growing. A few of the state experiment stations have taken up definite experimental and demonstration nut projects and are doing valuable work in this line. This association should memorialize the directors of the other stations to undertake definite nut projects and surveys and get the work under way as soon as possible. While endeavoring to stimulate private, state and national investigations in nut culture, the author would be very remiss if he failed to recognize the very valuable work already done by the zealous, painstaking and unselfish pioneers of northern nut growing. Messrs. Bush and Pomeroy have given to the country and especially to the north and east, two valuable hardy Persian walnuts. Our absent president, Mr. W. C. Reed, of Vincennes, Ind., is doing a great deal in the testing and dissemination of hardy nut trees. Our first president, though an exceedingly busy surgeon and investigator in medicine, finds time to turn his scientific attention to the testing and breeding of nut trees. Some of our brilliant legal friends, too, find time to pursue the elusive phantom of ideal nuts for northern planting. We cannot go through the growing list of nut investigators nor chronicle their achievements, but we know that when the history of American horticulture is written up ample justice will be done to their labors and attainments. Let each of us do our part in the building up of the country by the planting of nut trees. Let us plant them on our farms, in our gardens and about our buildings and lawns. Let us induce and encourage our neighbors to plant and do all possible to make nut planting fashionable until it becomes an established custom all over the land. It will not then be long before valuable varieties of nut trees will be springing up all over the country. This association will then soon have a wealth of available data at hand to give to intending planters in all parts of the country. A Member: In Europe they raise a great many nuts that they ship to this country, chestnuts, hazels and Persian walnuts. I understand they grow usually in odd places about the farms, but the aggregate production amounts to a great deal. We could very well follow the lead given by Europe in that particular, at least. I think we could have for dissemination circulars which would stimulate people to plant nut trees more widely than at present. The Secretary: This question of nut planting in waste places always comes up at our meetings and is always encouraged by some and frowned upon by others. I do not think we ought to recommend in an unqualified way the planting of nut trees in waste places. I have planted myself, lots of us have tried it, and found that most nut trees planted in waste places are doomed to failure. I do not recall an exception in my own experience. I understand that in Europe the road sides and the fence rows are planted with trees and the farmers get a part of their income in that way. But with us in Connecticut nut planting in waste places does not seem to be a success. It is quite different when you come to plant nut trees about the house and about the barn. They seem to thrive where they don't get competition with native growth and where they have the fertility which is usually to be found about houses and barns. In fact, I have advocated the building of more barns in order that we might have more places for nut trees. I think we should plant nut trees around our houses and barns where we can watch them and keep the native growth from choking them, and where we can give them fertility and keep them free from worms. The worms this year in Connecticut have been terribly destructive. My trees that I go to inspect every two or three weeks, at one inspection would be leafing out, at the next would be defoliated. If such trees are about your house where you can see them every day or two you can catch the worm at its work. So for experimental planting I think places about our houses and barns can be very successfully utilized. When it comes to commercial planting, I think we must recommend for nut trees what we do for peach trees. We must give them the best conditions. I am hoping from year to year that somebody will come forward to make the experiment of planting nut trees in orchard form and give them the best conditions, as he would if he were going to set out an apple or peach orchard. The association has made efforts by means of circulars to interest the experiment stations, schools of forestry and other agricultural organizations. A number of the members of such organizations are members of the association. The work has been taken up to some slight degree in such places as the School of Forestry at Syracuse. I do not recall any others at this moment, although there are some. I will read part of a letter from Professor Record of the Yale School of Forestry: "The only reasons I can think of why the consideration of nut trees is not given more attention in our school are (1) it comes more under the head of horticulture than forestry (2) lack of time in a crowded curriculum (3) unfamiliarity with the subject on the part of the faculty." We would like to interest these faculties in nut growing. We look upon them as sources of education but evidently we are more advanced than they are in the subject of nut growing and it is up to us to educate them. Col. Van Duzee: Right now when you are at the beginning of nut growing in the North you cannot over estimate the value for the future of records. My heart goes out to the man who comes to us as a beginner and wants to know something definite. Our records are the only thing we can safely give him. The behavior of individual nut trees, the desirability of certain varieties for certain localities—those things are of tremendous value. No doubt you know that in California they have come to the point in many sections where they keep records of what each individual tree does. I began that some years ago with the commercial planting that I have had charge of for the last twelve years. We now have an individual tree record of every nut produced since these trees came into bearing— about 2500 trees. I went further than that—I kept a record of the value of the different nuts for growing nursery stock so that I might grow trees that would be the very best produced in our section. Now the years have gone by and I have a ledger account with every tree in that 2500 and I know exactly what it has given me. I know how many nuts it has produced. You would be surprised to see the wide discrepancy in those records, the different behavior of individual trees. I wish I could talk to you longer on that subject. It is something I am very enthusiastic about. By virtue of the records we have kept for years I have found a source of supply for seed nuts and nursery stock which has proved to be a constant performer. I bud this nursery stock from trees with individual records that have proved themselves to be good performers, I have found that certain varieties have proved themselves not worthy of being planted, and certain other varieties have proven themselves at least promising. This last year I took 100 Schley, 100 Stuart, 100 Delmas and 100 Moneymaker trees and planted them all on the same land. Now these trees, you understand, are grown from the stock grown from a nut that I know the record of for years. I know its desirability. The buds are from selected trees whose records I have. More than that, I alternated the rows and the trees in the rows. These trees are now where they have got to stand right up and make a record so that we will know ten years from today what is the best variety for our section. I do not think I can make myself as clear as I wish I could this morning, but here is the point. If anybody comes to me I can tell him definitely, and I have records in my office to show, what the different varieties are doing and what soil they are growing in. Here in the north where the industry is in its infancy now is the time to start records. When I saw the subject of Professor Hutt's paper, the "Reasons For Our Limited Knowledge as to What Varieties of Nut Trees to Plant," it occurred to me that if you don't now start right in making records, ten years from today you will still have existing one of the principal reasons why you don't know. Mr. Kelsey: I started out four years ago with English walnuts. I read the account of Pomeroy and so I got a half dozen trees from him. They all died. I got five or six trees from Mr. Jones. I think this is the third year and one of those has some nuts on. I have got now about 150 trees planted in regular rows where I am cultivating them. But I was going to say that four years ago I sent to Pomeroy and asked him if he wouldn't send me a few nuts as a sample. He sent me 16. I cracked two of them. Fourteen of them I put in. I didn't know how to put them in so I took a broom handle, punched a hole in the ground and stuck them in the bottom. I never thought I would get any results from them. They came up in July. They did not come up quick. I suppose I had them so deep. I set them out three years ago. Some of them are as high as this room in three years on cultivated land set out in rows. They have never borne any. No one knows how long it takes for a seedling to bear. It may be two years, or five years, or ten. Dr. Morris: I want to bear witness on the point that Col. Van Duzee made, the matter of keeping records. The man who keeps good records is a public benefactor because what he learns becomes public property upon the basis of available data. Every one of us should pay attention to that point which Col. Van Duzee has brought out. Unfortunately my records have been kept by my secretaries in shorthand notes and I have had four different secretaries in ten years, and each with different methods of shorthand. They have not had time to write up all the notes, and so I find it difficult to present good nut records when busily occupied with professional responsibilities, which must come first. I had one field filled with young hybrid nut trees. A neighbor's cow got into that field and the boy who came after the cow found her to be refractory. The boy began to pull up stakes with tags marking the different trees and threw them at the cow. Before he got through he had hybridized about forty records of nut trees. The Chairman: As a horticulturist along experimental lines I find the trouble is to get people to plant trees and properly plant them. I do not think that the average farmer knows how to plant trees. That is why they get such poor results. They plant them where anybody with intelligence would not plant them. We find in the South that we can grow trees if there is protection against fire and stock. If fire is kept out and stock is kept from grazing, nature will cover the land with forest trees. I think that will go a long way to getting nut trees. But a man planting something as valuable as a nut tree wants to take a little more pains than that. I have seen Mr. Littlepage's place where he is raising handsome trees, but he has planted crops around each tree and there is plenty of plant food. You can grow trees almost anywhere if you make the conditions favorable. In hedge rows and odd places, if the forest soil is preserved, you can grow almost any kind of a nut tree. These conditions must prevail or we must make them prevail. Just another point on the matter of home planting. I wouldn't be a very good preacher if I didn't carry out my own practices. Just to show my faith by my works I want to say that I took out every shade tree at home and put a nut tree in its place. Down south where shade is very valuable they said "that man is very foolish to cut down nice elms and maples like that and put nut trees in their place." It did look so then for a while. Now I have some handsome pecans and Persian walnuts and Japanese walnuts, and this year I get my first dividends from a tree five years old. Of course we have taken care to preserve their symmetry, but I think our nut trees come pretty close to being our best shade tree. I will challenge anybody to find a handsomer tree than a well-grown pecan. It is a very stalwart tree with its branches of waving foliage, which is the characteristic of an ideal shade tree, and yet, in addition to that, it produces in the fall magnificent nuts. So the proposition of home planting is one that pays quick dividends on attention given. I think I have convinced my neighbors that it is a good deal better to raise handsome nut trees than poplars. My neighbor planted Carolina poplars at the same time. He was out there the other morning raking up the leaves and that is all he will have to do until Christmas time. THE DISEASES OF NUT TREES. S. M. McMurren, Washington, D. C. Mr. President and Members: It is a source of great regret with me that I cannot report to you some new and horrible disease attacking nut trees. This makes a more interesting talk. Last year in Washington I talked to you briefly about the Persian walnut blight which we had definitely established as occurring in the East. Last March the National Nut Growers' Association got very busy and so amended the agricultural appropriation bill that all the funds for national nut investigation were spent for pecan investigation, so it left us up in the air for work in the north. We have, however, been able to continue our observations with the Persian walnut blight and there is only one further point to be emphasized and brought out at this time. Those of you who have informed yourselves on this matter know that the serious period of infection on the Pacific Coast is in the spring. It is a blossom blight. During the past two years the period of infection in the East has been in the late summer and it has not been serious on that account. It is well known that in certain dry springs on the Pacific Coast this blight does not occur and those years the growers are assured of good crops. I think that this investigation, and the bulletin which will soon be forthcoming, will not act as a discouragement for those who want to plant Persian walnuts. I think it should not but should rather encourage planting of these nuts. In spite of the presence of this...