northern section where good pecans have been found, where the heat units
are the lowest. They come from Burlington, Iowa, where the heat units
are 180, if I remember correctly. If we assume a place where the heat
units are 80 per cent of those at Burlington, those pecans should grow
and mature there. They would probably do fairly well in New York City. I
think we might feel justified in saying that they would not do well at
Charles City, Iowa, because pecans from near that section, or back north
of that section, have been growing for twenty-five or thirty years, and
have not fruited. There the pecan units are very low, only 78. It would
seem reasonable that at places where the pecan units are somewhat over
90, including New York City, Lancaster, southern Pennsylvania, and of
course practically all sections south of it, they ought to do well.
Those are the safest pecans, the Marquardt, the Burlington, the Witte,
and the Green Bay, to plant in the northern section.
MR. LITTLEPAGE: The Stuart pecan originally stood within fifty
feet of the Gulf of Mexico. There is where it originated. It is one of
the leading southern nuts; and yet I saw a Stuart bearing nuts in Mr.
Roper's orchard down at Petersburg, Virginia. It has grown beautifully.
There is a strictly southern pecan, nurtured by the waters of the Gulf
of Mexico, which has the widest latitude. You can find the same thing up
north. The fact that the Burlington grows at Burlington, Iowa, means
this, that it ought to grow in all similar latitudes, or else violate
known laws of horticulture. But it does not mean that some other pecan
that grew 250 miles south of that might not grow still further north.
The questions asked are important. Why does not the association, just as
fast as it gets information, stick a pin there and fasten it down? For
example, will pecan trees grow, say, on the thirty-ninth parallel, which
runs through my grove down in Maryland. They will. Will they bear? There
is one Major there that has this summer fifty pecans on it; another one
there with perhaps a dozen. On the 27th day of March of this year, which
was Easter Sunday, the temperature dropped sixty-eight degrees in
twenty-four hours. It is a wonder it did not kill the forest trees. But
with all that the pecan stood there just as hardy as the oak. It
destroyed some of the ends of the swelling buds, not the dormant buds
but some of those that had begun to swell a little, and that no doubt
affected the crop or we would have had, perhaps, all the varieties, the
Butterick, the Warrick, the Niblack, the Busseron, the Major, and the
Green River fruiting. Do we want to grow a Major? I do not know. But the
man that makes the mistake is the man who fails to set nut trees. How
about the Stabler walnut bearing? It bore matured nuts at the age of
four years on my farm in Maryland this year. The nuts are here. That
answers that question. I have very grave doubts about pecan trees
thriving in the Lancaster latitude; yet it may be that I am wrong about
that. There may be some particular variety that will thrive here. If I
lived in this section I would set out the trees so that when the one,
two, three or four varieties are found that will thrive here we will
have something to work on. There isn't any question about the black
walnut or filbert thriving here, or the hickory, because we find them
growing. If you go through southern Michigan and northern Indiana, you
will see the shagbark hickory by the thousands growing along the
railroad. This association should endeavor to get some affirmative data
and distribute it among its members.
I have a row of Indian hazels. I put them on the side of my garage to
make a sort of a screen because they grow those big crinkling pretty
leaves. That row is probably fifteen feet long. If I had forty acres of
those hazels with the same quantity of nuts on that are on there this
year I could buy another farm.
MR. OLCOTT: I would like to ask about Evansville, Indiana.
MR. LITTLEPAGE: Evansville, Indiana, is almost exactly on the
thirty-eighth parallel. The Busseron pecan tree grows almost exactly on
the thirty-ninth parallel which is the northern boundary of the District
of Columbia. The big orange groves in California are at the Lancaster
latitude, which shows just how such things twist and turn, how difficult
it is to learn them and why it is going to take a lot of experience to
work them out.
THE SECRETARY: I knew that Mr. Jones was a very patient and a
very courteous gentleman; but I did not suppose that his patience and
his courtesy would enable him to sit there for nearly a half hour with,
lying in his lap unopened, the new book on nut culture which has just
been published by Dr. Morris, probably the first copy that you or I have
seen. I see that Mr. Jones has finally yielded to temptation and has
uncovered the book. Perhaps that is the book that will supply Mr.
Ritchie's needs. I mention it now because I think that you all ought to
know that such a book has been published by Dr. Morris and that it can
be bought of the MacMillan Company, Publishers, of New York City.
MR. MCGLENNON: I think Mr. Jones has overlooked the following
on the fly leaf of Dr. Morris's book:
"_To J. F. Jones, first authority in the world today
on the subject of nut growing. With the compliments
of one of his pupils, Robert T. Morris.
"New York, October 3, 1921_"
(Applause).
THE PRESIDENT: If there is no further discussion along this
particular line, we will now receive the report of the committee on
grades of membership.
TREASURER BIXBY: The committee recommends that Article II of
the By-Laws be amended so as to read as follows:
"Annual members shall pay two dollars annually, or three dollars and
twenty-five cents including a year's subscription to the American Nut
Journal. Contributing members shall pay five dollars annually, this
membership including a year's subscription to the American Nut Journal.
Life members shall make one payment of fifty dollars and shall be exempt
from further dues. Honorary members shall be exempt from dues."
It was moved and seconded that the report of the committee be adopted
and the amendment to the by-laws made as therein recommended.
(Motion carried unanimously).
THE TREASURER: I would like to give notice of our intention, at
the next regular meeting, of moving to amend Article III of the
Constitution, by adding to the same the following:
"There shall be four classes of members: Annual, contributing, life and
honorary. Annual, contributing and life members shall be entitled to all
rights and privileges of the association. Honorary members shall be
entitled to all rights and privileges of the association, excepting
those of holding office and voting at meetings."
THE PRESIDENT: Notice has been duly made and will be filed in
the proceedings of the session.
We have with us Prof. F. N. Fagan to whom I am sure you will be glad to
listen at this time in connection with the work that is being carried on
at State College with which institution he is connected.
PROFESSOR FAGAN: At the Rochester meeting we reported on an
English walnut survey that was made in Pennsylvania. Since that time we
have not done anything except with Mr. Jones's and Mr. Rush's help, to
gather information about the parent trees of which we located definitely
about three thousand and indefinitely probably two thousand more. All of
these trees but one were in bearing. They were seedling trees and as
much variation was found in the trees as we would naturally expect to
find in seedling trees. Our problem is to determine the trees worthy of
propagation. It is necessary also to solve better the propagation
problem. We cannot expect to get any large amount of planting of any of
our nut trees until we can put the trees to the public at a price at
which it will feel that it can afford to invest. To the members of this
association, or to other people vitally interested, two or two and a
half or three dollars is not anything for a good tree; but to the
average planter of home ground or farmstead that is too much money. We
all know that it is not an easy task to propagate these trees and we are
not condemning the nurserymen. We know that they cannot afford to grow a
budded or a grafted tree of known parentage for any less. So the problem
of propagation is one of the largest that we have before us, and it is
one to which our station and I myself are giving all the thought and
time that we can.
We realize the importance of the nut industry in the state if for no
more than roadside and home planting. Whether commercial planting will
extend through the north with our black walnuts, our butternuts, our
hickories and our English walnuts, to the extent that it has in the
south with the pecan, is a question which time alone can solve.
We now have new land at the station suitable for the planting of nut
trees. It is going to be the best land that we have on our new farm and
we hope next spring to make a collection planting of varieties. We have
not much money but we can make a start. It is not going to be at a place
that will be set aside and not cared for. It is going to be along the
public road, where we will have to take care of it or we will be
criticised.
Until we solve our problems of selection and propagation we will go
along at a fair rate of increase in regard to our plantings; but we will
not reach the man who has a piece of ground and who says, "I would like
to plant that ground in walnuts, maybe fifteen or twenty trees but I
cannot put thirty dollars into those trees, or twenty dollars when I can
buy apple trees for twenty cents."
Yet the future looks just as bright to me as it did the day I started to
make the English walnut survey, just as bright because we will overcome
these obstacles.
I might close by saying that while we are ready at the college and at
the experiment station to go ahead we are not ready to plunge into any
extensive experiments. It requires money and the money does not come in
such quantities that we can plunge into anything in fact. But we are
ready to begin to build a foundation on which we expect later on to
experiment, and I hope that in ten more years, or in nine more years, if
this association comes back to Pennsylvania, we can invite them to the
experiment station to see what foundations we have laid and what
progress we have made in the experimental work of nut culture.
THE PRESIDENT: Will there be any discussion on the subject so
ably covered by Prof. Fagan? Are there any questions that you desire to
ask the Professor?
THE SECRETARY: I would like to ask Prof. Fagan if he has a good
word to say for the English walnut in Pennsylvania and in other parts of
the country as a profitable tree to plant, from the result of his
inspection of the trees of the state.
PROF. FAGAN: We get a letter probably on an average of once a
week, from some one in the State of Pennsylvania who wants to plant
anywhere from five acres to a hundred acres in English walnuts. We tell
him to go slow, to feel his ground out pretty well and to remember that
he is planting a tree that is a greater feeder, probably, than any other
fruit tree; that it must have food or it won't grow; and instead of
planting a hundred acres to plant maybe half an acre and select the best
varieties that information at the present time indicates, those that
lived through the winter of 1917-1918.
We have seedling trees in Pennsylvania, that probably date back to near
revolutionary war times; in fact there are some around Germantown that
no doubt were growing at the time of the revolutionary war, around the
old Germantown Academy. Personally I would not hesitate to plant as good
an acre of land as there is in Lancaster County, or ten or twenty or
fifty acres, to the better types of English walnuts that we have today.
It probably would not be profitable in my time; I do not know; but it
certainly would be profitable in the lifetime of my children. I would
not, however, want to plant the nuts on cheap and poor mountain land
where the most of our larger plantings, even of chestnut, have been made
throughout the country, on land that was not worth the attention of
other crops. When people write to us that they have certain types of
land we always tell them if they can grow an average crop of corn,
wheat, clover or potatoes on that land there probably isn't any question
but that if they plant English walnuts they will be successful in
raising some English walnuts. Whether they will raise them profitably or
not is another question. But nothing can take the place of one or two
good trees on every farm, especially in southeastern Pennsylvania. There
isn't much question but that those trees can be grown successfully from
a line through Allentown to the Susquehanna River, and on over to the
general range of the Allegheny Mountains, down to the Mainland and West
Virginia line. Even in our higher elevations of sixteen or eighteen
hundred feet I can show you some good old bearing trees that are ten or
twelve inches in diameter. No dwelling houses there. They are out in the
country and they are high up.
THE SECRETARY: As has been stated the essential thing in the
successful growing of Persian walnuts, and probably other nuts, is high
fertilization. I believe that many of our failures to grow the Persian
walnut are due to lack of sufficient food.
THE TREASURER: I do not suppose that any one in the association
has made more of an effort to get better records than I have--at least I
have made a good deal of effort. I have learned that in 1916, if I
remember correctly, the Stabler bore sixteen bushels of hulled nuts and
it was estimated that two were washed away by the rains. In another
year, I was informed the Weiker tree bore twelve bushels. In following
up other trees I found it impossible to get any results. I tried to get
information as to the parent Hales hickory and the most I could learn
was that the family had gathered as high as two or three bushels in one
year. But when I saw that the tree stood on the side of a well traveled
road with only a low stone wall to get over, and that the squirrels were
plentiful and the children undoubtedly likewise, I thought it a wonder
that the Hales got any of the nuts.
In the case of most of our fine parent nut trees they are either
situated in out-of-the-way places where it is a task to get to them, or
else they are situated on the side of a traveled road where the
passersby are pretty likely to get a great many of the nuts.
Take the case of the Fairbanks hickory in Alamosa, Iowa. It stands on
the side of the road on top of a hill outside of the limit of the houses
of the town. I do not see how it can help being that a great proportion
of the nuts are picked up by passersby. When we have grafted trees
planted where they can be protected and the crop can be watched we can
get reliable data for our records; but I am afraid that except in a few
instances, we cannot get such data for the parent trees.
MR. RUSH: California is the leader in the Persian walnut
industry and I think it would be better for us to fall in line and adopt
some of their varieties. I find that they are perfectly hardy here, just
as hardy as are varieties that have been grown here for a hundred years.
MR. L. N. SPENCER: Right back of the postoffice are some
English walnut trees. They are growing very nicely. They have withstood
all kinds of weather. I have not noticed any dead limbs on the trees nor
any other indications that the climate here is not adapted to the
growing of these trees. We would be glad indeed to show you the trees
if you would come to the postoffice. They are not on ground belonging to
the United States government but on private ground.
I have been very much interested in your discussion. I came here because
I expect to set out some more nut trees.
THE PRESIDENT: There are two items of business left for the
convention. One is, receiving the report of the nominating committee;
the other is, to determine upon a place for holding our next convention.
If there is nothing further to be brought before the session by the
members these two items will now receive our consideration. The first of
the two would be the report of the nominating committee.
MR. OLCOTT: Your nominating committee respectfully reports the
following nominations for officers of the Northern Nut Growers'
Association for the coming fiscal year:
President--James S. McGlennon, Rochester, N. Y.
Vice-President--J. F. Jones, Lancaster, Pa.
Secretary--William C. Deming, Wilton, Conn.
Treasurer--Willard G. Bixby, Baldwin, N. Y.
Your committee begs leave to suggest that as the details of an
aggressive campaign to increase the membership of the Association entail
a considerable amount of correspondence and other work, the Secretary
should be relieved to as great an extent as is practicable, and to that
end particular attention should be paid to the selection of a Membership
Committee. It is the belief that this is one of the most important
committees of the Association and that systematic endeavor upon definite
lines should be made to extend the membership; that this work should
begin at once and be maintained earnestly throughout the coming fiscal
year.
RALPH T. OLCOTT,
J. F. JONES,
JOHN RICK,
C. S. RIDGWAY,
Committee.
MR. LITTLEPAGE: I move the adoption of the report.
(Motion seconded and carried, and the officers therein referred to were
declared elected.)
THE PRESIDENT: The second item is to determine the place of the
next meeting. A motion would be in order covering that.
THE TREASURER: Inasmuch as we have in Rochester, New York, an
orchard of filberts which is beginning to bear real crops--and that is
something none of us has ever seen--if Rochester would like to have us
come I move that we go there next year.
MR. OLCOTT: Rochester would like to have you come.
MR. MCGLENNON: I was going to ask that the convention be
brought to Rochester next year. I would certainly like to see it there.
I second Mr. Bixby's motion.
(Motion carried unanimously.)
It was moved and seconded that the next annual convention be held on
September 7 and 8, 1922.
(Motion carried unanimously.)
MR. LITTLEPAGE moved (seconded by Mr. McGlennon) that Mr.
Harrison H. Dodge, Superintendent of Mount Vernon, be elected an
honorary member of this association.
(Motion carried unanimously.)
THE PRESIDENT: I desire to say that in this package I have four
seedlings from the walnuts that were supplied from Mount Vernon. A few
of the walnuts left from last year's supply were placed in the hands of
a nurseryman or florist in Saginaw too late for planting--the ground had
become frozen--and those few nuts be placed in pots in his greenhouse.
They grew very vigorously and I have four of those in little earthen
pots for planting this afternoon.
MR. MCGLENNON: I make a motion that a vote of thanks be
extended to Dr. Morris and the others whose papers were read by our
secretary yesterday morning and that they be notified accordingly.
SENATOR PENNEY: I second the motion.
(Motion carried unanimously.)
THE SECRETARY: I feel that we should express our appreciation
of the efforts of the local committee and the management of this hotel.
I therefore move a vote of thanks to Mr. Rush and Mr. Jones for their
work in the management of this convention, and to the management of the
hotel for the kindness they have shown us.
MR. LITTLEPAGE: I second the motion.
(Motion carried unanimously.)
THE PRESIDENT: We will now adjourn to gather here at two
o'clock in order to go on a sight-seeing trip or excursion around the
city and county and then to Long's Park at 4:30 o'clock for the tree
planting.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TREE PLANTING CEREMONIES AT LONG'S PARK, LANCASTER
COUNTY, PA.
4:30 p. m., October 7, 1921
PRESIDENT LINTON: The four young walnut trees that we have
before us are grown from walnuts from trees at Mount Vernon near the
tomb of General Washington. The trees there were planted unquestionably
during the lifetime of Washington, and have grown to be fine specimens
of their particular species. Last fall the ladies of the Mount Vernon
Association gave to the Northern Nut Growers Association all of the
walnuts upon the trees at Washington's home. They divided those nuts
into two lots and the best ones were presented to the association for
the purpose of public planting. Under no circumstances were the nuts to
be commercialized or sold for gain but were to be planted by the school
children of the land, if it could be satisfactorily arranged in the
short time that we had before the end of the planting season. We found
it impossible to distribute these walnuts throughout the country,
although the demand kept coming for them from many states, so they were
distributed first to the district schools outside of the city of Saginaw
in the County of Saginaw and there planted by the school children with
appropriate ceremonies. Then our city schools asked for them and in
every school yard in the city of Saginaw are some Washington walnuts
growing today. Following this distribution to the schools we had still
several bushels of the nuts, and one bushel was presented to what is
known as Merlin Grotto, a branch or division of the Masonic Order. As
General Washington was a member of that organization it seemed fitting
that that society should have some of the nuts. So in the beautiful
grounds outside of our city that are owned and controlled by Merlin
Grotto there were also planted some of these Mount Vernon walnuts. Then
we still had about two dozen of them left, and they were planted in what
is known as the Ezra Rush Park in Saginaw, our largest city park. They
are there in rows to be transplanted this coming spring and will be
again distributed to the schools, or to public places desiring them, as
long as they may last. The four specimens that you have before you,
gentlemen, are from nuts from trees planted during President
Washington's time at his home. We trust that they may live in this
beautiful park in Lancaster and that they may go down in history showing
the source from whence they came.