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|DISCLAIMER |
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|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
[Illustration]
STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT
SEPTEMBER 5 AND 6, 1917
NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
REPORT
OF THE PROCEEDINGS AT THE
EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING
STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT
SEPTEMBER 5 AND 6, 1917
ANNAPOLIS PUB. CO. PRINT.
* * * * *
OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION.
_President_ W. C. REED Vincennes, Indiana
_Vice-President_ W. N. HUTT Raleigh, North Carolina
_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.