other cereals are not going to supply this country indefinitely but the
nut trees will. It is absolutely impossible to have over-population. It
can't be done. Over-population as a social matter relates wholly to the
habits acquired by people in using established kinds of food, but with
the development of the nut trees, which furnish the appropriate starch,
oils, and essentials of human diet, the danger of over-population
becomes absolutely nil. We can not have over-population anyway, because
nations of people reach cultural limitation, just as breeds of cattle
run out, just as a breed of dogs runs out, just as a breed of any
cultivated animal runs out. We are sure to do that. In all of our
cultural periods we are sure to rise to a certain point, decline, and go
out, and somebody else will follow, so that we never can really have
over-population excepting as a matter of choice rather than one of
necessity. On the question of food supply we may avert over-population
by taking up something new to meet the conditions. That new thing right
now is the development of the nut trees which furnish all of the food
essentials and will take away any fear whatsoever of any over-crowding
of the people of this country.
EVENING SESSION, SEPTEMBER 8th, 1922
The convention was called to order by the President at 8:30 o'clock P.
M.
MR. SPENCER: Mr. President: I have an idea I would like to present on
behalf of the ladies. Quite a number of years ago I was entertained at
dinner on the plantation of Mr. John Todd, St. Mary's Parish, Louisiana.
It is on the banks of a stream lined with live oaks at a point where
Evangeline and the Arcadians passed on that trip to the next county
which is known as Arcadia. The whole country round there is full of
reminders of the Arcadians.
Mr. John Todd has several thousand acres in his plantation and four
thousand acres are in sugar cane. When it came to the dessert a
beautiful two-storied white cake was placed on the table. After eating
it I turned to Mrs. Todd and said, "I dislike very much to comment on a
lady's cooking but I hope you will excuse me if I ask you what this cake
is made of. There is something peculiar about it that I do not
recognize." "Well," she said, "while you and the other gentlemen were
down inspecting the land that you came to see, I had the boys go out and
rattle down some pecans. They cracked them, picked out the meats, and I
put them in the oven and dried them. I knew that they would not dry out
ordinarily in time for my meal. I then ran them through the meat chopper
and chopped them as fine as I could and then I put them through a very
fine sieve. The parts that were fine enough to go through I put in the
flour of the cake, the rest I put in the filler between the two layers
of cake and in the frosting." It was one of the most delicious cakes I
ever tasted in my life. With that recipe you can make a white cake in
about three minutes, fill your flour and your frosting with pecans and
you certainly will have a feast for the gods.
DOCTOR MORRIS: Mr. President, the committee on resolutions has referred
matters to the secretary for action.
THE SECRETARY: It was the duty of the committee on resolutions to
prepare the resolutions on the deaths of Doctor Van Fleet and Colonel
Sober, copies of which are to be sent to their families. The committee
not having had time to meet that task has been assigned to the
secretary, who will be very glad to carry it out to the best of his
ability.
The other and more important task of that committee was to take action
on the suggestions made by the president in his paper in regard to
increasing the membership of the association. As it has been impossible
to take such action in the committee I propose that we now take up
consideration of that matter as a committee of the whole.
I would like at least to say that Mr. Jones has offered to the
association five hundred nut trees to be given as premiums with new
memberships. I think Mr. Jones said that they included Stabler walnut
trees, Chinese walnuts, and what others, Mr. Jones?
MR. JONES: Chinese English walnuts, or Chinese Persian walnuts, Mayette
& Franquette English walnuts and Stabler black walnut seedlings. I have
an idea the Chinese walnuts would be the most attractive.
THE SECRETARY: They would all be seedling trees, of course?
MR. JONES: Yes; they would all be seedling trees. We would put them up
and mail them out.
THE SECRETARY: Think of what an extraordinary, generous offer that is on
the part of Mr. Jones, to contract to send out five hundred nut trees to
as many new members, dig and pack and send them out!
MR. JONES: Well, growing the trees doesn't cost very much. Of course
packing the single trees will cost more than the trees but we are glad
to do that if it will help out.
THE SECRETARY: I know that to some members this premium offering for new
members does not seem an advisable thing; to others it does seem a good
thing to do. Perhaps that would be a good question to debate at the
present time.
THE PRESIDENT: I think it is a good idea, Doctor, to the end of getting
a thousand members this year?
MR. JONES: Set aside a thousand trees if you get a thousand members.
MR. OLCOTT: Mr. President, Mr. Jones said the cost of growing the tree
isn't so much, but the packing and mailing is something. How would it do
to offer the tree at cost of packing and mailing--fifty cents, or so? I
suppose the value of that tree would be about a dollar, grown, packed
and delivered. Suppose we made it twenty-five, thirty-five or fifty
cents, something to cover the cost of packing? Would that not make
it----
MR. JONES: (Interrupting.) We don't want anything for packing.
MR. O'CONNOR: Mr. President, If you make a bonus of that kind, which is
very generous of Mr. Jones, I think it would be appreciated by some, but
others would say, "Well, a thing which you get for nothing isn't worth
much." This gentleman behind me here says, "Make it cost a little
something, which would make it more attractive." How about putting the
membership up a little, so as to cover the cost of mailing.
MR. JONES: I would say that the association was giving these trees
because it wants them tried out for new varieties.
MR. SNYDER: The fact that our association offers these trees ought to be
enough to establish their value. A new member would appreciate receiving
something in this way. The largest horticultural society in our country
is the Minnesota Horticultural Society. They have followed the practice
for years of giving to each new member a tree of some kind, scions or
plants of new fruits, and it has been a great success in building up
their society. I doubt not that it will be here.
MR. SPENCER: I'm heart and soul in favor of the movement for better nut
trees. I'm tired of having trees planted that produce nothing but
litter, and for the small boy to keep breaking all the time instead of
going fishing. As I said the other day through the committee on trees of
the Bird and Tree Club of Decatur we have placed in that city a hundred
and fourteen nut trees. I believe that I can go to the different
purchasers and say that this association is anxious to increase the
knowledge of the people as to the value of nut orchards and nut trees
for food and shade and I can get them to become members. When those
subscriptions are sent in send the names to Mr. Jones and have all the
trees put in a little package and sent to me. Then I can deliver them
and Mr. Jones will only have one package to do up.
I believe by a little effort among our friends a great deal of good can
be accomplished. For instance I stated here that I was going to buy a
subscription to the American Nut Journal and send it to the Maitland
County Farm Bureau. Likewise, I hope I can get the Board of Education or
the Public Library, which purchased twenty-eight different trees to put
in the library grounds, to subscribe for the Nut Journal and take out
membership. It won't be very hard, I should say, to get fifty or sixty
new members in Decatur without going out and making myself a regular
canvassing agent. I have got a great many friends there and I know that
upon my representation they would be very glad to take out a membership
and get a tree. Anybody can go and plant a Carolina poplar or a soft
maple, or a basswood, or an elm, but his lot won't look different from
any other. If all the ladies in town dressed in the same calico and the
same cut you would not know whose wife was who. This idea of having all
the yards, all the lots, all the places look alike, is wrong. You might
as well have your home look distinctive and if you will take that idea,
to have your place stand out as a place distinct in horticulture on your
street, in your block, or in your city, you can appeal to civic pride.
You must appeal to something besides dollars and cents. You must appeal
to their public spirit, their civic pride. Then you can get them
interested. A great many people are proud of their city and there are a
great many people who can very easily say with Paul, "I am a citizen of
no mean city."
Keep at it and take advantage of this offer of Mr. Jones. I believe by
following those lines you can very easily go out and get five or ten
members apiece.
MR. BIXBY: I don't want to throw cold water on any idea that is going to
increase the membership but it seems to me that there are some
objections to the proposed plan. In the first place the association has
gone on record as favoring largely the planting of grafted trees. Now on
the proposed plan the minute we get a new member in we have to send him
a seedling tree. That does not seem to me the best thing to do. In the
second place, I have had a good many years' experience in merchandising
and it has always worked out with me that people do not much appreciate
what they get for nothing. You can do this if a man is going to buy a
certain kind of goods, by offering him an inducement, giving him
something for nothing you can make him buy more than he would otherwise;
but if a man who has never had a certain kind of goods, generally
speaking you can't sell them to him by offering him a prize with them.
In the case suggested by Mr. Spencer, where a member working in a
certain location could club with others and get several new members, why
that hasn't the same objection. I do think that it would be a fine thing
if the members in the different sections each agreed to get five or ten
members, go after them and get them. I think that would be fine. And if
they are willing to be responsible at the end of the year if they don't
get them, and pay two dollars apiece for the ones they don't get, why
that would help out the treasury.
MR. SMITH: Mr. Chairman, I am rather in favor of the premium plan. In
this great state of New York there exists an organization at Geneva
known as the New York State Fruit Testing Co-operative Association. In
order to get members they offer premiums, a yearly premium. The year
that I joined the association they sent me a new apple which had been
tried out and found to be a very desirable fruit. They named it the
"Tioga" variety. The next year they sent me as a premium twelve new
raspberries that had been tested first by the Geneva Experiment Station,
a branch of the agricultural college, and then by this association of
fruit growers.
Now I don't know how it would operate with others but it was an
inducement to me in the first place to get that new apple to experiment
with, and the next year it was an inducement to get the twelve new
raspberry bushes which are claimed to be the best raspberries grown.
The objection raised by Mr. Bixby seems to be, however, quite a valid
one. The organization has put itself on record as opposed to seedling
nut trees and it is a question whether we ought to encourage the
distribution of seedlings. But in some way or other I'm in favor of the
premium plan to attract new memberships.
THE PRESIDENT: Is it not better to plant seedlings than none at all? It
is possible that some of the seedlings might be really worth while.
Those that are not really worth while can be top worked.
MR. JONES: Mr. President, my idea about the Chinese walnuts and the
Stabler walnuts was that if we want to get new varieties we have to get
them from seedlings. My plan was to grow these and send them out as
extras to people who had sent in orders for other trees. I thought that
in that way we could introduce them to those who would take an interest
in them. It would take a good deal of land and a good deal of money and
a good deal of attention to care for several hundred or several thousand
such trees, but you could send them out in that way one at a time and
possibly get new varieties superior to anything we have. That was my
idea in disposing of these trees. I thought that if the association felt
that that would be an inducement for new members we could send them out
in that way as premiums. The only difference in the cost to me would be
the packing.
MR. SMITH: Would it be possible for the association to take out from
this first year's dues sufficient to compensate Mr. Jones for the
difference between the value of a seedling and some of the best nut
trees, so we could say to a proposed member, "We are giving you
something that years of experience have proved to be the very best thing
up to date, and we want you to plant this and care for it"? I think he
would be more interested if he knew he were getting a tested tree than
if he were getting a seedling. The seedling may be a good thing and it
may not.
MR. WEBER: Mr. President, we know that in the spring the dry goods
stores distribute shade trees, and people carry them all day with the
tops tied up and the roots uncovered. You might as well expect a fish to
live out of water as to expect those trees to live. If we send the
average person a tree he may make it grow but the chances are he will
not, so why let him ruin a good grafted tree with his initial
experiments in planting a nut tree. On the other hand you will emphasize
the distinction between seedlings and grafted trees, because on his
coming into the association you will present him with a seedling and
explain to him in advance just the purpose for which it is being given.
He will then plant that tree. If it grows he can see its performance
along side of a later grafted tree which he will buy if he is
interested in furthering his nut tree plantings. If he isn't, why, you
get his membership fee and he centers his membership around that
seedling which he thinks is the finest thing in the world.
Last summer I was talking nut trees to the wife of a rather prominent
Detroit man. They have traveled around the world considerably. We were
discussing some nut trees which had been sent out. I knew the size of
the trees and I didn't laugh, or I sort of saved my face, when she asked
me the question, "How many bushels of nuts could we get next year?" I
just closed my jaws a while and looked out of the window. I didn't want
to dampen her enthusiasm.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Tobin, I would like to have your views on the
subject.
MR. TOBIN: This offer of Mr. Jones's is of great importance to this
association. I have been interested in trees and forestry and plants of
all kinds but until the present time I have not been so much interested
in the cultivation of nuts. I wish to say that if there is any way I can
help this association along in regard to an experimental station or in
any way whatsoever, financially or otherwise, if the suggestion could be
made I would be glad to hear it.
THE SECRETARY: Mr. President, this association is not opposed to the
planting of seedling trees. One of our founders, the late John Craig,
advocated the planting of seedling trees in great numbers, for only thus
can we originate new varieties. The association is opposed to the
dissemination of seedling trees as grafted trees. It does not advocate
the planting of seedling trees for commercial purposes or for ordinary
home use. It does not advise the purchase of seedling trees for growing
nuts. In sending out these premium trees we should send with them a
letter distinctly stating that the association does not advise the
planting of seedling trees from a commercial point of view, but it does
wish to disseminate these seedling trees which we offer as premiums for
new members, for the purpose of testing and the possible discovery of
new varieties of nuts. It would then be clearly understood. Certainly
such seedling trees shouldn't be sent out to give members the idea that
we advocate the planting of seedling trees for any other purpose than of
possibly obtaining valuable new varieties.
MR. O'CONNOR: Mr. President, I'm a life member of the Wisconsin
Horticultural Society which has offered a thousand dollars for an apple
better than the Wealthy. We also offer premiums for new members every
year. Sometimes it is a seedling apple tree. Among those premium trees
may be a seedling which will win the prize. We do not know what the
seedling nut tree will do. We may get something from a seedling which is
far better than anything we have today on the table before us. Nature is
something wonderful and no one can tell you what she will do. Only this
last year has what is called the "O'Connor" come out. But we find this
O'Connor nut is not hardy enough for certain sections of the country.
This Persian walnut before you is a seedling, too you know, from nature.
So it is through seedlings that we are going to get better fruit. I
believe that Mr. Jones's offer is a very good thing. But I suggest that
we send these seedlings out with the understanding that they are
seedlings and that we don't know what they will produce. If the new
member will plant them and take care of them (and we should give a
little instruction as to how they should be planted) in a few years,
seven or eight if it is a pecan, he should see it coming into fruit.
I would like to say that if you will dynamite the hole with a one-half
stick of twenty per cent. dynamite, or, if you are afraid to use the
dynamite, dig a large hole so as to give these young roots a chance to
spread, a grafted tree will come into bearing in three years. I have
seen them do it down there with us in Maryland and I believe they will
do the same thing anywhere else.
THE PRESIDENT: I would like to hear from Mr. Vollertsen on the subject.
MR. VOLLERTSEN: I haven't a great deal of confidence in seedlings. As a
general thing we find all the nut trees are inclined to go back to their
original type. If we take our filberts, even the best varieties, the
chances are that they will go back to the European type that they
originally came from. I have proven it time and again on the farm down
there. I don't think it wise for this association to send out seedlings.
THE SECRETARY: Mr. President, in order to bring this question to a head,
I move that Mr. Jones's offer be accepted and put in to practice if a
suitable plan can be devised and carried out in the estimation of the
executive committee.
Seconded and carried.
MR. OLCOTT: Mr. President, I wonder if the suggestion of Mr. O'Connor is
clearly appreciated. It was barely suggested in his talk but he did not
seem to clinch it at the end. As I understand his idea it was that this
plan of furnishing a tree as a premium might well be accompanied by an
offer of a prize for results, which would be an added inducement to
membership.
THE SECRETARY: I will see that that point is considered by the executive
committee.
I wish also to say that Mr. McGlennon, if I understand him aright, has
offered to get one hundred members in the ensuing year if the others
present will get ten each.
THE PRESIDENT: That's right, Doctor.
THE SECRETARY: I don't know just which comes first, whether Mr.
McGlennon is to get one hundred members and then the rest of us to get
ten each; or whether we are to get ten each and then Mr. McGlennon is to
get the others!
THE PRESIDENT: Well, Mr. Secretary, I have associated with me the
champion membership getter. When we can go out and get twenty or
twenty-five in a month I think we can go out and get the others. We are
all enthusiastic now and happy. We are glad we are here and we are going
to do wonders this next year. But I'll wager inside of a week our ardour
has materially cooled and it will be getting colder until about a month
before the next convention. We are not going to get anywhere that way.
We want to get busy immediately after this convention, and if we do
there is no reason why we can't have a thousand members by the time of
the 1923 convention. I repeat that my office will have a hundred members
by the time of the next convention but it is with the understanding that
the rest of you co-operate in this movement and that each of you here,
and the other members who are not here, be informed and instructed what
is expected of them, to get at least ten each.
MR. BIXBY: I don't believe you will ever succeed, Mr. President, in
getting each of the other members to get ten members each. If the rest
of the members get a hundred between them they would be doing more than
we ever did before.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Mr. Bixby, but even if the members here get ten each
I think if we follow them up closely and keep right after them we can
increase this membership to a thousand.
MR. BIXBY: I will agree for one to get ten or else pay the amount in to
the treasury.
MR. JONES: We can get ten.
MR. WEBER: Mr. President, I will get ten or kick in to the treasury the
money they would have brought.
THE PRESIDENT: That's fine. That's thirty right there. How about you,
Mr. Thorpe?
MR. THORPE: I think I can get it.
PROFESSOR NEILSON: I think I can get ten.
THE PRESIDENT: I think there is no doubt about it. Mr. Spencer will get
ten won't you, Mr. Spencer?
MR. SPENCER: I will try to.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you will, won't you, or else you will "kick in"
with the money,--$20?
MR. SPENCER: Yes, I think so. Well, if I am going to put in $20 I want
to say something more on the subject. If we send out this Chinese tree
it would be very easy to put in a slip stating that the association is
very anxious to know whether this is suitable for the receiver's
particular part of the country. We should tell him that we don't know
whether it will grow in Illinois or in Louisiana, and that it's an
experiment on the part of the association to learn whether this tree,
which is desirable in China, is suitable for his particular locality. We
should ask him to please take care of it, watch results and report to
the association. Make him sort of a partner in the discovery.
THE PRESIDENT: Pat, you will get ten, won't you?
MR. O'CONNOR: I will promise myself ten.
THE PRESIDENT: And Mr. Tobin, you will get ten, won't you? You said you
were anxious to help this association.
MR. TOBIN: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Even financially?
MR. TOBIN: Yes, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Now, you will get us ten members during the year?
MR. TOBIN: Well, I would not promise you.
THE PRESIDENT: But if you don't, if you promise to help us financially,
you would "kick in" with the money, wouldn't you?
MR. TOBIN: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, sure. Then you get ten members.
MR. TUCKER: Mr. President, I want to ask about the vice presidents from
the different states. Are those still in existence?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. The secretary said yesterday they had been changed
every year.
MR. TUCKER: Why can't memberships be also increased through the vice
presidents? Put it up to them.
THE PRESIDENT: Joseph A. Smith, of Utah?
MR. SMITH: Mr. President, I will guarantee ten.
THE PRESIDENT: Now, that's an exceptionally fine offer of Mr. Smith, who
comes to us from Utah. Just try and fix in your mind the map of the
United States and realize where Utah is. Mr. Rawnsley, you will get ten,
won't you?
MR. RAWNSLEY: Yes, I will get ten.
MR. TUCKER: I will get ten. Carrie and I together will get ten.
THE PRESIDENT: There are two hundred right there.
MR. TUCKER: My ten went with your hundred. I think we ought to do
something through the vice presidents.
THE SECRETARY: The secretary will get up a letter and send it to each
one of the vice presidents, stating what was done at this meeting in the
way of pledging these new members and asking the vice presidents to do
the same, to each guarantee ten members or to turn the money in
themselves.
THE PRESIDENT: If we had more money so that some of the officers of this
association could get about and confer with our state vice presidents
there isn't any doubt but what we could stimulate their interest and get
many new members. Of course, ladies and gentlemen, we have got to get
new members, that's all there is to it.
MR. O'CONNOR: The more the merrier.
THE PRESIDENT: What is the use? Here we are meeting with a deficit every
year. That's all wrong.