the state vice presidents. I also have proposed that the state vice
presidents be brought into line. Mr. Spencer has made a very good
suggestion for them and that is to encourage friendly competition in
dressing up yards, one section against another. If the state vice
presidents would use that suggestion in getting new members I believe it
would be a good thing. I believe also, as I have said many times that
the state vice presidents should be the local directors of a state
association subsidiary to this one, that Ohio, for instance, should have
an association of Ohio nut growers. If they can't meet then let them
correspond back and forth. Certainly the nut growers of Ohio should know
each other and be brought in to correspondence. They could do that
through an association of which our state vice president would be the
chairman or the local president. I am a great believer in organization
and I feel that the state vice presidents should amount to something.
After the state organization is started by this association in that way,
then the members of each association could elect their own chairman, if
they wish, and report it to our secretary.
THE PRESIDENT: That is along the line of the suggestion offered by
Professor Neilson this afternoon.
MR. OLCOTT: Yes. We could have a branch in Canada.
THE SECRETARY: The secretary will be glad to see that Mr. Olcott's
suggestion is incorporated in the letters to the state vice presidents.
MR. JONES: We would be glad to make up a mailing list and turn it over
to the secretary if he should want to circularize in making this offer
or any other offer for memberships.
THE PRESIDENT: If we could get this thing where it ought to be it is
possible that we might be able to induce the secretary to give his
entire attention to the interests of the Northern Nut Growers
Association. He would have to have a lucrative salary of course. That is
one of my ambitions. I am frank to state it here right now.
Then the Northern Nut Growers Association would be the thing that it is
supposed to be, the thing that it is not at the present time when we're
meeting with a deficit every year. I hope and believe, in fact it must
be, that this is the last time we are going to meet with a deficit. We
are going to have a good surplus next year or what is the use of going
on?
MR. SPENCER: The governors of three or four of the states met in Chicago
not very long ago to consider the interests of the states that center
around Chicago. The people in Illinois don't know that the Forest
Reserve covers sixteen thousand acres and that it has English walnuts
growing just as nicely as you have them here. That knowledge hasn't been
spread. Also there are people who are propagating nut trees in Illinois
and southern Indiana. Now if our vice presidents in Indiana, Illinois,
Ohio and Missouri, which is the native home of most every kind of
hickory, would get together and go to any one of the central cities of
those particular states, call a meeting of their customers in that
neighborhood, and spread a knowledge of this association I think that we
could build up a local interest that would advertise this organization
wonderfully.
You have got to advertise and you must show to the common people who are
going to be your members, who are going to be interested in nut trees,
that they are valuable; that an ordinary acre of nut trees is worth ten
times the value of any crop of wheat raised in Illinois, and Illinois is
the wheat country. Before the hard wheat was discovered in Minnesota the
whole south half of Illinois was given to wheat. But now so far as white
wheat is concerned, and spring wheat, it isn't wanted and the result is
that you have got to get something else into that country. Now that
wheat country of southern Illinois is a natural nut country. Pecans,
persimmons, chinkapins, grow wild all over there, and there is no reason
why that land, which can be bought for from ten and fifteen dollars an
acre up to twenty-five, according to the improvements, if the oil rights
are eliminated, can't be made to produce a hundred to five hundred
dollars an acre. If that is so, why not do it?
Today, Illinois has over 11,000,000 bearing apple trees, and they raise
just as good apples there as any where, but they haven't got the
organization, they don't advertise, and we don't know it generally. If
we can organize and distribute our information, get these vice
presidents from two or three cities to join with the chambers of
commerce and have a meeting down at Evansville, among the nut growers,
for instance, the growers of Indiana pecans, and see what they grow, and
what they are worth, why then you can get the people interested. You
must have somebody that is interested in the propagation of a new idea.
Don't get somebody who just comes here for a good time without any
desire particularly of learning anything. If he doesn't want to learn we
don't want him.
THE SECRETARY: I understand that, in view of the very generous offer of
the president to get a hundred new members in the ensuing year, and of
the pledge of ten other men to get ten more members, or turn in the
necessary amount to the treasury, each of us goes forth from the meeting
tonight with the understanding that he is morally under obligations to
do what the other members have promised to do.
THE PRESIDENT: It would be a nice thing to give a Christmas gift of a
membership in this association and a subscription to the American Nut
Journal. A great many of us receive Christmas gifts which are
appreciated when received, and maybe for a week or ten days, two weeks
or a month, and then they're forgotten; but this membership and the
American Nut Journal that one would receive every month, would be a
constant reminder of the giver. What do you think of that, ladies and
gentlemen?
THE SECRETARY: It is a fine idea, Mr. President, and I will see that it
is also incorporated in the letters to the state vice president that
each vice president give to at least one friend a subscription and
membership in the association. I suggest also that those who can write
for the magazines and the journals get up little articles for the
horticultural papers about nut culture. There can't be too many of those
in the periodicals.
THE PRESIDENT: Apropos of that suggestion, I believe Mr. Tucker has
something to say in regard to a special edition of the Journal. Maybe
Mr. Olcott would be good enough to make one of his--
MR. TUCKER: (Interrupting) To make one of his numbers a convention
number.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes; one of the numbers in the near future devoted
largely to the proceedings of this convention, that is, if he could see
his way clear to do it.
MR. OLCOTT: You mean in the matter of--
THE PRESIDENT: (Interrupting) Of this convention. Sort of make it a
northern nut growers issue. It is merely a suggestion, Mr. Olcott.
MR. OLCOTT: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: So that it is practically all about this convention of
the Northern Nut Growers Association.
MR. OLCOTT: Yes. Well, it is rather difficult to do that, Mr. President,
to the exclusion of all other matter. Is that what you mean? How are we
going to take care of the news? It is not a magazine of stories and
fiction; it is a magazine of news, and the news of the period between
August 15th and September 15th, for instance, will become stale if it is
not used in the September 15th issue and runs over until the October
15th issue. It is the American Nut Journal. I think your idea can be
carried out very fully by featuring the convention as the main thing,
but not to use every last page for it.
MR. TUCKER: No. My idea wasn't to give the whole magazine up to that.
But when you got up that magazine, to have the northern nut growers
convention stick right out.
MR. OLCOTT: Sure.
THE PRESIDENT: Wasn't it your idea to have some of the pictures, too?
MR. OLCOTT: I see.
MR. TUCKER: Yes; run some of the pictures, and so forth.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Olcott, I am sure, is willing to give that issue just
as soon as we can get more members and more money.
MR. OLCOTT: We are carrying the nut journal on its subscription list.
There is no advertising to speak of in this pioneer industry. The nut
nurserymen do not advertise; they should. People want to know where they
can get nuts, butternuts and hickory nuts. The people in the South who
grow pecans are doing a commercial business but they don't have to
advertise; they can't furnish enough nuts to meet the demand. There is
no occasion for them to ask for customers; the customers are flocking to
their doors and standing in line. People want to know where to get
black walnuts; they write in to me. I don't know where to send them. I
don't suppose anybody has enough for his local trade and he doesn't have
to advertise; he can sell all he has. There is no advertising to speak
of. We are living on subscriptions. Now if you enlarge the Journal, use
pictures which run up all the way from six to fifteen dollars apiece,
you are soon using up your $1.50 per that is left out of the combination
membership.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. OLCOTT: After paying the tremendously high printer rates. A special
edition can be gotten out at considerable additional cost. We have done
it in the past and come out at the small end and it took several months
to get even again. We can do it again for the sake of the association;
but I am saying this to show why it is not done oftener.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I understand it. What do you think, then, of a
little co-operation on the part of the association in the way of that
extra expense for a special edition?
MR. OLCOTT: That's all right. In Mr. Linton's administration I furnished
some very large and rather expensive half-tone engravings on the part of
the association and they worked in very nicely. I don't know whether the
association paid for them or whether he did. I think we divided the cost
of them.
MR. BIXBY: I know he did. I have furnished some cuts myself.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I know, Mr. Bixby. You are very liberal.
THE SECRETARY: I suggested also that those who can give talks before
their local horticultural societies should do so on the subject of nut
culture, and if they wish to go in to it extensively slides could be
obtained. I think that I could guarantee to obtain them from the
Department of Agriculture for illustrated lectures. I have also another
question which I would like to put before the association, and that is
if we cannot use in some way our surplus back reports to gain new
memberships. We have never been able to work out any method of doing so.
We have printed each year an edition of a thousand numbers of the annual
report. We send out two hundred and fifty or three hundred;
consequently, we have about seven hundred annual reports accumulating on
our hands every year. Now, what good are they going to be? Can't we use
those in some way to increase our membership? Can't we use those as
premiums, distribute them gratis some way or other, or distribute them
for a small sum to educational institutions, newspapers and agricultural
journals? Can't we do something with that annual surplus of about seven
hundred nut reports to increase our membership?
MR. TUCKER: Why is there a thousand of them printed?
THE SECRETARY: Because you can get a thousand for just about the same
price that you get five hundred, or a very little more.
MR. O'CONNOR: Mr. President, why couldn't some of those be sent to the
different experiment stations; also to some of our libraries? We have a
number of experiment stations that don't see anything of this kind and
that don't know that such a thing exists as the Northern Nut Growers
Association. It is only recently that within the state of Minnesota they
knew there was such a thing. I have offered a prize in that state for
nut culture work. This winter I am going to speak at the Maryland
Horticultural meeting, which will be held in Baltimore, and wherever I
can get a chance at any of those meetings I always put in a word for the
nut. Over on the eastern shore of Maryland, I went into one of the
largest apple orchards and nurseries, I believe, in the United States.
There were a few northern pecans growing in the yard, and when I asked
one of the young men what kind of pecans they were, he said, "Well, I
don't know whether it is Indiana or just what it is; but I know it is a
pecan." That was growing very beautifully right under the window, you
might say, of their dwelling house. That was over at Berlin, at Mr.
Harrison's. He likes to sell to nut tree owners, and yet has he come to
his year's meeting? Is he a member of the association? For that reason I
don't feel like helping him to sell a tree as long as he is not a
member. But every chance I get I will put in a good word for the nut
tree firm.
I think by sending out our literature to different magazines, to the
different experiment stations and over into Canada we would be greatly
benefited. We have got some good friends to the north of us. Why not
send them some copies and have them help spread this good thing along?
THE SECRETARY: I would like to have Mr. Bixby state about the
distribution of those reports outside of the membership. Is there any
gratis distribution now?
MR. BIXBY: No, there isn't. There used to be and I made every one of
them who received them gratis buy them of me.
THE SECRETARY: About how many institutions now buy the journal?
MR. BIXBY: I should say about half a dozen. That's the same number that
had them free before. In nearly every instance when they would write in
and request it I would tell them how the association was doing work the
Department of Agriculture ought to do, supporting itself with great
difficulty, and we would be glad to have them as a member; that if not a
member we would furnish a report for so much. In nearly every case we
got them as members or they bought the report. As I said before I don't
believe in giving things away; I believe in trying to get the people to
see the advantage of buying them.
THE SECRETARY: It would be quite an expense to send out all the back
numbers of the reports.
MR. BIXBY: I don't think they would appreciate them either. Although I
have not been able to do it the most practicable thing to do seems to me
to make an index, say of the first ten and bind them up in a booklet and
then I think you could sell them. I hope to do this some time.
MR. TUCKER: What is the expense of mailing?
MR. BIXBY: I think it is about eight cents.
THE SECRETARY: It would be considerable labor, but I think it might be
best to circularize different experiment stations, horticultural
societies, etc., and ask them if they wouldn't like to have in their
libraries a complete file of the reports of the Northern Nut Growers
Association which can be obtained for a certain small number of dollars.
THE PRESIDENT: Professor Neilson, what would your attitude be toward a
communication you would receive of that nature? Supposing that you were
not the enthusiastic member that you are of our association?
PROFESSOR NEILSON: I believe it would be favorable. I believe that is
general, and judging from the interest shown in our province I believe
that a good many of those horticultural societies and other
organizations would be glad to have the reports on file; they would be
glad to purchase them at whatever figure was set upon them, if it were a
reasonable figure. And I think that I could interest several of our
agricultural representatives in having these on file in their office,
and possibly in subscribing, or getting the departments of agriculture
to subscribe to the northern nut growers journal. There are several
county offices along the northern shore of Lake Ontario and in those
counties nuts are produced. I think their representatives might be
induced to persuade the department to subscribe to your journal.
PROFESSOR TAYLOR: Mr. Chairman: I want to speak on the suggestion made
by Mr. Bixby. I may illustrate it in this way: we people in California
are, of course, in a little different situation from those represented
by the Northern Nut Growers Association. Over there west of the Rockies,
or west of the Sierra Nevadas, we have an entirely different situation.
By virtue of our peculiar climatic conditions we have already gone
through our experimental period and we now have nuts that we are growing
on a commercial basis just as they have in the South.
For several years I was connected with the University of California and
I used to have to teach students, among other things, the various nuts.
That was my particular line, the various nuts, especially those
adaptable to California, but also along with that the nuts of the United
States and the nuts of North America. I believe that Mr. Bixby will bear
me out when I say that it was during my time that all of the back
reports of the Northern Nut Growers Association were ordered. That was
prior to 1919, was it not?
MR. BIXBY: Yes.
PROFESSOR TAYLOR: It was prior to 1919 that all the back numbers were
ordered, and I hope they are still taking them.
MR. BIXBY: They are. They get them every two years.
PROFESSOR TAYLOR: They ought to and if they are not I will see that they
do. But I found this difficulty, that there will very shortly be
thirteen numbers and if it comes to a question of looking something up,
we will find that the average man will not be enthusiastically
interested because he won't know how quickly he can get at just exactly
what he wants. Mr. Bixby suggested that ten of these volumes be taken
together and indexed as a unit. That is one of the finest things that
you can possibly ask for. I think the institutions will buy them in a
way that they do not now because then they will not have to look through
ten volumes to find a little idea they want.
I know it is an expensive proposition to index things of that kind; it
takes time and a lot of patience. Not only that but it must be done by
some one whose heart is in the work and who recognizes the problems that
the man who is going to use that index is going to look up. But I do
think that if it could be put in to a combined volume, and some sort of
an effort made by the various vice presidents in the different sections
to see the institutions in their own sections who would be interested,
that something might be accomplished which would be of real worth. I
believe this would be increasingly so in the future, because those
people will want to look back ten, fifteen, twenty years, and see what
the others went through. One of the biggest things that I think I did in
our classes was to point out the problems that occurred in California
ten, fifteen, twenty-five and thirty years ago, along the line of nut
culture solely, and then point out where the nut growers succeeded.
And if I may just branch off here to one of the things I haven't spoken
about before this evening, I am absolutely against planting seedling
trees unless there is a very strong emphasis laid on the fact that they
are not for commercial purposes and not for planting in orchards, but
are simply and solely for the possibility of developing new varieties. I
think that growers are going to want to go back over old reports in
order to save covering the same ground twice. We have found our new
people in California starting right in where people started fifty years
ago because they didn't know what happened fifty years ago, because our
reports out there were not properly indexed.
MR. WEBER: Mr. President, in order to bring the matter to a head, I move
that the distribution of the old reports, by sale or otherwise, be left
to the discretion of the executive committee.
(Seconded and carried.)
MR. OLCOTT: Mr. President, I would like to ask what the condition of the
treasury is. I do so for this reason, that we have planned out a good
deal to be done during the interim, from now to the next convention,
and the secretary's office ought to be busy. We are planning upon making
it so to keep up interest.
I think that the secretary shouldn't be handicapped by lack of funds for
stationery and things of that kind. I think that with a deficit maybe he
has been. Maybe more matter would go out if he had funds and to that end
I am putting in my check for $20 for my subscription tonight in advance.
If others will do that he will have funds to work with. (Applause)
THE PRESIDENT: In a discussion I had with the treasurer and the
secretary before this evening's session we considered that point, Mr.
Olcott, and I thought that we would go after the remaining deficit
tonight and make it up, start off with a clean sheet. Mr. Bixby said
that if we were going to enter into this new membership campaign in a
really generous spirit, he felt that the matter of the remaining deficit
should be taken care of.
MR. BIXBY: If we can get two hundred new members this year that will
take care of it.
THE PRESIDENT: Two hundred are already pledged.
MR. BIXBY: If we get them that will take care of it.
MR. OLCOTT: It will take to the end of the year to get the returns.
MR. WEBER: I will send my check when I get home, because I don't want to
go in to my pocketbook now.
THE PRESIDENT: What was the deficit, Mr. Bixby?
MR. BIXBY: The deficit was $176. There was pledged yesterday, $75, and
there has been $10 more today. That's $85 of the $176. Then there is $20
of Mr. Olcott's. That would make it $105. Mr. Weber, when he gets home,
will make it $125. We will clean it up one way or another.
THE SECRETARY: I think we should proceed now to the report of the
nominating committee and the selection of the next place of meeting.
THE PRESIDENT: The hour is growing late and there is just one message I
want to give you here. While it may savour some what of advertising our
filbert enterprise, it was not with that idea in mind that we proceeded
to get the information we have got. Our filberts have been distributed
through the L. W. Hall Company, nurserymen of this city, who have
exclusive sale of them at this time. They have been distributed during
the past three years over a considerable area: Illinois, Idaho, Iowa,
North Carolina, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Delaware,
New York, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Georgia, District of
Columbia, Pennsylvania and Kansas.
Some little time ago I conferred with Mr. Hall in regard to
communicating with his customers to whom he had delivered filbert
plants, the first in the spring of 1919. He has written them asking them
how the plants have done, and particularly with regard to fruit bearing.
I have the replies here and the gist of them is this: that the plants
have done finely, have been entirely satisfactory in that respect. There
has been a complaint that they have not borne; there are some instances
of extreme pleasure expressed over the way they have borne. My own idea
is, and I believe it is that of Mr. Vollertsen also, that they have not
had quite time enough yet, since the spring of 1919.
MR. BIXEY: That is not time enough.
THE PRESIDENT: Furthermore, Mr. Hall, in offering them--against our
advice as we endeavored to persuade him to offer them as improved
European filberts, assorted varieties--thought that the people would be
attracted to those unpronounceable names that we have them under. Maybe
they were. He listed some six or eight varieties, I think, and those
varieties were of our larger fruited kinds. We frankly confess that
those varieties will not bear as abundantly as the smaller fruited
varieties--not that they are very small they are quite a good sized nut.
I believe if Mr. Hall had made a freer distribution of the so-called
smaller fruited varieties that there might have been an even more
favorable report in connection with fruiting. Another year or so will
give us more definite information.
We have now cleaned up our program pretty well. You are going to find
Doctor Kellogg's paper in the report, together with the secretary's. We
have the papers here. That completes the program up to the present time
with the exception of Senator Penny and Mr. Linton. We supposed Mr.
Linton would be here. I had telephoned this morning as Mr. Penny
promised to send a paper but he hasn't been able to do so. Those are the
only two papers of the program that we haven't got.
There are two more things we have to take care of; one is the election
of officers, and the other is the selection of a place for the next
convention. I call for the report of the nominating committee.
MR. WEBER: The report of the nominating committee is as follows:
_President:_--JAMES S. MCGLENNON.
_Vice President:_--J. F. JONES.
_Secretary:_--WILLIAM C. DEMING.
_Treasurer:_--WILLARD G. BIXBY.
(Signed)
ROBERT T. MORRIS,
G. H. CORSAN,
HARRY R. WEBER,
Nominating Committee.
MR. O'CONNOR: I move the nominations be accepted.