sleep in Georgia soil and for an hundred years my family have lived in
the Albany district the queenliest section of the far south that rests
resplendant as a jewel upon the snowy bosom of her royal mother Georgia
and as beautiful as a cluster of fragrant flowers that nestles in the
girdle of a lovely woman.
My imperial mother Georgia is a land of surpassing loveliness and thus
has for ages been the inspiration of poets and painters too.
The southerners dream of beauty is the magnolia and who can tint her
roses or paint the morning glory that points its purple bugle towards
the sky as though to sound the revelie for a waking world. No prima
donna has ever yet entertained the crowned heads of Europe with such
music as that divine melody with which the mocking bird greets the
coming dawn.
Ours is a land where skies bend blue and all nature seems to smile;
where mosses veil the infirmities of decrepit oaks and vines spring
unbidden from the ground to hide the scars of grey old walls; where the
grape-vine staggers from tree to tree as though drunk with the purple
juice of its own luscious fruit; where flowers lie at your plate on a
winter's day and the humblest laborer carries in his dusky hand flowers
fit to grace a May queen's crown.
As proud as I am of the beauties of Georgia I am prouder still of her
material and natural resources. We have a vast undeveloped empire within
whose borders there awaits the prospector such potential treasure as
would make the fabled wealth of Lydia's ancient king seem but a beggar's
trifle, and the consuming ambition of my life is to see these resources
developed to the fullest degree and then shall my imperial mother
Georgia shine as the brightest star that gleams in Columbia's diadem.
But of all the natural resources of Georgia there are none to be
compared to the possibilities in the development of our NATIONAL NUT the
Paper Shell Pecan.
The history of the paper shell pecan is but another example that "a
prophet is not without honor save in his own country," for native
Georgians failed to avail themselves of the opportunity at their door
and the credit for the development of Georgia's pecan industry belongs
to the far sighted men and women of the North. Then why should I not
feel grateful to such men and women as you believing as I do that the
paper shell pecan industry is destined to lead Dixie out of her
industrial bondage and restore her to her rightful place among the
sisterhood of states.
"History repeats itself" says the soldier and there is pictured in his
mind vision of other Shenandoah Valleys swept by the fiery broom of war
and other Atlantas and Savannahs given to the flames on some other
Sherman's March to the Sea.
But history has repeated itself; the North has again invaded the South
but not with drum and fife and armed hosts and has been met not with
shot and shell but with a genuine southern welcome and from this
commingling of northern capital and energy with southern soil and
sunshine has sprung a new industry of such roseate promise as to almost
make the story of Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp fade into insignificance and
Dixie's imperial product, the cultivated paper shell pecan makes her bow
to the world.
French explorers as early as 1740 left authentic records of pecans in
the Mississippi Valley and the many giant pecan trees scattered from
Maryland to Texas which the scientists tell us are hundreds of years old
seem to indicate that the pecan is a native of America whose origin is
lost in prehistoric times.
The earliest financial transaction in pecans that has come to my notice
was in 1772 when William Prince of Flushing, New York, sold in England
eight pecan trees for ten guineas each. These trees were grown from seed
planted by himself.
Prior to 1890 there had been little if any attempt to plant pecans in
orchards but about this time a few scattering seedling orchards began to
appear.
In October 1902 about thirty owners of small pecan orchards met in
Macon, Georgia, and organized the National Nut Growers Association. Of
those pioneer growers only three remain today as active members of the
Association, Theo. Bechtel, H. C. White, and O. P. Mears.
By this time the art of budding and grafting having become reasonably
well known several pecan nurseries came into bearing and orchards of
budded trees began to appear and the foundations of a real industry were
laid. About this time the nursery crook began to appear and sold
thousands of worthless trees but despite this handicap pecan culture
continued to spread and shortly thereafter attracted the attention of
Prof. John Craig of Cornell who after investigation pronounced it safe
sane and profitable. He also made a study of the various sections and
decided that the Albany district was the ideal section for profitable
pecan culture.
This announcement by Prof. Craig was sufficient to induce northern
capitalists to begin developing the Albany district on a commercial
scale and several companies entered the field planting many thousand
acres to be sold in units. As an evidence of the lack of faith on the
part of local land owners let me say that a few weeks ago I read the
original contract between one of the pioneer development companies and
the gentleman from whom they bought their land. This contract was dated
early in 1908 and provided for the sale on time payments of several
thousand acres of land closing with the limitation that unless as much
us 100 acres of this land were planted in pecans and sold in 1920 the
contract was to be null and void. As a matter of fact this company
developed and sold about 4500 acres in less than five years. They have
long since retired as developers and give their entire time to the care
of their immense orchards and the sale of their nuts which annually run
around two hundred thousand pounds.
More than one of these pioneer development companies found themselves in
financial difficulties due to the fact that they had sold their orchards
too cheaply. Pecan growing is expensive, much more so than the average
man thinks and the pecan orchards in the Albany district today that do
not meet the expectations of their owners are mostly those that suffered
for lack of money. Those companies with financial resources and
intelligent horticulturists have developed orchards that are a source of
perennial pleasure and profit to their owners.
The cultivated paper shell pecan is as superior to the wild seedling as
is American gold to Mexico's money. These wild seedlings are small in
size artificially colored a bright red and have a sharp, astringent
taste and have a commercial value only because they are used to lower
the price of mixed nuts.
When the average man hears the word "pecan" be instantly thinks of the
bitter red little nut which is ever present in the supply of Christmas
goodies but which is religiously culled and fed to the glowing grate.
Mr. Average Man never even heard of the southern paper shell pecan. In
fact, up to the present time, the demand has far exceeded the supply and
but little if any effort has been made to develop new markets. I think
it a conservative estimate that not ten per cent of our population have
ever tasted a paper shell pecan.
The paper shell pecan is our national nut and its only competition in
the markets of the world is the ignorance of the public. Acquaint the
public with its merits and there will be a demand for a million times
our present supply.
Away with the thought of overproduction. The "avalanch of nuts" is an
old wife's fable. Do not talk to us about overproduction, when the food
problem is giving the gravest concern to the master minds of the world.
With population increasing and food supply diminishing the gaunt specter
of famine is creeping closer and closer to the homes of men even in our
own favored land.
Hunger knows no armistice. It conquers amid the snowdrifts of the North,
where the grand army of Napoleon found its winding sheet. It conquers
amid the burning sands of the south where the phalanx of Alexander
halted in mutiny. Away with such nonsense as overproduction in
discussing this the choicest food product ever given by a gracious God
to a hungry world.
The ideas of yesterday do not fit the ideals of today. When conditions
shift opinions must be adjusted accordingly and the pioneer growers are
about to realize their golden dreams and reap their reward, for their
orchards are coming into bearing and yielding tons of beautiful brown
nuts for which they find a ready sale at prices ranging from 50 cents to
75 cents per pound and at even higher prices for extra fancy stock.
No doubt many extravagant statements have been made about the pecan
industry but why exaggerate when the plain truth staggers the reason?
Why draw on the imagination when reputable growers in the Albany
District certify to returns to non-resident owners of $300 per acre in a
single season.
This is one infant industry that will not cry for a protective tariff.
Never will Capitol Hill resound with the eloquent plea of some statesman
urging that the southern paper shell pecan industry be protected by a
tariff wall.
The paper shell pecan is the horticultural triumph of the ages the gift
of a gracious God who no doubt could but never did produce a finer nut
and who in his inscrutable wisdom gave a natural monopoly in its culture
to the lower cotton belt for no where else on the habitable globe does
it reach the perfection attained there.
The Mississippi Valley has been called the cradle of the pecan industry
and Georgia its nursery.
Almost all the standard varieties of pecans have come from the lower
Mississippi Valley, Jackson county, Miss., perhaps leading the
procession as she is the mother of no less than twelve of the standard
varieties now fruiting in thousands of orchards making heavy the pockets
and light the hearts of as many owners.
Southwest Georgia has monopolized the pecan nursery business. Given
Albany, Georgia as a center and scribe a circle with a sixty mile radius
and you have inclosed the area from which 90% of all pecan nursery stock
has come. This circle includes Monticello, Florida, which probably is
entitled to the honor of having grown a greater amount of pecan nursery
stock than any other one community.
Texas produces the bulk of the pecan crop well informed men stating that
nine-tenths of the pecans come from the Lone Star State. This may be
correct but practically all Texas pecans are seedlings and while some
are of real merit the bulk of the Texas crop goes to the crackeries.
The pecan belt roughly speaking is the lower cotton belt and includes in
a general way the southern part of South Carolina, Georgia, north
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and parts of Texas and
Oklahoma. The paper shell pecan grows to perfection in this limited area
and nowhere else but all varieties do not thrive alike in the different
sections and the growers have long since learned this and have
eliminated the cumberers of the ground and replanted with those
varieties adapted to that territory.
To successfully develop a pecan orchard requires money, brains and
everlasting bull-dog determination for the lean years with all going out
and nothing coming in try the patience and test the nerve of the
stoutest man. In pecan growing even as in love-making "faint heart ne'er
won fair lady."
While the kingdom of the pecan stretches from Charleston to the Rio
Grande, the seat of government the capital city is Albany, Georgia, for
in the charmed circle known as the Albany district is to be found a
greater number of cultivated paper shell pecan trees than in all the
world besides. Here it is that abundant northern capital applied to
southern soil and sunshine has made the desert to blossom like the rose.
Here it is that abandoned farms scarred with gullies and over grown with
briar have been touched as with a magic wand and transformed into a
veritable fairyland of flower gardens and fertile fields dotted with
hundreds of thousands of beautiful pecan trees that lift their majestic
heads towards the sky as though proud of their royal lineage. Here it is
that the Mexican boll weevil before whose blighting breath our snowy
fields of cotton melted over night brought no terror for King Cotton no
longer reigns supreme. The king is dead but the people rejoice as the
scepter falls from his nerveless hand and a new monarch ascends the
throne. Millions of royal banners flutter in the breeze glistening green
with promise for the future and hope is high, and the hearts of the
people light as they gather to pay homage to the new monarch, Her
Imperial Majesty the Paper Shell Pecan.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: We now have arrived at the time when we should go ahead
with some of our business work and probably the first thing we should
take up is the report of the committee on nominations.
MR. OLCOTT: Your nominating committee regards it as especially fortunate
that the association has a board of officers so well equipped as is the
one under which the organization has just completed another year. For
that reason and also because in a single year officers can scarcely put
into effect plans they may have in view, the president especially being
of necessity engaged largely in becoming acquainted with the field and
the membership; your committee recommends the re-election of the present
officers: President, Wm. S. Linton, Michigan; Vice-President, James S.
McGlennon, New York; Treasurer, Willard G. Bixby, N. Y.; Secretary, Dr.
W. C. Deming, Connecticut, and the executive committee as at present
composed.
The Northern Nut Growers Association has reached the stage of advocating
strongly the planting of nut trees of the kinds the Association has
investigated. Roadside planting appears to offer an immediate field for
activity and President Linton's leadership by reason of his special
interest and activity in this field is particularly needed during the
coming year when through the urging of this and other societies it is
expected many states will follow Michigan in the matter of roadside tree
planting.
We believe it would be a matter of particular satisfaction to any
nominating committee of this association (as it is of this committee) to
recommend continuation in office of Treasurer Bixby and Secretary
Deming.
(Signed)
RALPH T. OLCOTT
T. P. LITTLEPAGE
ROBERT T. MORRIS
C. A. REED
C. P. CLOSE
MR. LITTLEPAGE: I move the adoption of the report and that the secretary
be instructed to cast the entire vote of the association in support of
the report of the committee.
MR. JONES: I second the motion.
The motion was carried.
THE PRESIDENT: Ladies and gentlemen. When I started for Washington it
was with the determination that another should succeed me as president
of the association the one reason being that my time had been so
occupied during the past year that it seemed impossible for me to go
ahead with the work as it should be done as president of this
organization. Now I am going to accept the election which you have so
kindly conferred and I am doing it for two reasons. I like the
association and the membership of this organization. I feel for the
other reason that my work has not been completed and I desire to finish
it. Now then you should have your membership doubled. Every last member
of the organization should put forth efforts this year towards that end.
Here is one plan that I have under way. I asked the faculty of our
agricultural college at Lansing if they would undertake to supply me
with the names of those who have nut trees in Michigan not the ordinary
kind but those producing good nuts and in plenty. I have the names of
from fifty to one hundred of those men owning perhaps a thousand good
nut trees. I do not believe that there is one of those men but would
become a member of this association if the matter were properly
presented to him. We have in Michigan 1,500 townships or more. Now we
have a way of reaching the supervisors of those townships through some
of our departments and we can practically take a census of the nut
bearing trees in Michigan so that instead of having from fifty to one
hundred names here we should have several hundred. Really 75 per cent
of those men should be members of this association. Now what we hope to
do this year in Michigan I feel can be done in every other state that is
interested in our particular work. I want to ask your co-operation you
who live in other states to assist in doing it. Then when we meet a year
hence I hope it may be somewhere in the central West. You honored our
state last year with the annual meeting. Of course we would like to have
you there again. You are welcome. We would be glad to receive you but
Michigan has been thus honored and I imagine that it would add to our
force in other sections to hold the meeting elsewhere, in Illinois or
Iowa or perhaps even a little further west. Some associations are now
meeting in Yellowstone Park and if we should go there we would have the
states of Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. We should get membership in
all of those states. The place of the next meeting I think is very
important. Now I think I have plainly stated my position in the matter
and I am going to try to serve you another year. I hope that at the end
of that year we will have our membership at least doubled. Let us try
and treble it. I thank you. (Applause).
The next subject under discussion then will be the place of meeting.
THE SECRETARY: The by-laws say that the place for the next meeting shall
be selected by the convention assembled or in the event of failure in
that by the executive committee. Sometimes we have done it one way and
sometimes the other. The proper thing to do I think is for the advocates
of the different localities to now present their attractions.
MR. POMEROY: Our vice-president when he left asked me to suggest
Rochester, N. Y. While at Rochester Niagara county is only a short
automobile or trolley ride away. In Niagara county are quite a good many
walnut trees in bearing.
MR. RUSH: Mr. President, I invite this association to convene next year
in Lancaster City, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. We can show you a
very prosperous nut nursery and some young bearing walnut trees and
Harrisburg and other places of interest. I am satisfied that you can not
meet at a more convenient place than Lancaster City. Therefore I extend
the association a hearty invitation.
THE SECRETARY: I would like to hear from Mr. Reed as to the attractions
of the eastern shore of Maryland.
MR. REED: There are several places, Mr. President, where I wish you
might go next year. One of those places is the eastern shore of
Maryland. As I told you last year I regard the eastern shore of Maryland
as one of the promising places of the whole East for the development of
nut orcharding and I find there a great deal of latent interest and a
great deal to see. I am a little disappointed that we have not some
representatives here at this meeting from the eastern shore. I am sure
that if we should decide to go there we would be received with
enthusiasm and we would be shown something that would be quite a
surprise to most of us.
Then another place that I would like to have considered for some meeting
in the near future is the middle West. The Professor of Horticulture in
Missouri is a warm personal friend of mine a classmate of mine in
college, and he is very enthusiastic about the possibilities of nut
culture in that state. He is waiting to be told or shown how to go
ahead, and if we were to go out there I am sure he would follow the lead
if we set the pace. He would take hold and push the nut industry in that
section. In that same neighborhood is the orchard that Mr. Bixby told us
about the chestnut orchard of Mr. Riehl of one or two thousand chestnut
trees planted on hillsides that have never been plowed and which are
giving Mr. Riehl a very lucrative income. Mr. Riehl is 83 years old and
is not going to live always. We certainly ought to see that place while
he is there. We have no invitation out there and none from the eastern
shore and I am always in favor of going where we have an invitation. It
would be my feeling in view of the present situation that we accept one
of the invitations that have already been given to us.
MR. RUSH: We met once in Lancaster about eight years ago but at that
time we had little to show. We had no nut nursery of any consequence at
all and no bearing walnut trees at that time. Now we have them in their
prime.
DR. MORRIS: I would like very much to go to both places, the ones
described by Mr. Pomeroy and by Mr. Rush.
MR. JONES: I would like to say that we were at Rochester three years
after Lancaster and I think Lancaster is entitled to it if you take time
into consideration. I think Lancaster is entitled to the meeting now.
MR. LITTLEPAGE: I move that we accept the invitation of Mr. Rush and Mr.
Jones to meet in Lancaster, Pennsylvania next year. I am going to
couple with that another motion which you can consider if you desire and
that is that we fix the time of meeting. I think that rather important.
I think there are many reasons for it. These meetings are attended by
many people who must know as far in advance as possible. Quite a good
many people take touring trips over the United States and if they know
when these meetings are going to be held they would be very glad to time
themselves to be at that point at that particular time. For example a
few years ago when we had a meeting here Mr. Groner toured here from
Oregon and timed his trip to be here. Later he timed his trip to be at
the national meeting at Mobile, Alabama. It is very important because we
all take vacations and we have to make our vacation arrangements in
advance. It seems to me that the time would be fixed now instead of
letting it lie over and finally select the wrong time. I therefore move
that we accept the invitation of the gentlemen from Lancaster and then
that we fix the time.
PROF. CLOSE: I second the motion.
The motion was unanimously carried.
MR. REED: Mr. President, I would like to make a suggestion in regard to
the date. There are two purposes that we have in mind. One to see things
growing and another to see the product. We can hardly do both the same
year. This year we have seen things growing. We have had almost a summer
meeting and it seems to me that unless the local folks who have invited
us to Lancaster should disagree we might well afford to have our next
meeting a December meeting. Then we can see nuts. We can discuss nuts
themselves. I would make that motion that our meeting be the second week
in December the Wednesday and Thursday of the second week in December,
1921.
THE TREASURER: Would not the prime object in going to Lancaster be to
see things grow? Wouldn't it be difficult if not impossible to really
accomplish that by a December meeting?
MR. LITTLEPAGE: I think a winter meeting might just us well be held in
New York or Baltimore or Washington. I do not agree with Mr. Reed. If I
go to Lancaster I would go to see things. I went up there one December
and nearly froze.
DR. MORRIS: We could split the difference between the two. I think Mr.
Jones and Mr. Rush should be consulted in the matter.
MR. RUSH: I think it would be important to have it the same week as the
York Fair as they have the reputation of never having any rain and this
is a very good time of the year to have an exhibition. You see the fine
crops and everything which is agricultural and horticultural. And
another thing in connection with this we can see the hazels on the
bushes at this time of the year.
DR. MORRIS: I move that we meet about this time next year.
MR. RUSH: I think this week in 1921.
MR. LITTLEPAGE: In order to get the matter before the meeting I move
that the convention next year meet at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on the
Thursday and Friday of the first week in October.
MR. JONES: I second the motion.
The motion was unanimously carried.