I have told you something of what we are doing and of what we hope may result. I hope that you will all visit the offices of the Department carrying on this work, and that you will get acquainted with the men handling the various projects, and tell them what your troubles are, that they may know how to proceed, and that they may discuss with you the best ways of attacking and handling the problems with which you are confronted.
Prof. Lumsden of the Federal Horticultural Board spoke of the chestnut bark disease and the fact that our experts advise us that within the period of twenty-five years the destruction of the native American chestnut will have been accomplished. The tanners and related interests of the country are now scouting around to find some species of tree to use as a substitute for tanning operations. Castanea mollissima is capable of developing into a good sized tree. From an economic standpoint the texture of its lumber is good, while the quality of its fruit is fair, and as an ornamental tree it has a future. It has resistance to the chestnut bark disease. It may become a substitute for C. dentata. Several crosses have been made between C. dentata and C. mollissima and some of them show considerable merit. Selection of these hybrids will have to be made for two purposes, namely wood production and fruit production.
Corylus colurna, the Constantinople filbert, is destined to become popular as an ornamental. On the Pacific Coast a bacterial blight occurs in some sections on corylus. A great work can be done in this country by the Northern Nut Growers Association by publishing bulletins advocating plantings of nut bearing trees for a three-fold purpose, timber, food, and beauty.
Communications were read from Miss Frances L. Stearns, Instructor in Botany of the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Junior Colony, asking information about planting nut trees, and from Mr. J. A. Young, Secretary of the Tree Lovers Association of America, asking the association to adopt their slogan and to co-operate with it in urging the more intelligent planting of trees, shrubs and flowers.
The evening session on Sept. 26th was called to order at 8:10 and a moving picture reel, "The Almond Industry in California," loaned by the Dept. of the Interior, was shown. Following that an address with lantern slides was given by Mr. C. A. Reed of the Dept. of Agriculture, on his recent trip to China.
MR. REED: In 1910 certain Americans in China conceived the idea of exporting the walnuts produced in that country to America. The experiment proved so successful that they continued to do so, and shipped their walnuts to this country year after year. The business built up very rapidly, until the war broke out when, for the time being, the industry was forced to a standstill. But as soon as the war was over the business picked up again, and had assumed such proportions, about two years ago, that American growers wanted to know how much longer the Chinese would be able to send walnuts over here. Most of the nuts from China were of inferior quality to those produced in this country. Records of the exports showed that there had been an increase from China each year; but as to the methods used, the extent of orcharding, or the growth in planting, etc., the matter had not been written up, and the consuls had not the remotest idea. It was finally decided by Congress, therefore, that a special appropriation for an investigation should be made. So a special trip was made to China to ascertain, first of all, the probable trade from there for the next ten or twenty years. Our people felt that more walnuts would be coming here, and they wanted to know about this before they planted any more here. It fell to my lot to make the trip, a year ago this summer.
We went first to Honolulu; then to Manila and Japan, and finally to China. We went into the section just to the right of Tientsin. By superimposing a map of China over that of the United States you may see that China more than covers this country; China is considerably larger than the United States.
Our basic point was Peking, which is in about the same latitude as Philadelphia. We found that walnuts were grown all through this section of China, not very much farther north than Peking, but not much farther south than Shanghai. There are walnuts cultivated here, in the Chinese way, over a great area; but we were convinced that the exportation of walnuts to this country was not likely to increase, for the business has apparently reached its height. American trade takes the best nuts; the second best go to Canada, the third to Europe and the fourth and fifth to Australia.
Our first expedition into the country was almost directly north of Peking. We went down the railroad about 15 miles, to Shaho, where we employed donkeys and a ricksha, and rode across country some 12 or 15 miles. Here we found a very excellent Chinese hotel, and surrounding orchards of perhaps 300 trees. Some of the consular reports in China stated that this place was one of the three sections in which the finest shipments of nuts were produced.
We next went to the east of Tientsin where we found quite a number of orchards and trees claimed to be from 150 to 200 years of age, although we found, after travelling a short time and inquiring from the Chinese farmers, that the figures they gave to us were probably inaccurate. We finally ceased to ask the Chinese farmers for figures of that sort. It was very interesting to note the difference in Chinese and American methods. For instance, in China, the land may be owned by one or by several people, who will lease the land or the trees, or perhaps even an individual tree, for a period of years. White marks placed on the trees indicate their ownership.
Young walnut trees were very scarce. We were told in one province that Chinese merchants, who had been forced out of Russia because of economic conditions there, and had lost everything, had come home and were seeking something with which to make money. They were already planting a considerable number of walnut trees, and were growing crops under the trees, planting crops of millet first, and then of soy beans later in the season. Another crop they use is called kaolin (pronounced "gollin" in this country).
Very few of the trees are ever pruned systematically, or taken care of; the Chinese seem to have no idea of this. Of course, the rainfall there is at a different time of the year than ours. Fall, winter and spring, in North China, are practically without rain. Consequently, the atmosphere is very dry.
Here and there we found trees that struck us so favorably that we made notes with the intention of going back to the trees to get scions for propagating purposes for this country. We were told that one of these trees had borne 800 pounds of nuts. I suppose, however, if that was so, it was green weight, and included the hulls. This tree was on the grounds of the Y. M. C. A., about 80 miles below Shanghai, the farthest south we went. The tree had been planted by missionaries, and had made splendid growth. There were not many walnuts south of that point, however. In the province of Shanshi the soil is of a washed nature, subjected to rains, and we found there huge gorges that had evidently been forming for centuries. All of the soil there, that is not too uneven to be cultivated, is terraced; and along the sides of the terraces walnut trees are planted. We usually found tunnels along the sides of the terraces. These were dug around the bank so that the water would run through the tunnels instead of over the terrace.
We saw no indications of blight. We thought we saw it in one case, but when we examined the nuts, it proved to be nothing but insects working on the hulls.
Wherever we went, we were told by the Chinese that they harvest their walnuts at about the time of the year which in America would be about the first week in September. We found, however, that the nuts were off of the trees and assembled on the ground for sorting and drying, long before that. They were put in windrows covered with millet straw and left for ten days, after which time the hulls were chipped off with knives and the nuts immediately washed and put on the market. I was particularly struck with the mechanical motion with which the Chinese men worked; it was just as regular as a machine. This was the first time that characteristic came to my attention, and afterwards I was struck with the same thing everywhere.
Each farmer takes his products, whatever they may be, to a common town called "market town," and there they are bought by the local merchants, or the "compradors." The exporters are missionaries and foreigners who make no effort to buy from the farmers, for the tradesman, or comprador, can get the nuts at a better figure than can the foreigners. The tradesman gets his commission in addition. The baskets of nuts are carried on poles placed over the shoulders of the Chinese.
One of the principal walnut centers of Chantung Province is 25 miles from the railroad, and we made quite an effort to reach it. An agricultural missionary, a Mr. Gordan, made the trip there with me, and we found it a badly infested section. We arrived about three o'clock in the afternoon and took about one hour going around to see the nuts. There were places within the wall where nuts had been assembled, and we made estimates as to the number of pounds. I think there were from 100 to 150 sacks of nuts in a pile.
Many of the women and children grow walnuts and these crops are inspected and sorted before being shipped to Peking. In the early summer, we saw quantities of apricot kernels being transported to the market and sold as almonds. We had understood that China was quite an important almond-producing country, but I doubt if there are any almonds in China. I did not see a tree, nor did I get an indication that there were any there.
One of the largest chestnut trees that I saw measured eight feet and would have been valuable for timber purposes. It was in one of the very attractive little orchards of chestnut trees in the north of Shansi and northeast of Tientsin. We understood that there were very large orchards to the north, but you might say that there is no such thing as a large orchard in China. We counted about 100 trees in such orchards, and we made notes as to their bearing habits. We found the chestnuts of pleasing quality, of a fair size, and not quite as large as European nuts but larger than the American. We did not see many of the trees which had been allowed to develop normally. They are not of special value in China, and consequently, the branches are removed as high as possible, and often the tops are cut out.
The Chinese have a species of native peanut which is very shrivelled and hard; but missionaries from this country have introduced there the American peanut, which is now grown so extensively that Chinese exports have disturbed our market conditions considerably.
The Chinese allow nothing to go to waste. When the peanuts are removed from the ground and cared for, the soil is sifted so that no peanuts will be lost. The American peanut grown there is served in little butterdishes on the hotel tables, as a delicacy.
Meeting called to order by President McGlennon, 10:15 a. m.
The president appointed as Nominating Committee to nominate officers for the ensuing year, Dr. Robert T. Morris, Prof. C. P. Close, J. S. McGlennon.
Mr. T. P. Littlepage, of Washington, D. C., then spoke on the subject of
Commercial Nut Culture.
This is a very difficult subject to discuss, for the reason that, as yet, there are very few facts upon which to base any conclusions about commercial nut culture in the North.
First, let me say that the principal point upon which we base our opinion that nut culture in the North has commercial possibilities, is the fact that growing throughout many sections of the North are thousands of nut trees, pecans, walnuts, hickories and butternuts, many of which grow very fine nuts. It would be a repudiation of all known laws of natural science to conclude that trees budded and grafted from these desirable parents would not grow and bear the same as they do. Therefore, we are perfectly safe in concluding that if there are successful nut trees growing, others also will grow. Let us proceed to consider some of the requirements.
First, there is the soil requirement. But before considering the soil requirement, I might add that we must keep within reasonable latitude of the homes of the native trees. This subject has been fully covered in previous reports of our association, and I do not care to go into a detailed discussion of it, except to say that prospective planters of commercial orchards should read the previous reports of the association on this subject, and keep in mind that somewhere north of the home of the parent trees, is a line north of which these trees will not bear. This line is dependent upon several things, altitude, topography and other elements. As an example, I merely mention that orange orchards flourish in California at the Philadelphia latitude.
Going on with the question of soil, upon this subject alone might be written a whole volume. But a few points are essential. Most nut trees require a deep, well-drained soil that is not swampy or seepy, and over which there are no overflows during the summer season. Pecans grow along the river bottoms where there are heavy overflows in the winter, but such an overflow in the summer would probably kill the trees. Nut trees seem to flourish well on land that is underlaid with clay as a subsoil. In fact, almost any kind of good farm land is suitable for some of the different kinds of nut trees, provided it does not come within the restrictions above mentioned. The better the land, however, the more successful will be the growth of the trees, and I very much doubt whether it pays to put any kind of desirable tree on undesirable land. I have heard it said of pedigreed stock that about ninety percent of the pedigree is in the corn crib, five percent in the man that does the feeding, and five percent in the blood. Perhaps these percentages might be subject to some variations. I shouldn't reduce the corn crib requirement, and I think about ninety percent of the success of our nut trees will depend upon the land.
The next point to be considered is the question of varieties and, in this connection, it is essential to remember that nuts are produced to be sold and eaten; therefore, it is important to keep in mind the requirements of the consuming public. Upon this question also have been written many thousands of pages which, when all summed up, simply amounts to this: get the best varieties that will bear in your particular locality. This can be determined to some extent by what native trees are growing in your particular locality, although not entirely so. In many sections of the country, there are no native pecan trees, and yet these trees flourish very successfully when brought from some other section. On this point the prospective planter of commercial orchards should seek the best advice obtainable.
The third requirement for a commercial nut orchard is cultivation and attention. Many of the nut trees will grow and bear without any attention whatsoever, but they will take your time for it. I have seen wild pecan trees that were not over twelve or fifteen feet high at twenty-five years of age. I have seen cultivated trees larger than that at eight years of age. A tree responds to care and cultivation the same as corn or potatoes or any other of the cultivated crops. The lack of cultivation is just as detrimental to them as to these crops. Young pecan trees should be hoed five or six times each summer, and when they get to be four to seven years of age, there ought to be a constant, clean cultivation, from early spring until late in the summer, followed by a good cover crop to be turned under the following spring at the beginning of the cultivating period. They should also be given plenty of good, commercial fertilizer.
If the prospective planter of commercial nut orchard has enough faith and hope and follows the suggestions given above, he will not be dependent upon charity in his old age.
DR. JORDAN: I am interested as an amateur pecan grower, and I would like to ask what varieties will be of most profit, commercially, that can be grown with a reasonable hope of success in the northern latitude.
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MR. LITTLEPAGE: The question is a very difficult one to answer, but the important thing is to stick to the kind that grows the best in your locality. The Posey is grown in Lancaster County, Pa. The parent Posey tree grows in Indiana, and I had the pleasure of naming it. That tree is a good bearer, and it is the thinnest-shelled northern-grown pecan with which I am familiar. It is a very beautiful nut, with the exception that frequently one side of the kernel will not fill out as it does on the other sides. It is not defective, but simply deficient. It will have one full sized kernel but it is not perfect in shape. I myself do not think this a very serious objection.
The Major is a fine bearing pecan, but the question is whether it is large enough to be good commercially. The Niblack is the highest flavored pecan.
The following letter from Mr. J. F. Jones, vice-president of the association, was then read:
I am very sorry not to be able to attend the meeting this year. My son, who has the overseeing of the outside work and, in my absence, the general work, is incapacitated, due to an operation for appendicitis last week and, with a number of men at work on particular jobs, I cannot get away.
I am sending a few nuts which may be of interest to visitors. About half of my young pecan trees are bearing this year and a few trees are quite full. So far, Busseron shows up the best in bearing, with Posey second, and Niblack third. The English walnuts are a good crop. Mr. Bush has a big crop of these, and older trees in general have a good crop. The Rush hazel is bearing a big crop as usual. So far this is the only variety in any species to bear heavy annual crops here. The weather, seemingly, has no effect on the setting of the nuts. Last spring we had it down to 10 above zero when this was in bloom, but it set a full crop from both hand and natural pollenization. Hybrids of this and the best large fruited Europeans which have come into bearing are very promising, but it is too early to judge as to their bearing.
Put me down for new memberships or cash as last year, or for my part in any arrangement that may be decided upon to take care of the indebtedness of the association, or to advance its usefulness. I shall also be glad to extend the offer of two nut trees as last year, to new members, if it is thought this will help in securing the new members. Offerings this year would be Stabler black walnut seedlings, Chinese, Mayette, Franquette, Eureka, etc., in the English or Persians. Also seedlings of the Rush hazel, if wanted.
Having been nominated vice-president of the association two years ago, it may be understood that I am in line for the presidency this year upon the retirement of our honorable president Mr. McGlennon. If so, I wish to ask the nominating committee not to consider my name as I cannot accept this responsibility. With the vast amount of correspondence incidental to supplying information to those wanting to engage in the growing of nuts or nut trees, and growing and selling nut trees, experimental work and breeding new types and varieties, I have my hands full and could not do this position justice. We also have members in the association better fitted for this position who can give it better thought and attention, and who can advance the association and the interests of nut growers more than I can, while I can be of more benefit to the association and the nut industry in general without taking on the duties imposed by any official position.
Thursday, Sept. 27
Trip by automobiles to Mr. Littlepage's farm at Bowie, Md., and to the
U. S. Experiment Station at Bell.
Mr. Littlepage has an orchard of 275 trees covering thirty acres of pecans and Stabler black walnuts, the first pecan trees being set in 1914, and the Stabler black walnuts some three years later. Now both are starting to bear, a few nuts having appeared last year, and a very few nuts the year before.
The trees are growing finely, the leaves have a fine dark green color, and nuts were noticed in clusters, the pecans being in clusters of 2, 3, 4 and 5; and the black walnuts in ones and twos.
That the orchard has been given good care is evident. Commercial fertilizers and green manures have been used. A winter cover crop of rye was grown last fall and plowed under this spring, and a summer cover crop of soy beans was grown this summer and will be plowed under this fall.
The varieties noticed in bearing were the Major, the Greenriver, Stuart, Busseron and the Indiana. Of the above, all are northern varieties, excepting the Stuart, which is a southern variety which has given evidence elsewhere of being able to grow and to bear further north than almost any other southern variety.
The pecans are set in blocks, the earlier ones being set 60' x 60'. Mr. Littlepage became convinced after his first plantings that this was too close, and the last planting of pecans was 100' x 120'.
The black walnuts are planted along two fence rows, the trees being fifty feet apart, the total length of the rows being about three-quarters of a mile. The peculiarity of the Stabler black walnut of bearing some nuts where the kernel is in one piece, that is where one lobe of the kernel has not developed, was noticed in some of Mr. Littlepage's trees. There is going to be, in future years at Mr. Littlepage's place, an opportunity to study this peculiar behavior of the Stabler black walnut, that could be carried on at the parent tree only with great difficulty, because of the inaccessibility of the tree, in the first place, and the inaccessibility of the flowers, owing to their great height above the ground, in the second.
At Bell Station was seen Dr. Van Fleet's work on chestnuts. Some ten years ago Dr. Van Fleet began this work for the purpose of getting something that should be blight proof, or at least strongly blight resisting and that would furnish the nuts which the chestnut blight is rapidly making impossible of production. With this end in view, some ten years ago Dr. Van Fleet planted nuts of the Chinese chestnut, Castanea mollissima, and planted out the seedlings. He also procured from the place of J. W. Killen, at Fenton, Md., nuts of Japan chestnuts that had withstood the blight up to the time the nuts were planted. The first thing to be found out was how well these would resist the blight. None were found to be immune, although the trees are still alive after ten years exposure. Dr. Van Fleet's ambition was to get a blight-resistant chestnut the size of the Japan chestnut with the delicious flavor of the chinkapin. This, as yet, has not been accomplished, although some very good nuts much larger than chinkapins were seen. One interesting fact noted as to resistance was that the Japan chestnut, which is not generally supposed to be as resistant as the Chinese chestnut, was at Bell Station apparently standing up just as well.
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At the evening session, Thursday, Sept. 27, a rising vote of thanks was
given to Mr. and Mrs. Littlepage for their hospitality of the afternoon.
The president then introduced Mrs. W. N. Hutt, editor of the Progressive
Farm Woman, of North Carolina.
Mrs. Hutt quoted H. G. Wells as saying, "The primeval savage was both herbivorous and carnivorous. He had for food hazel nuts, beech nuts, sweet chestnuts, earth nuts and acorns." She went on to say:
In Spain and Southern France, the chestnut is now used much more than in the past. You should know in what appetizing forms they are cooked. It is a question how you should cook the chestnut if you do not want to spoil its flavor. Should you steam it, boil it, or what? When you want it in bread, or when you use the tasteless forms, it is first steamed or boiled, and later is mashed up and made into bread, or mixed with cheese or tomatoes. But if you want to develop the flavor, then roast it, pick it out from the shell and crush it, using almost no other flavor with it.
Have you ever realized how much we depend on the walnut in cooking? Take the pecan, or perhaps almost all of the nuts; the flavor is diminished by cooking. But the walnut is the one nut that gains in flavor by being cooked. This means a great deal for the popularity of the walnut.
A friend of mine was captured by the Germans, and was sent out each day into the forests to gather acorns to be used in the prisoners' food. The friend said that many a time he thought he would rather die than to have to eat or gather any more acorns.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 712, "The School Lunch," by Caroline Hunt, has been especially valuable in the preparation of the school lunch with nuts. There is a man who comes to North Carolina every winter, who will tell you that he lives on ten types of nut oils and nut butter.
The great mass of people out through the country are not yet ready to comprehend this; but once they are educated to the value of nuts, the demand for them will be unlimited.
As to the question of economy, the prices should not go up any farther; they will not be used enough until they become cheaper. With many boys and girls in a family, a dollar's worth of nuts, at $1 a pound, will not go far. If we could get nuts at more reasonable prices it seems to me that women would consider them more than they do for food. They want them not only for their parties, but in everyday life.
We should popularize nuts through newspapers. It pays to advertise, and little notices in the paper are much more far-reaching than any other way of telling the story of the nourishment to be found in nuts.
As to the value of nut trees in landscape work, a real estate man told me that when he wanted a good price for a house he planted fruit trees at the back of the house, and nut trees on the sides. He would talk about those trees to the people who came to buy, and has sold many houses in this way.
Then take Arbor Day, and we have one in nearly every state in the Union. If we could get the papers and the forest magazines to talk about Arbor Day, and urge everybody to plant something, and particularly to plant a nut tree, it would not be long before we got results. I could not think of anything much more patriotic than planting avenues of memorial nut trees. Nut trees are better to look at than are many of the monuments erected, and the patriotic societies do not realize the truth in this. There is a case where with a stroke of the pen, the nut trees could be increased all over the country.
Then consider the home demonstration agents in the country. They have the women organized and are in touch with the men of progressive thought and feeling everywhere; and it seems to me that we could make more use of them. It would seem that if this organization could in some way raise the money to have someone talk at these demonstration meetings, it would not be long before the value and the beauty of nut trees would show the use of doing this splendid work. What more effective methods could there be than to go to the state meetings held by home demonstration agents twice a year, and talk nuts to those people? They go home and talk these same things to all of the women in their little organizations and communities. There is no rapid transit method more effective than that. Then, when the women are taking up a subject like that, men are apt to read it also.
Another form of advertising that is equally important is in men's organizations. A number of years ago Mr. Hutt went down through the eastern part of the state on the old farmers' institute work. He took with him a case fixed up to display nuts. He talked about them, and especially about pecans. The people had never seen anything but the little, old, wild pecan, and they became enthusiastic. When you get a farmer enthusiastic you are doing something. The people became quite enthusiastic and planted quite a number of orchards. Mr. Hutt left the department and the new man who came in was not particularly enthusiastic about nuts. Then Mr. Curran came into the work and decided there was nothing he could do better than to urge them to plant nut trees. He is trying to get an unlimited quantity of pecans and walnut trees planted and he hopes to have a large number of trees put in within a few years.
To paraphrase what Mr. Littlepage said this morning, in connection with the raising of hogs, in getting the world to plant more trees, to use more nuts and to appreciate the value of nut trees for both beauty and use, you need 90 percent of advertising; and let the 8 percent be the man and 2 percent be the nut.
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DR. MORRIS: Last year, when my experiments with the use of paraffin grafting had apparently been completed, I included what I knew of this subject in a little book, and this brought out letters from all parts of the country, in fact from all parts of the world, reminding me that I had not completed the subject of the use of paraffin in grafting. From tropical countries men complained that my suggestions about the use of one particular kind of paraffin, "Parowax," were not applicable to their part of the country where the paraffin would melt in the summer sun. Then, from some of the regions where the nights were cold, they said the paraffin would crack and leave the stocks bare, owing to the change of temperature.
We are consequently faced with a necessity for extending our information on this subject. My reason for presenting it, before I have completed investigations, is to get suggestions from members of the audience here, and from practical nurserymen. I have written a number of books on various topics, and have never sent one out without feeling sorry that it was not time for the next edition.
The theory is that if we cover a graft completely with melted paraffin, including the entire scion, buds and all, we have accomplished several things. In the first place, the paraffin prevents the graft from drying out before new cells can make union with cells of the scion.
In the second place it fills all interstices where sap would collect.
In the third place it provides an airtight covering so that the free sap pressures, negative and positive, under different temperatures, will be analogous in stock and scion. When there is low sap pressure we assume that some of the sap may be drawn out of the scion. This airtight covering prevents that.
In the fourth place it provides a translucent covering, which allows action by the actinic rays of light, which brings the chlorophyll into activity. All plant growth is conducted under the influence of chlorophyll, and the actinic rays of light activate this. Consequently, I seemed to have a perfect grafting material in this Parowax, which we may find in any grocery store. In my locality this wax worked perfectly and, theoretically, nothing more was to be desired. It melts at 125 degrees farenheit.
I have brought with me a specimen of a pear tree that I grafted in this way in July of this year. You will see that the Parowax covering is still complete. The new shoots have grown about eight inches since July 1, and I do not see how you could imagine anything more perfect than this specimen, from which I wrote my description in the book. As a matter of fact it is by the use of the paraffin method that I seemed to have solved the very great problem of making it possible for anybody to graft anything, and at any time of the year. The most difficult thing to graft is the shagbark hickory, and we have even done that every month of the year, except December and January. This year we are going to try those months, for I believe that the hickory tree may be grafted any month of the year.
Now the point of my remarks will relate to different kinds of paraffin. This Parowax, which melts at 125 degrees farenheit, will be satisfactory in the north temperate regions. We may raise the melting point ten degrees, if we like, by the addition of the carnauba wax, which, however, is highly crystalline. A crystalline wax is not desirable because it cracks and permits the air to enter and we have a desiccation of the scion. The Standard Oil people will furnish paraffin with a melting point of 138 degrees, and that will cover all of our needs for hot countries. But in getting paraffins that melt at 136, 137 or 138 degrees we have a rather definite crystalline element. Mr. Bixby has suggested the use of the earth wax which is mined in Australia. It is really a fossil paraffin and is not so granular. I found that it is not to be had in this country at the present time, however, although various dealers told me that they had it, and I obtained from a firm in New York City a misbranded specimen called "Ozokerite," which they said is a technical term for this particular fossil paraffin. But it was nothing of the sort; it was something they had made up for themselves. Mr. Bixby kindly gave me a pound or so of the real "Ozokerite," so I had the genuine thing to experiment with. We may then settle the question of obtaining paraffines which have a high melting point, by knowing that they may be obtained from any of the Standard Oil people.
Knowing that we must have, in addition, the elastic feature, I found one man who had succeeded by adding something to a high melting-point paraffin. He said that it was a secret, but I soon found that it would be no secret to a bee. It would seem, then, that this quality in beeswax would be valuable, since the secret formula from this same dealer has little more than beeswax in it. Beeswax is a different kind of organic product from paraffin and I would not expect them to mingle naturally when in melted solution, but apparently they do. You will find that the specimens which contain this wax are very smooth to the touch, and apparently are more homogeneous than paraffin.
The subject for experiment then, for members of this audience, is that of finding some substance that may be added to give elasticity, but which will not change the melting point. In the South we may require in addition something to whiten our paraffin. Some men in Southern California wrote me that they had fastened white paper about each graft and put a rubber band over it. I suggested this plan to one or two men in Australia and in Ceylon, who had complained about the melting of the Parowax, and I have not yet received their replies. I have been trying, however, to simplify things in the way of grafting. In addition to the elasticity that we need, we must have whitening, and for this purpose we must add something that will not be poisonous to the tree but will mix with the paraffin readily and give a white paraffin, which will interfere somewhat with the actinic light. I have found that carbonate of lead will mix well with paraffin. Carbonate of zinc will also mix well. They are both heavy, so heavy that they need a certain amount of stirring. A lighter substance is citrate of zinc, which will give elasticity, and which will probably also give a white effect. It melts with the paraffin and, being neutral, it will do no harm to the tree.
I have given you an outline on which I wish discussion, for I hope to get from this audience the information and suggestions that will enable me to make my experiments in the right way so that by next spring we may have no further need for discussing the question as to the correct paraffin method in grafting.
MR. BIXBY: There is another wax that is not so crystalline as the Parowax, and that is Candelilla, which is produced in Texas and New Mexico. It may be obtained from the wax importers in New York City, not from the Standard Oil Co., but the importers. I will find out just where it is from. I can easily get samples. Its melting point is not so high as Parowax, but it is much higher than any of the other waxes.
DR. MORRIS: Then by mixing it with the high-melting point waxes, those of about 138 degrees, we might get good results.
MR. BIXBY: I think so, and without introducing the crystalline element.
Prof. H. H. Hume of Glen St. Mary, Florida was then asked to speak. He said that he uses fresh pine gum from the turpentine cups to make grafting wax stick. This will mix with beeswax and give the elasticity needed for winter work (in the South). Also it is unaffected by a temperature as high as 120 degrees. He uses a mixture of high grade rosin, beeswax and pine gum with which pieces of cloth are saturated. Gum should be obtained in the spring when it is purest. It is thin enough to pour out.
Dr. Zimmerman said that he had tried pine gum with paraffine and it would not mix.
Prof. Hume said that beeswax can be had in various shades up to pure white.
Dr. Morris said that black grafting wax attracts heat and excludes actinic rays. He prefers a translucent wax.
Prof. Hume stated that in the country where Jacksonville, Florida, is there are 100 miles of roadway under construction which will be planted with nut trees where possible. He added that once when he was ill for a long time the doctor finally ordered a glassful of milk and a handful of pecan kernels for his diet. He tried it and it worked.
Dr. Zimmerman said that for grafting wax he had used equal parts of paraffin, stearic acid and beeswax with good results.
Dr. Morris stated his belief that the simple splice graft is the strongest kind.
Sept. 28th.
The chairman of the Committee on Incorporation was called upon for a report and spoke as follows:
MR. LITTLEPAGE: Under the Code of the District of Columbia there is a provision of law whereby any educational, scientific or charitable association can be incorporated and become a body corporate with all of the rights of any other corporation, so far as the corporate entity and liability is concerned. The provision of the District Code is a very liberal one and drafted to encourage such societies as this. The committee therefore thought it better to incorporate under this provision of the law than under that of some other state.
The advantages of incorporating a society of this kind are several. It makes the action of the organization that of a legalized corporation and takes away liability of individual members. If anyone should desire to donate money to the organization, we would have a corporate entity that would be responsible under the law for the safe handling of such funds. Under the law we can hold such funds up to the point where the income is not more than $25,000 a year. In the District of Columbia a corporation can take title to real estate, transfer property and do all necessary things in accordance with its by-laws. We therefore concluded that there could be no objection to incorporating under such laws. So with the consent of the other members of the committee, I prepared in my office the proper certificate of incorporation which, under the requirements of the Code of the District, are as follows:
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, That we, the undersigned, all of whom are citizens of the United States and a majority of whom are residents of the District of Columbia, desiring to associate ourselves for scientific and educational purposes and for mutual improvement; and to organize a corporation under sub-chapter three (3) of the Incorporation Laws of the District of Columbia, as provided in the Code of Law of the District of Columbia, enacted by Congress and approved by the President of the United States, do hereby certify:
FIRST: That the corporate name of this company shall be The
Northern Nut Growers Association, Incorporated.
SECOND: The term for which is it organized is perpetual.
THIRD: The particular business and objects of the society are the promotion of interest in nut-bearing plants, their products and their culture, and, in general, to do and to perform every lawful act and thing necessary or expedient to be done or performed for the efficient conduct of said business as authorized by the laws of Congress, and to have and to exercise all the powers conferred by the laws of the District of Columbia upon corporations under said sub-chapter three (3) of the Incorporation Laws of the District of Columbia.
FOURTH: The number of directors of the said corporation for the
first year of its existence shall be five.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF we have hereunto affixed our hands and seals
this 27th day of September A. D. 1923.
Karl W. Greene (Seal)
Albert R. Williams (Seal).
Thomas P. Littlepage (Seal).
I, Alice B. Watt, a Notary Public in and for the District aforesaid, do hereby certify that Karl W. Greene (of the District of Columbia), Albert R. Williams (of the District of Columbia) and Thomas P. Littlepage (of the State of Maryland), parties to the foregoing and annexed certificate of Incorporation of THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION, INCORPORATED, bearing date on the 27th day of September, 1923, personally appeared before me in the District aforesaid the said Karl W. Greene, Albert R. Williams and Thomas P. Littlepage, being personally known to me to be the persons who made and signed the said certificate and severally acknowledged the same to be their act and deed for the purposes therein set forth.
WITNESS my hand and seal this 27th day of September, 1923.
ALICE R. WATT,
Notary Public.
My commission expires December 17, 1923.
The smallest number of members with which corporation is possible, is three; so I secured two members, Mr. Greene and Mr. Williams, who, together with myself, prepared this, and put it in proper form. We then filed it with the Recorder of Deeds, keeping a copy for the files of the incorporation. The Recorder received it, and the fact that he received it was proof that it was satisfactory. We are now, therefore, a corporation.
Of course, we want to put that machinery into action, but in order to do so a board of directors has to be selected. Then will follow the election of officers of the Association. Therefore, I have prepared a report of the meeting of the incorporators, which I will read. As I said, however, we did this to get the machinery into operation. Next year the directors will be elected by the members.
The organization meeting of the Incorporators of the Northern Nut
Growers Association, Incorporated, was held at Washington, D. C.,
September 28th, 1923, at 10:00 o'clock a. m.
Present: Karl W. Greene, Albert R. Williams, and Thomas P. Littlepage.
Upon motion, Thomas P. Littlepage became Chairman of the meeting.
Upon motion of Mr. Greene, seconded by Mr. Williams and unanimously passed, the following were elected Directors of the Northern Nut Growers Association, Incorporated, for the first year of its existence or thereafter until the annual meeting of the company in 1924.
James S. McGlennon, of Rochester, New York.
W. C. Deming, of Hartford, Connecticut.
Willard G. Bixby, of Baldwin, Nassau Co., N. Y.
Harry R. Weber, of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Robert T. Morris, of New York, N. Y.
Upon motion of Mr. Greene seconded by Mr. Williams and unanimously passed, by-laws of the corporation were adopted.
There being no further business, the meeting of the Incorporators adjourned.
KARL W. GREENE,
ALBERT R. WILLIAMS,
THOMAS P. LITTLEPAGE,
Incorporators.
THE PRESIDENT: The next action, then, Mr. Littlepage, would be to get the report of the nominating committee. I call for that now.
Mr. Littlepage: (Reads as follows):
The first meeting of the Directors of the Northern Nut Growers Association, Incorporated, was held at Washington, D. C., September 28th, 1923.
Present: James S. McGlennon, Willard G. Bixby, Robert T. Morris.
Upon motion of Mr. Bixby seconded and unanimously passed, the following officers were elected for the ensuing year, or thereafter until the annual meeting of the Incorporation to be held in 1924:
President, Harry R. Weber; Vice-President, J. F. Jones; Treasurer, H. J.
Hilliard; Secretary, W. C. Deming.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned.
Secretary of Directors' Meeting.
(The report was adopted by the convention).
By Willard G. Bixby
MR. BIXBY: The finance committee asks the association to instruct the secretary in the printing of the next report to endeavor to reduce the size to one-half of the present report.
(Adopted by the convention).
MR. BIXBY: I move as an amendment to Article Two of the By-Laws, that annual membership be $3, or $5 including a year's subscription to the Journal. Contributing members to pay $10, this including a year's subscription to the Journal.
(Motion seconded and adopted by the convention, and the committee on
Incorporation discharged with the thanks of the association).
MR. LITTLEPAGE: I have nearly overlooked the fact that the organization must now have a corporate seal, with an appropriate inscription. An appropriate inscription would be "The Northern Nut Growers' Association, Incorporated." All such seals generally carry some appropriate design, and there are various ones to be had. I move that a committee of three be appointed to determine upon the design of this seal, and then later, if the chairman of the committee will send the design to me, I will have the seal made and send it to the association.
(Motion seconded and adopted, and Dr. Deming, Mr. Bixby, and Dr. Morris appointed as committee by the president).
After considerable discussion New York City was selected as the place for the next convention and the dates Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, September 3rd, 4th and 5th, 1924.
A vote of thanks to the president, Mr. James S. McGlennon, was adopted. The secretary was also instructed to write to Mrs. Hutt expressing the thanks of the convention for her address.
Dr. Oswald Schreiner of the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of
Agriculture was then introduced and spoke as follows:
In the successful growing of pecan trees, the proper care of the orchard is of enormous importance. (To illustrate this point, slides were shown of a good orchard and a poor orchard on a rather thin soil in the Coastal Plain Region. In the good orchard, the trees had been well cared for, the soil fertilized by the growing of legumes and cover crops plowed under; in the poor orchard, the trees had been neglected and the soil impoverished by the continuous growing of cultivated crops, such as cotton and corn. The two views very clearly showed which orchard was on a paying basis and likely to prove a profitable investment). It is needless to say that the crop from such a poor, intercropped orchard would be meagre and unprofitable until the methods were changed. The growing of legumes to furnish humus, and even the growing of winter cover crops, such as rye, to be plowed under in the spring, cannot be too strongly recommended as soil improvers.
When nut trees are grown in orchards, they can no longer be considered as forest trees to be left to take care of themselves until a rich harvest of nuts is produced, but must be cared for just as much as any other fruit tree or cultivated crop or the harvest of nuts will never be forthcoming.
The fertilizing of nut trees, however, offers more difficulties than do the annual crops. Experiments on this subject have been few and the information obtainable is rather meagre. Consequently, a few years ago, the Office of Soil Fertility Investigation, which is conducting fertilizer investigations on a large number of the annual crops grown on the prominent soil types or soil regions of the United States, started, in co-operation with the Office of Horticultural Investigations of the Bureau of Plant Industry, a number of fertilizer experiments on pecan orchards, involving a study of several soil types suitable for nut production and attempting to ascertain the proper fertilizer requirements for the pecan on these soils. While these experiments have been running only five years, which in point of time is very small in the life of a pecan tree, yet the different fertilizers employed already show some highly interesting results, sufficient to indicate that certain fertilizer applications undoubtedly influence the growth of the tree, its productiveness, and quality of the nut produced.
The experimental fertilizer mixtures are all prepared here in Washington in a fertilizer-mixing plant on the department's Arlington Farm, on the Virginia side of the river. The fertilizer house is well stocked with all of the various fertilizer substances used in agriculture, ready for mixing; nitrate of soda from Chili, potash from France and Germany, and our own far western states; cottonseed meal from the South, tankage and dried blood from the slaughter houses of Chicago and Omaha, Tennessee or Florida phosphates, and acid phosphate, ammonium sulfate from the coke ovens of Pennsylvania, Thomas slag from England, in short, all sorts of commercial materials from near and remote sources, for study and use in fertilizers.
(Slides were then shown of the exterior and interior of the plant where literally thousands of experimental fertilizer mixtures are prepared to study the requirements of the various soils and crops, and are then shipped in freight cars to the various experiment places. Two slides showing the application of fertilizer in a large orchard where tractors are employed in carrying on the various cultural operations and also in a small orchard where hand labor is employed, were also shown).
The scheme of fertilizer experimentation adopted in this work is rather complete and so planned as to include fertilizers carrying the principal fertilizer constituents, phosphate, ammonia and potash, singly, in combinations of two elements, and in combinations of three elements, in various proportions in a regularly graded manner. The following scheme illustrates these mixtures of different analyses, the first figure denoting the percentage of phosphate, the second the percentage of ammonia, and the third the percentage of potash in the fertilizer. The various mixtures are numbered consecutively.
1
—-
20-0-0
2 3
—- —-
16-0-4 16-4-0
4 5 6
—- —- —-
12-0-8 12-4-4 12-8-0
7 8 9 10
—- —- —- —-
8-0-12 8-4-8 8-8-4 8-12-0
11 12 13 14 15
—- —- —- —- —-
4-0-16 4-4-12 4-8-8 4-12-4 4-16-0
16 17 18 19 20 21
—- —- —- —- —- —-
0-0-20 0-4-16 0-8-12 0-12-8 0-16-4 0-20-0
It is quite apparent that in this scheme the entire field of fertilizer formulas is covered in a regular way. In addition to this formula plan other experiments are also under way to determine the influence of the different fertilizing materials, carrying the phosphate, ammonia and potash, and the influence of lime, rock phosphate, various green manuring crops, etc. The experiments are carried out in commercial orchards on several soil types and in several localities.
While the years the experiments have been running are yet too few for any final conclusions, and the details too numerous to present in a brief sketch here, there have nevertheless been some very interesting results from the use of fertilizers which is readily shown by a few lantern slides. Here is, for instance, a view of a fertilized and an unfertilized section of one of our experiments in Georgia. The views were obtained in the fall, and one could tell at a glance, not only that the unfertilized trees were not as large, but also quite strikingly that they had nearly lost all of their foliage, whereas the trees on the fertilized section were still in full foliage, thus presenting a very strong contrast. The effect of fertilizers on the foliage is shown also in a series of slides of representative trees, from one of our experiments in Louisiana, likewise taken in the fall. The first tree had not been fertilized, the second had been fertilized with phosphate and the third with potash. The one fertilized with phosphate appeared slightly larger, but it can again be observed that all three trees were, at the time the picture was taken, nearly three-fourths defoliated. The next two trees from the same experiment, fertilized respectively with a nitrogenous fertilizer and with a complete fertilizer, and photographed at the same time, show the influence of these fertilizers strikingly in that they are still in complete foliage, as well as showing a more vigorous growth. Three slides of fertilized and unfertilized trees from still different experiments all show the fuller foliage and better branching of the fertilized trees, especially those fertilized with the nitrogenous fertilizers or the complete fertilizers.
The yields of these trees cannot here be taken up but, in general, these fertilized trees came into bearing earlier and have yielded double and treble the number of nuts produced by the unfertilized trees.
(In conclusion, there was shown a slide of the yield of nuts from an experimental tract of a commercial orchard of about 20 acres, in which the yield from a fertilized acre was compared with the yield from an unfertilized acre. It was noted that the unfertilized acre gave a yield of approximately two barrels, whereas the fertilized acre gave an increase of two bushel baskets more than the unfertilized.)
Dr. W. E. Safford, Botanist, Bureau of Plant Industry, then spoke on the
Use of Nuts by the Aboriginal Americans.
DR. SAFFORD: My interest in nuts has been confined almost entirely to those of American origin. For a good many years, I have been studying the plants, and plant products, utilized for food, and for other purposes, by the aboriginal Americans, before the arrival in this hemisphere of Columbus and his companions.
In this connection, there is a striking contrast between the American Indians and the primitive Polynesians. The chief economic plants encountered by early explorers on the islands of the Pacific Ocean were identical with well known Asiatic species. Coconuts, breadfruit, taro, sugar cane, yams and bananas, the most important food staples of the Polynesians, had been known to the Old World for centuries before the Pacific Islands were visited by Europeans; the shrub, from the bark of which the Polynesians made their tapa cloth, was identical with the paper mulberry of China and Japan; and the principal screwpine, or Pandanus, from which the Polynesians made their mats, was a well-known species of southern Asia. A number of these plants had even carried their Asiatic names with them to Polynesia. The Polynesian language itself, with its varied dialects, spoken in Hawaii, Samoa, New Zealand, Easter Island and on other island groups, can be traced without difficulty to the Malay Archipelago, the cradle of the Polynesian race.
In America, on the other hand, every cultivated plant encountered by Columbus and his companions was new. Not a single Old World food crop had found its way to our hemisphere before the Discovery; not a grain of wheat, rye, oats, or barley; no peas, cabbage, beets, turnips, watermelon, musk-melon, egg-plant, or other Old World vegetable; no apple, quince, pear, peach, plum, orange, lemon, mango, or other Old World fruit, had reached America. Even the cotton which was encountered in the West Indies by Columbus the very morning after the Discovery, proved to be a distinct species and could not be made to hybridize with Old World cottons. Conversely, no American cultivated plants; no maize, no beans, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes; no cacao (from which chocolate is made); no pine-apples, avocadoes, custard apples nor guavas; no Brazil nuts, pecans, or hickory nuts; nor any other American food staple had found their way to the Old World; even the beeches, chestnuts, oaks, and maples were distinct; and the same is true of the New World ground nuts and the grapes, which were the parent species of our delicious American varieties. Quite unlike anything in the Old World were such cultivated plants as the Cactaceae, the capsicum peppers, and the manioc from which cassava is made.
In Polynesia the evidence thus offered by cultivated plants points to the spread of Asiatic culture eastward across the Pacific, while the peculiarities of the cultivated plants of America point to its isolation from all the rest of the world; an isolation which is further established by a radical dissimilarity of all American languages from Old World linguistic stocks. In no language of the New World, for example, is there a vestige of Hebrew, which would support the cherished theory of the migration to this continent of the lost tribes of Israel; nor is there a suggestion of any linguistic element to indicate connection with the Chinese, nor any relationship between the builders of the American pyramids and those of Egypt.
There are many distinct groups of American languages. Very often the language of a tribe is quite unlike that of its nearest neighbors; while at the same time it may resemble the languages of tribes quite remote. This fact indicates former segregation of the various groups speaking the unlike languages and a common ancestry or close association of the tribes speaking the allied dialects. As examples, I might mention the Quichua Indians of Peru, whose language is very unlike the languages spoken by the Arawak and Carib Indians to their northward and, at the same time, quite distinct from the languages of their Brazilian neighbors to the eastward. The Aztecs of Mexico spoke a language differing radically in structure as well as in vocabulary from the Maya language of their Yucatan neighbors; yet there is unquestionably a relationship between the Aztecs and a number of very distant tribes, shown by resemblances of their languages, as in the case of the Shoshone Indians of the northern United States and the Nuhuatl tribes of Salvador and Costa Rica. In the same way, the Algonquian dialects, which differ greatly from those of the Iroquoian, show a close relationship between very widely scattered tribes in North America, from North Carolina to Quebec. Such resemblances and radical differences point to a very remote and long-continued segregation which permitted the independent formation of distinct linguistic stocks; while the antiquity of man in America, both north and south of the equator, is further attested by the development of such a cultivated and highly specialized food staple as maize, whose ancestral prototype we have sought in vain. Its endless varieties, fitted for widely diverse conditions of soil and climate, also point to a long period of cultivation in dissimilar culture-areas, which enabled them to adapt themselves to conditions very different from those of the original stock from which they sprang.
All this evidence points to the peopling of this continent at a very remote time, perhaps as far back as the close of the Glacial Epoch; and it also indicates that the early progenitors of our Indian tribes had left their original homes in the Old World before any of the linguistic Old-World stocks had taken shape; before Sanscrit was Sanscrit; before the languages of China or any other Asiatic people had become established; and just as in this hemisphere the natives developed their own languages from the most primitive elements of speech, so most certainly did they develop their agriculture from the wild plants of the fields, the swamps, the hillsides, and the forests. In both respects, as I have already pointed out, they differed from the Polynesians who brought with them to their island homes not only their language but their agriculture, from the cradle of their race in the Malay Archipelago; cuttings of seedless breadfruit and of sugarcane, fleshy roots of taro and yams; even trees, like the Indian almond and the candlenut.
Here I would like to point out to the members of the Nut Growers' Association the chief difference between nuts and other food staples. Nearly all of our cultivated vegetables, including maize, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squashes and pumpkins, are annuals, sensitive to frost, which must be raised from seed each year, and which differ so greatly from the primitive plants from which they came that their ancestral forms cannot be definitely determined. Most of these vegetables are in all probability of hybrid origin, the result of cross pollination and selection. In the case of our native nuts the conditions are quite different. We know the original ancestor of the pecan, our hickories and our walnuts. The fine varieties now cultivated are not hybrids but have been selected from wild trees. In connection with nuts I would also point out that in all probability they were the most important food-staple of primitive man, as well as of his simian ancestors. It required no great intelligence to gather them or to store them after the fashion followed by squirrels. Intelligence, however, is required to plant nuts and to transplant nut trees. Still greater intelligence is involved in the process of preparing certain nuts for food. A delicious creamy emulsion, for instance, was prepared by the Virginian Indians from hickory nuts. Cracking them and removing the kernels was too long and tedious an operation; so they developed a method of gathering them in quantities and crushing them in a hollowed log, together with water, pounding them to a paste and then straining out the fragments of shells through a basket sieve. The milky fluid which was thus formed was allowed to stand until the thick creamy substance separated from the water. The water was then poured off, and the delicious cream which remained was used as a component of various dishes. This substance was called by the Virginian Algonkian Indians "Pawcohiccora," a word which has been abbreviated and modified to "Hickory," the name by which we now designate not only the nuts, but the tree and its wood.
It is interesting to note that a similar creamy or butter-like substance was derived by a similar process from various palm nuts in Central and South America. Cieza de Leon describes such a process in his Chronicle of Peru, in connection with a nut which was described as Cocos butyraceæ, but which was not a true Cocos, or coconut. Long before the discovery of America, a somewhat similar process was used in the Nicobar Islands for extracting a creamy substance from the grated kernel of the true coconut, Cocos nucifera, which in early times was called Nux indica. This process is still followed throughout Polynesia. Some of the most savory dishes of the Samoans and the natives of Guam are enriched and flavored with this coconut cream, which is a substance quite distinct from the water, or so-called milk, contained in the hollow kernel of the nut, which is so commonly used for drinking.
Coming back to America, I would call attention to the value of some of our native pine nuts and acorns as food staples. Certain Indian tribes of the Southwest live upon pine nuts at certain seasons when they are ripe. Dr. C. Hart Merriam has told of the utilization of acorns by various tribes of Indians in a beautifully illustrated article published in the National Geographic Magazine, 1918, entitled "The Acorn, a Possibly Neglected Source of Food." "To the native Indians of California," he says, "the acorn is, and always has been, the staff of life, furnishing the material for their daily mush and bread." He describes the process of gathering and storing them, shelling, drying, grinding the kernels, leaching out the bitter tannic acid, and preparing the acorn meal in various ways for food. In eastern North America, several species of acorns were somewhat similarly used, including those of the live oaks of our southern states. The Spaniards of Florida sometimes toasted them and used them as a substitute for chocolate or coffee. Chinkapins were used for food by the earliest English colonists. They are mentioned by Herriot, the historian of Sir Walter Raleigh's colony at Roanoke. In addition to these, the early colonists learned to eat the so-called "water-chinkapins", which are fruits of the beautiful golden-flowered American lotus, Nelumbo lutea, a plant closely allied to the sacred lotus of India, China and Japan, whose nuts are even now used as a food staple. The split kernels of the latter may be bought in the Chinese shops on Pennsylvania Avenue in this city. The rootstocks of both the American and the Oriental lotus are also used for food. They resemble bananas joined together end to end, with several hollow longitudinal tubes running through them.
Before I close, I should like to call attention to a plant, endemic in eastern North America, whose tubers were called "ground-nuts," or "Indian potatoes" by the early colonists. The latter name caused the plant to be mistaken by certain early writers for the white potato, which was unknown in North America in early colonial days, but which was confused with the ground nut on account of the resemblance of the descriptions of the two plants. The white potato, Solanum tuberosum, was discovered in the Andes of South America by Cieza de Leon; it was quite unknown in North America or in the West Indies in the days of Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake, both of whom have erroneously been given the credit of introducing the potato into England. The "potato" which they observed in the West Indies was not Solanum tuberosum, which we now call the "white potato" or "Irish potato," but a very distinct plant, Ipomoea batatas, which we now call the "sweet potato," but which in early days was known as the batata or potato. The error which has become widely spread, can be traced to John Gerarde, the first author to publish an illustration of Solanum tuberosum. In his celebrated Herball he declares that the potatoes figured by him were grown in his garden from tubers which came from "Virginia, or Norembega." It is quite certain that this statement was untrue, and that, as certain English writers have already suggested, Gerard "wished to mystify his readers." Whatever may have been his motive, the error became widely spread. Even Thomas Jefferson was led to believe that Solanum tuberosum was encountered in Virginia by the early colonists, and Schoolcraft declared that its tubers were gathered wild in the woods like other wild roots. The Indian potato of the early colonists is still abundant in "moist and marish grounds," as described by Herriot. It is a tuber-bearing plant of the bean family, and is known botanically as Glycine apios.
But I fear my talk has become too discursive, in turning from nuts to ground nuts, and from ground nuts to potatoes; but the subject, bearing as it does on the origin and history of cultivated plants, is one which has great attraction for me, and I hope it may have been of interest to the members of this association.
Professor C. P. Close, Pomologist, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, spoke as follows:
MR. CLOSE: The subject I had intended to speak on was "Extension Work in Nut Growing." Many of you know that I am putting in most of my time on the fruit end of extension work, but I am also doing some extension nut work. I was hoping that there would be representatives from many of the states here, because I wanted to encourage them to get in touch with the state extension men, to work up interest in nut culture.
My talk will be very brief, but I would like to mention that very few of the states as yet are doing extension work with nuts, especially in the North. Some work is being done with pecans in the South.
I have been astounded in talking with the landscape men in the North to find that they have not considered nut trees as ornamental trees. But after I mentioned that a walnut or a hickory or a pecan tree is an ornamental tree, and just as much so as the elm, the oak, or the maple, they thought it would be a good idea to use them and agreed to recommend the use of nut trees as shade, lawn and roadside trees. Then I suggested the filbert for clump planting as an ornamental. I hope in the future that nut trees and filberts will be used more extensively by the landscape extension men in their work throughout the country.
In most of the states there are fruit extension specialists but only an occasional landscape extension specialist; so I try to interest the fruit men in the planting of nut trees, and a few of them are doing this, particularly in Indiana, where the fruit extension specialist has been interested in having pecan and English walnut trees planted in school yards. It seems difficult to get people to comprehend and practice nut tree growing and to understand the various uses of nut trees. We can judge from the small audience at this meeting that there are not enough people interested in nut growing. In my journey throughout the country I occasionally run across men interested in growing a few nut trees, and I try to induce them to become members of this association; but it seems to be a hard thing to do.