Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Third Annual Meeting
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Title: Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Third Annual Meeting
Editor: Northern Nut Growers Association
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|DISCLAIMER |
| |
|The articles published in the Annual Reports of the Northern Nut Growers|
|Association are the findings and thoughts solely of the authors and are |
|not to be construed as an endorsement by the Northern Nut Growers |
|Association, its board of directors, or its members. No endorsement is |
|intended for products mentioned, nor is criticism meant for products not|
|mentioned. The laws and recommendations for pesticide application may |
|have changed since the articles were written. It is always the pesticide|
|applicator's responsibility, by law, to read and follow all current |
|label directions for the specific pesticide being used. The discussion |
|of specific nut tree cultivars and of specific techniques to grow nut |
|trees that might have been successful in one area and at a particular |
|time is not a guarantee that similar results will occur elsewhere. |
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+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS AT THE THIRD ANNUAL MEETING
LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA DECEMBER 18 and 19, 1912
THE CAYUGA PRESS ITHACA, N. Y.
1913
[Illustration: PROFESSOR JOHN CRAIG
A FOUNDER OF THE ASSOCIATION
_Died 1912_]
* * * * *
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Officers and Committees of the Association 3
Members of the Association 4
Constitution and Rules of the Association 8
Proceedings of the Meeting held at Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
December 18 and 19, 1912 9
Address of Welcome by the Mayor of Lancaster 9
Response by Mr. Littlepage 11
President's Address. The Practical Aspects of Hybridizing Nut Trees.
Robert T. Morris, New York 12
Fraudulent and Uninformed Promoters. T. P. Littlepage, Indiana 22
Recent Work on the Chestnut Blight. Keller E. Rockey, Pennsylvania 37
Some Problems in the Treatment of Diseased Chestnut Trees. Roy G.
Pierce, Pennsylvania 44
Nut Growing and Tree Breeding and their Relation to Conservation. J.
Russell Smith, Pennsylvania 59
Beginning with Nuts. W. C. Deming, New York 64
The Persian Walnut, Its Disaster and Lessons for 1912. J. G. Rush,
Pennsylvania 85
A 1912 Review of the Nut Situation in the North. C. A. Reed,
Washington, D. C 91
Demonstration in Grafting. J. F. Jones, Pennsylvania 105
Some Persian Walnut Observations, Experiments and Results for 1912.
E. R. Lake, Washington, D. C 110
The Indiana Pecans. R. L. McCoy, Indiana 113
Appendix:
Report of Secretary and Treasurer 116
Report of Committee on Resolutions 117
Report of Committee on the Death of Professor John Craig 119
Report of Committee on Exhibits 120
The Hickory Bark Borer 122
Miscellaneous Notes:
Members Present 124
List of Correspondents and Others Interested in Nut Culture 124
Extracts from Letters from State Vice-Presidents and Others 138
OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION
President T. P. Littlepage Indiana
Secretary and Treasurer W. C. Deming Georgetown, Conn.
COMMITTEES
_Executive_
Robert T. Morris
W. N. Roper
And the Officers
_Promising Seedlings_
T. P. Littlepage
C. A. Reed
W. C. Deming
_Hybrids_
R. T. Morris
J. R. Smith
C. P. Close
_Membership_
W. C. Deming
G. H. Corsan
W. N. Roper
_Nomenclature_
W. C. Reed
R. T. Morris
W. C. Deming
_Press and Publication_
W. N. Roper
T. P. Littlepage
W. C. Deming
STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS
Canada Goldwin Smith Highland Creek
Colorado Dr. Frank L. Dennis Colorado Springs
Connecticut Charles H. Plump West Redding
Delaware H. P. Layton Georgetown
Florida H. Harold Hume Glen St. Mary
Georgia G. C. Schempp, Jr. Albany
Illinois Dr. F. S. Crocker Chicago
Indiana R. L. McCoy Lake
Iowa Alson Secor Des Moines
Kentucky A. L. Moseley Calhoun
Louisiana J. F. Jones Jeanerette
Maryland C. P. Close Washington, D. C.
Massachusetts Bernhard Hoffmann Stockbridge
Michigan Miss Maud M. Jessup Grand Rapids
Minnesota C. A. Van Duzee St. Paul
New Hampshire Henry N. Gowing Dublin
New Jersey Henry Hales Ridgewood
New York A. C. Pomeroy Lockport
North Carolina W. N. Hutt Raleigh
Ohio J. H. Dayton Painesville
Oklahoma Mrs. E. B. Miller Enid
Oregon F. A. Wiggins Toppenish
Panama B. F. Womack Canal Zone
Pennsylvania J. G. Rush West Willow
Texas C. T. Hogan Ennis
Vermont Clarence J. Ferguson Burlington
Virginia W. N. Roper Petersburg
West Virginia B. F. Hartzell Shepherdstown
MEMBERS OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
Abbott, Frederick B., 419 9th St., Brooklyn, N. Y.
Armstrong, A. H., General Electric Co., Schenectady, N. Y.
Arnott, Dr. H. G., 26 Emerald St., South, Hamilton, Canada.
Barron, Leonard, Editor The Garden Magazine, Garden City, L. I.
Barry, W. C., Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, N. Y.
Benner, Charles, 100 Broadway, N. Y. City.
**Bowditch, James H., 903 Tremont Bldg., Boston, Mass.
Button, Herbert, Bonnie Brook Farm, Cazenovia, N. Y.
Browne, Louis L., Bodsbeck Farm, New Canaan, Conn.
Butler, Henry L., Gwynedd Valley, Pa.
Casper, Norman W., Fairlawn, New Burnside, Ill.
Chalmers, W. J., Vanport, Pa.
Chamberlain, W. O., 300 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis, Minn.
Clendenin, Rev. Dr. F. M., Westchester, N. Y. City.
Close, Prof. C. P., Expert in Fruit Identification, U. S. Dept.
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
Cole, Dr. Chas. K., 32 Rose St., Chelsea-on-Hudson, N. Y.
Coleman, H. H., The Northwestern Mutual Life Ins. Co., Newark, N. J.
Corsan, G. H., University Gymnasium, Univ. of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Crocker, Dr. F. S., Columbus Memorial Bldg., Chicago, Ill.
Dayton, J. H., Painesville, Ohio. Rep. Storrs & Harrison Co.
Decker, Loyd H., Greeley, Col., R. 5, Box 11.
Deming, Dr. N. L., Litchfield, Conn.
Deming, Dr. W. C. Georgetown, Conn.
Deming, Mrs. W. C. Georgetown, Conn.
Dennis, Dr. Frank L., The Colchester, Colorado Springs, Col.
Ellwanger, W. D., 510 E. Ave., Rochester, N. Y.
Ferguson, Clarence J., Rep. Eastern Fruit & Nut Orchard Co.,
144 College St., Burlington, Vt.
Fischer, J., Rep. Keystone Wood Co., Williamsport, Pa.
Fullerton, H. B., Medford, L. I.
Gowing, Henry N., Dublin, N. H.
Gschwind, Geo. W., 282 Humboldt St., Brooklyn, N. Y.
Haberstroh, Arthur L., Sharon, Mass.
Hale, Mrs. Geo. H., Glastonbury, Conn.
Hall, L. C. Avonia, Pa.
*Hales, Henry, Ridgewood, N. J.
Hans, Amedee, Supt. Hodenpyl Est., Locust Valley, L. I., N. Y.
Harrison, J. G., Rep. Harrison's Nurseries, Berlin, Md.
Hartzell, B. F., Shepherdstown, W. Va.
Haywood, Albert, Flushing, N. Y.
Hicks, Henry, Westbury Station, L. I., N. Y.
Hildebrand, F. B., 5551 Monroe Ave., Chicago, Ill.
Hoffman, Bernhard, Stockbridge, Mass.
Hogan, C. T., Ennis, Texas.
Holden, E. B., Hilton, N. Y.
Holmes, J. A., 127 Eddy St., Ithaca, N. Y.
Hopper, I. B., Chemical National Bank, N. Y. City.
Hume, H. Harold, Glen Saint Mary, Fla.
Hungerford, Newman, 45 Prospect St., Hartford, Conn.
**Huntington, A. M., 15 W. 81st St., N. Y. City.
Hutt, W. N., Raleigh, N. C.
James, Dr. W. B., 17 W. 54th St., N. Y. City.
Jaques, Lee W., 74 Waverly St., Jersey City Heights, N. J.
**Jones, J. F., Jeanerette, La., & Willow St., Pa.
Jessup, Miss Maud M., 440 Thomas St., Grand Rapids, Mich.
Keely, Royal R., 1702 Mt. Vernon St., Philadelphia, Pa. Walpole,
Mass., Box 485.
Koch, Alphonse, 510 E. 77th St., N. Y. City.
Lake, Prof. E. R., Asst. Pomologist, Dept. of Agriculture,
Washington, D. C.
Layton, H. P., Georgetown, Del.
Leas, F. C, 400 So. 40th St., Philadelphia, Pa., and Bala, Pa.
Littlepage, T. P., Union Trust Bldg., Washington, D. C, and
Boonville, Ind.
Loomis, Charles B., E. Greenbush, N. Y. R. D. 1.
Lovett, Mrs. Joseph L., Emilie, Bucks Co., Pa.
Malcomson, A. B., 132 Nassau St., N. Y. City.
Mayo, E. S., Rochester, N. Y. Rep. Glen Brothers.
McCoy, R. L., Ohio Valley Forest Nursery, Lake, Spencer Co., Ind.
Meehan, S. Mendelson, Germantown, Phila., Pa. Rep. Thos. Meehan & Sons.
Miller, Mrs. E. B., Enid, Oklahoma, R. Box 47 1-2.
Miller, Mrs. Seaman, Care of Mr. Seaman Miller, 2 Rector St., N. Y.
McSparren, W. F., Furnice, Pa.
Magruder, G. M., Medical Bldg., Portland, Oregon.
Morris, Dr. Robert T., 616 Madison Ave., N. Y. City.
Moseley, A. L., Bank of Calhoun, Calhoun, Ky.
Moses, Theodore W., Harvard Club, 27 W. 44th St., N. Y. City.
Niblack, Mason J., Vincennes, Ind.
Nichols, Mrs. F. Gillette, 129 E. 76th St., N. Y. City, and
E. Haddam, Conn.
Patterson & Taylor, 343 S. Dearborn St., Chicago, Ill.
Pierson, Miss A. Elizabeth, Cromwell, Conn.
Plump, Chas. H., West Redding, Conn.
Pomeroy, A. C., Lockport, N. Y.
Potter, Hon. W. O., Marion, Ill.
Reed, C. A., Div. of Pomology, U. S. Dept, of Agriculture,
Washington, D. C.
Reed, W. C., Vincennes, Ind.
Rice, Mrs. Lilian McKee, Barnes Cottage, Carmel, N. Y.
Rich, William P., Sec'y Mass Horticultural Society, 300 Mass. Ave.,
Boston.
Ridgway, C. S., "Floralia," Lumberton, N. J.
Riehl, E. A., Alton, Ill.
Roper, Wm. N., Arrowfield Nursery Co., Petersburg, Va.
Rose, Wm. J., 413 Market St., Harrisburg, Pa.
Rush, J. G., West Willow, Pa.
Schempp, G. C., Jr., Albany, Ga. Route 3.
Secor, Alson, Editor Successful Farming, Des Moines, Iowa.
Sensenig, Wayne, State College, Center Co., Pa.
Shellenberger, H. H., 610 Broadhead St., Easton, Pa.
Shoemaker, Seth W., Agric. Ed. Int. Corresp. Schools, Scranton, Pa.
Smith, E. K., 213 Phoenix Bldg., Minneapolis, Minn.
Smith, Goldwin, Highland Creek, Ontario, Canada.
Smith, J. Russell, Roundhill, Va.
Smith, Percival P., 108 S. LaSalle St., Chicago, Ill.
Tuckerman, Bayard, 118 E. 37th St., N. Y. City.
Turner, K. M., 1265 Broadway, N. Y. City.
Ulman, Dr. Ira, 213 W. 147th St., N. Y. City. Farm, So. Monsey, Rockland
Co., P. O., Address, Spring Valley, N. Y.
Van Duzee, Col. C. A., St. Paul, Minn, and Viking, Fla.
Walter, Dr. Harry, Hotel Chalfonte, Atlantic City, N. J.
Wentink, Frank, 75 Grove St., Passaic, N. J.
White, H. C., DeWitt, Ga.
Wiggins, F. A., Rep. Washington Nursery Co., Toppenish, Wash.
Wile, Th. E., 1012 Park Avenue, Rochester, N. Y.
Williams, Dr. Charles Mallory, 48 E. 49th St., N. Y. City, and
Stonington, Conn.
Williams, Harrison, Gen. Land & Tax Agt., Erie R. R. Co., 50 Church St.,
N. Y. City.
**Wissmann, Mrs. F. DeR., 707 Fifth Ave., N. Y. City.
Womack, B. F., Ancon, Canal Zone, Panama.
Wyman, Willis L., Park Rapids, Minn.
* Honorary Member.
** Life Member
CONSTITUTION AND RULES OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION.
_Name._ The society shall be known as the NORTHERN NUT GROWERS
ASSOCIATION.
_Object._ The promotion of interest in nut-producing plants, their
products and their culture.
_Membership._ Membership in the society shall be open to all persons who
desire to further nut culture, without reference to place of residence
or nationality, subject to the approval of the committee on membership.
_Officers._ There shall be a president, a vice-president, and a
secretary-treasurer; an executive committee of five persons, of which
the president, vice-president and secretary shall be members; and a
state vice-president from each state represented in the membership of
the association.
_Election of Officers._ A committee of five members shall be elected at
the annual meeting for the purpose of nominating officers for the
subsequent year.
_Meetings._ The place and time of the annual meeting shall be selected
by the membership in session or, in the event of no selection being made
at this time, the executive committee shall choose the place and time
for the holding of the annual convention. Such other meetings as may
seem desirable may be called by the president and executive committee.
_Fees._ The fees shall be of two kinds, annual and life. The former
shall be two dollars, the latter twenty dollars.
_Discipline._ The committee on membership may make recommendations to
the association as to the discipline or expulsion of any member.
_Committees._ The association shall appoint standing committees of three
members each to consider and report on the following topics at each
annual meeting: first, on promising seedlings; second, on nomenclature;
third, on hybrids; fourth, on membership; fifth, on press and
publication.
NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
THIRD ANNUAL MEETING
DECEMBER 18 AND 19, 1912
AT LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA
The third annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association was
held in the Court House at Lancaster, Pa., beginning December 18, 1912,
at 10 A. M.; President Morris presiding.
The Chairman: The meeting will be called to order. We have first an
address by the Mayor of Lancaster, Mayor McClean. (Applause.)
Mayor McClean: Ladies and gentlemen of the Northern Nut Growers
Association:
The Mayor of a city of the size of this, in which conventions meet so
frequently, is so often called upon to make a speech that the prospect
of having to do so causes him some disturbance of mind, not only on the
day of the delivery of the speech but for many days preceding; but I
confess that the invitation to come here today has had no such effect on
me. I am very glad to meet and mix up with the members of this
organization. The evolutionists tell us where we came from; the
theologians, where we are going to; but no matter how much we may differ
as to the theories of these respective leaders of thought, upon one
thing we can all agree and that is that we are here. You ladies and
gentlemen representing the Northern Nut Growers Association are here to
interchange opinions and discuss questions which have to do with the
greater success of the very useful industry, the youthful and useful
industry, in which you are engaged. I am here as the Mayor of this
goodly town to tell you that you are not looked upon as intruders; that
we will be blind when you help yourselves to our wine flasks, but that
we will not be deaf should you ask for more. I am thoroughly in sympathy
with the purpose of this organization, understanding it to be the
encouragement of the planting of nut bearing trees in order that an
addition to our present food supply may be provided; and that much waste
land, now profitless, may be taken up and converted to practical and
profitable uses; and further that through the medium of such tree
planting and tree care as you propose, landscape embellishment in
greater degree than that which now exists may be provided. We hear very
much about conservation these days and it seems to me that the
proposition which you advance is conservation in a very worthy and very
high degree. The soil and climate of Lancaster County seem to be
peculiarly adapted to the growing of trees bearing nuts and fruits, and
I am sure that the result of this convention will be to stimulate
locally a very great interest in this worthy undertaking. You have
chosen wisely in selecting Lancaster as the place for this meeting,
because we feel and we are satisfied that you will agree, after you have
been here a few days, that this was the town that Kipling had in mind
when he wrote of the town that was born lucky. (Laughter.) Here you will
find all the creature comforts, everything that makes for the pleasure
of existence, good food and good water, and if there be any of you who
have a liking for beverages other than water, it may be some consolation
to you to know that in this vicinity the mint beds are not used for
pasture, the punch bowls are not permanently filled with carnations, the
cock-tail glasses show no signs of disuse and the corkscrew hangs within
reach of your shortest member. (Laughter.) We are a great people over
this way. Perhaps you are not aware of that, but we bear prosperity with
meekness and adversity with patience. We feel that we can say to you,
without boasting, if you seek a pleasant country, look about you. You
may not know it, but it is a fact and the United States census reports
ever since census reports have been made will prove it, that the annual
valuation of the agricultural products of the county in which you now
sit exceeds that of any other county in all this great nation.
(Applause.) Another bit of local history may surprise you when I tell
you that the combined deposits of the banks of Lancaster County
approximate the enormous amount of fifty million dollars, that they are
larger than the total deposits of any one of seven states in the Union
that I can name and that they exceed the combined deposits of two of
those seven states. But I don't want to take up your time with a
recitation of local history, because I feel that your Lancaster
colleagues will give you all the information, and I don't want to spoil
their pleasure in giving it by anticipating them. I congratulate you
upon the success of this convention. I applaud the purpose for which you
are united. I felicitate you upon your achievements up to this time, and
predict for you a greater measure of usefulness and advantage in the
time to come, which usefulness and advantage, let me suggest, can be
made yours more promptly, certainly more surely, by your proceeding upon
the principle that whatever is of benefit to the organization as a whole
must be of benefit to each of its members, either directly or
indirectly. I trust that you will go on with this good work and
stimulate enthusiasm in your purpose in a nation wide way, working
together with one common object, proceeding under the motto of the Three
Guardsmen of France, "One For All and All For One." I now extend to you
the freedom of the city. Roam where you will. Just one bit of advice I
have to give. Contrary, perhaps, to general report, this is not a slow
town and therefore you are in more danger of being run down than run in.
(Laughter.) I will not follow the time honored practice of handing you
the keys of the city, for the reason that when I heard you were on the
way, I had the old gates taken off the hinges in order that your
incoming might be in no way impeded. (Laughter.) And now, in the name of
the city of Lancaster, its heart filled with the sunny warmth of July, I
bid you welcome and promise that we will try to extend to you a
hospitality as generous as golden October. (Applause.)
The Chairman: Will Mr. Littlepage please respond to the Mayor's kindly
address of welcome?
Hon. T. P. Littlepage: Mr. President: On behalf of the members of the
Northern Nut Growers Association, I desire to thank the Mayor very
cordially for his delightful words of welcome to this city. We feel that
the words haven't any strings to them, such as were indicated in a
little poem I noticed the other day, which said that a young man took
his girl to an ice cream parlor and she ate and she ate and she ate
until at last she gave him her heart to make room for another plate.
(Laughter.) There apparently isn't anything of that in the cordial
welcome which we have received here to this great County of Lancaster. I
know now after hearing the Mayor's discourse upon the great resources of
this county, why it was that a young fellow who had rambled out into the
West and happened to drop into an old fashioned protracted meeting, when
asked to come up to the mourners' bench, objected somewhat, and finally
when they said, "Well, young man, you've got to be born again;" replied,
"No, it isn't necessary, I was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania."
(Laughter and applause.) I understand now why the young man was so
sanguine, why it wasn't necessary to be born again, even under the
auspices of the Great Spirit. It is very gratifying indeed to be in the
midst of a great county of this kind that has made one of the great
basic industries so successful. It takes three things to make a really
great nation; it takes great natural resources, it takes great policies
and it takes great people. We have nations in this world where the
resources, the possibilities of agriculture and all lines of human
endeavor are as unlimited, almost, as ours, but they haven't the people
and in the cases where they have people of the right kind, they haven't
adopted the policies. It takes those three things for any county, any
state or any nation to be really great, and it is indeed gratifying to
those of us who believe in the highest development, the best for
humanity, to come into a county where the people, through their
industry, their policies of advancement, have made that county one of
the best farmed agricultural counties in the United States; and that is
saying a great deal when you consider the greatness of this nation and
her immense wealth and resources. It is indeed gratifying to all of us
who are spending some time and some effort to further somewhat the
advancement of the country along horticultural lines, to be met with a
cordial welcome and to come into this community that has so highly
developed her various resources: so, on behalf of this Association and
all its members, even the members that are not here, those of them who
might, if they desired, take advantage of the Mayor's corkscrew and
carnation bowl, I thank the Mayor and thank the citizens of this County
and say that we are delighted to be among you. (Applause.)
The Chairman: We will now proceed with the regular order of business. As
my paper happens to be placed first on the list, through the methods of
the Secretary, I will ask Mr. Littlepage to kindly take the chair while
I present notes on the subject of hybridizing nut trees.
THE PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF HYBRIDIZING NUT TREES
DR. ROBERT T. MORRIS, NEW YORK
[Illustration: DR. ROBERT T. MORRIS OF NEW YORK
_First President of the Association, 1911 and 1912_]
In the experimental work of hybridizing nut trees, we soon come to learn
that a number of practical points need to be acquired before successful
hybridizing can be done. This is a special field in which few have taken
part as yet, and consequently any notes upon the subject will add to
the sum total of the knowledge which we wish to acquire as rapidly as
possible. First, in collecting pollen; it is important to shake our
pollen into dry paper boxes. If we try to preserve the pollen in glass
or in metal, it is attacked by various mould fungi and is rapidly
destroyed. We have to remember that pollen consists of live cells which
have quite as active a place in the organic world as a red squirrel, and
the pollen grains need to breathe quite as much as a red squirrel needs
to breathe. Therefore they must not be placed in glass or metal or
tightly sealed. Further, the pollen grains need to be kept cool in order
to avoid attacks from the greatest enemy of all organic life, the
microbes or the lower fungi. Probably we may keep pollen for a longer
time than it could ordinarily be kept, if it is placed in cold storage,
but practically I have tried the experiment on only one occasion. Last
year I wished to cross the chinkapin with the white oak. The white oak
blossoms more than a month in advance of the chinkapin in Connecticut,
and the question was how we could keep the white oak pollen. Some of it
was placed in paper boxes in cold storage; some in paper boxes in the
cellar in a dry place. Pollen which had been kept in the cellar and
pollen which had been kept in cold storage were about equally viable. It
is quite remarkable to know that pollen can be kept for more than a
month under any circumstances. Hybridization occurred in my chinkapins
from this white oak pollen. Sometimes, where the flowering time of such
trees is far apart, it is important to know how we may secure pollen of
one kind for the female flowers of the other. Two methods are possible.
In the first place, we may secure pollen from the northern or southern
range of a species for application upon pistillate flowers at the other
end of the range of that species. Another way is to collect branches
carrying male flowers before the flowers have developed, place them in
the ice house or in a dark, cold room without light until the proper
time for forcing the flowers, and if these branches are then placed in
water, the water changed frequently as when we are keeping flowers
carefully, the catkins or other male flowers will develop pollen
satisfactorily a long time after their natural time of furnishing
pollen, when they are brought out into the light. In protecting
pistillate flowers from the pollen of their own trees, with the nut tree
group where pollen is wind-borne rather than insect borne, I find that
the better way is to cover the pistillate flowers with paper bags, the
thinner the better, the kind that we get at the grocery store. It is
best to pull off the undeveloped male flowers if they happen to be on
the same branch with the female flowers, and then place the bags over
the female flowers at about the time when they blossom, in advance of
pollination of the male flowers. It is not safe to depend upon pulling
off the male flowers of an isolated tree and leaving the female flowers
without bags to protect them from pollen of the same species or of
allied species, for the reason that wind may carry pollen to a great
distance. One of Mr. Burbank's critics--I am sorry he has so many, for
they are not all honest or serious--one of his critics, in relation to
the crossing of walnuts, said that it was due to no particular skill on
the part of Mr. Burbank, for, whenever the wind blew from the east, he
regretted to say that his entire orchard of Persian walnuts became
pollinized from the California black walnuts nearly half a mile away.
This is an exaggeration, because the chances are that most of the
Persian walnuts were pollenized from their own pollen, but in the case
of some Persian walnuts blossoming early, and developing female flowers
in advance of male flowers, pollen might be carried to them from half a
mile away in a high wind from California black walnut trees. Black
walnut pollen would then fertilize pistillate flowers of the Persian
walnut. I have found this a real danger, this danger of wind-pollination
at a distance, much to my surprise. Last year I pollinized one or two
lower branches of female flowers of a butternut tree which had no other
butternut tree within a distance of a good many rods, so far away that I
had no idea that the pollen would be carried from the tree with male
flowers to the one which happened to have female flowers only that year;
consequently I placed pecan pollen on the female flowers of the lower
branches of this butternut tree without protecting them with bags, and
left the rest of the tree unguarded. There were no male flowers on that
butternut tree that year. Much to my surprise, not only my pollinized
flowers but the whole tree bore a good crop of butternuts. This year, on
account of the drought, many of the hickory trees bore female flowers
only. I do not know that it was on account of the drought, but I have
noted that after seasons of drought, trees are apt to bear flowers of
one sex or the other, trees which normally bear flowers of both sexes.
This year a number of hickory trees bore flowers of one sex only, and I
noted that some shagbark trees which had no male flowers had fairly good
crops of nuts from pollen blown from a distance from other trees. I had
one pignut tree (H. Glabra) full of female flowers which contained only
one male flower, so far as I could discover and which I removed. On one
side of this tree was a bitternut; on the other side a shagbark. This
tree bore a full crop of pignuts, (Hicoria glabra) evidently pollinized
on one side by the bitternut and on the other side by the shagbark These
points are made for the purpose of showing the necessity of covering the
female flowers with bags in our nut tree hybridizations. We must
sprinkle Persian insect powder inside the bags or insects will increase
under protection. When we have placed bags over female flowers, it is
necessary to mark the limb; otherwise, other nuts borne on neighboring
limbs will be mistaken for the hybridized nuts unless we carefully place
a mark about the limb. Copper wire twisted loosely is, I find, the best.
Copper wire carrying a copper tag with the names of the trees which are
crossed is best. If I mark the limb with string or with strong cord I
find there are many ways for its disappearance. Early in the spring the
birds like it so well that they will untie square knots in order to put
it into their nests. Later in the season the squirrels will bite off
these marks made with cords for no other purpose, so far as I know,
except satisfying a love of mischief. Now I am not psychologist enough
to state that this is the reason for the action of the red squirrel, and
can only remember that when I was a boy I used to do things that the red
squirrel now does. (Laughter.) Consequently, on that basis, I traced the
psychology back to plain pure mischief. Red squirrels and white footed
mice must be looked after with great care in our hybridized trees. If
the squirrels cannot get at a nut that is surrounded by wire cloth, they
will cut off the branch and allow it to fall to the ground and then
manage to get it out. White footed mice will make their way through
wire, and mice and squirrels will both manage to bite through wire cloth
unless it is very strong in order to get at the nut. The mere fact of
nuts being protected by wire cloth or in other ways seems to attract the
attention of squirrels. One of my men, a Russian, said, in rather broken
English, "Me try remember which nuts pollinized; no put on wire, no put
on tag, no put on nothing; squirrel see that, see right straight, bite
off one where you put sign for him." (Laughter.) The best way for
keeping squirrels and white footed mice from ascending a tree, I find is
by tacking common tin, slippery smooth tin, around the trunk of the tree
and this may be left on only during the time when squirrels are likely
to ascend the tree. They will begin long before the nuts are ripe. In
the case of hazel nuts, I have surrounded the bushes with a wire fence
or wire mesh, leaving a little opening on one side, and have placed
steel traps in the opening. Now here enters a danger which one does not
learn about excepting from practical experience. I went out one morning
shortly after having thought of this bright idea and found two gray
squirrels in the traps. They had followed their natural instinct of
climbing when they got into the steel traps, and climbing wildly had
broken off every single branch from those hazels which carried
hybridized nuts. There wasn't one left, because the squirrels when
caught had climbed into the trees and had so violently torn about with
trap and chain that they had broken off every single branch with a nut
on it. So many things happen in our experiments that appeal to one's
sense of the ludicrous, if he has a sense of humor, that I assure you
nut raising is a source of great delight to those who are fond of the
drama.
The field of hybridizing nut trees offers enormous prospects. We are
only just upon the margin of this field, just beginning to look into the
vista. It has been done only in a limited way, so far, by crossing
pollen and flowers under quite normal conditions. We may look forward to
extending the range now of pollinization from knowledge based upon the
experiments of Loeb and his followers in biology. They have succeeded in
developing embryos from the eggs of the sea urchin, of the nereis, and
of mollusks, without spermatozoa. Their work has shown that each egg is
a single cell with a cell membrane and it is only necessary to destroy
this cell membrane according to a definite plan to start that egg to
growing. Life may be started from the egg in certain species without the
presence of the other sex. This may lead us into a tremendous new field
in our horticultural work. We may be able to treat germ cells with acids
or other substances which destroy the cell membrane so as to allow
crossing between very widely separated species and genera. Loeb, by
destroying the cell membrane of the sea urchin, was enabled to cross the
sea urchin with the star fish, and no one knows but we may be able,
following this line of experimentation, eventually to cross the shagbark
hickory with a pumpkin and get a shagbark hickory nut half the size of
the pumpkin. That is all! (Applause.)
* * * * *
(President Morris then took the chair.)
The Chairman: Please let me add that the hickory pumpkin idea is not to
be taken seriously. That is a highly speculative proposition. I have
found some times that, in a very scientific audience, men who were
trained in methods of science, had very little selvage of humor,--little
margin for any pleasantry, but this highly speculative suggestion,
curiously enough, is not in fact more speculative than would have been
the idea twelve years ago that you could hatch an egg, start an egg to
development--without fertilization.
Mr. Hutt: I would like to ask how widely you have been able to cross
species?
The Chairman: It has been possible to cross species of hazels freely
with the four species that I have used, the American hazel, Corylus
Americana; the beak hazel, Corylus rostrata; the Asiatic, Corylus
colurna, and Corylus pontica. These apparently cross readily back and
forth. With the hickories I think rather free hybridization occurs back
and forth among all, but particularly in relation to groups. The
open-bud hickories, comprising the pecan, the bitternut, the water
hickory, and the nutmeg hickory, apparently, from my experiments, cross
much more readily among each other than they cross with the scale-bud
hickories. The scale-bud hickories appear to cross much more freely
among each other than they cross with the open-bud hickories; not only
species but genera may be crossed, and I find that the walnuts
apparently cross freely with the open-bud hickories and the open-bud
hickories cross with the walnuts. I have thirty-two crosses between the
bitternut hickory and our common butternut, growing. All of the walnuts
apparently cross rather freely back and forth with each other. I have
not secured fertile nuts between the oaks and chestnuts, but I believe
that we may get fertile nuts eventually. The nuts fill well upon these
two trees fertilized with each others' pollen respectively, but I have
not as yet secured fertile ones. We shall find some fertile crosses I
think between oaks and chestnuts, when enough species have been tried.
Mr. Hutt: Do you notice any difference in the shapes of any of those
hybrids, the nuts, when you get them matured and harvested? Do they look
any different from the other nuts on the tree?
The Chairman: There isn't very much difference, but I seem to think that
sometimes the pollen has exercised an influence upon the nuts of the
year. Theoretically it should not do so, but I noticed one case
apparently in which I crossed a chinkapin with a Chinese chestnut, and
the nuts of that year seemed to me to present some of the Chinese
chestnuts' characteristics.
Mr. Hutt: This year I crossed a number of varieties of pecans and in
nearly all those crosses there was to me quite an evident difference in
the nuts. For instance those gathered off certain parts of a pecan tree
of certain varieties, Schley or Curtis or Frotscher, would be typical
nuts, but those hybrids or crosses that I produced were distorted, more
or less misshapen and seemed to have peculiarities; so that when we came
to look over the colony we were in doubt whether they were hand
pollinated hybrids or had been pollinated before we got the blossoms
covered. Many of them evidenced a great number of distortions, and one
of them I remember particularly whose shell was so thin it was just like
a piece of brown paper; and there were several peculiarities that were
quite noticeable in those hand pollinated nuts.
The Chairman: That is a very interesting point. When we come to consider
deformities of nuts we shall find very many cases due to the character
of the pollinization. I crossed the Persian walnut with the shagbark
hickory and had nuts that year of just the sort of which Mr. Hunt
speaks, with shells as thin as paper. One could crush them with the very
slightest pressure of the finger. The shells were not well developed.
Unfortunately the mice happened to get at all of those nuts. I don't
know if they were fertile or not. The kernels were only about half
developed. I should look for deformity in these nuts rather than a
taking on of the type of one parent over the other, the idea being based
on theoretical biological considerations. We had last year a photograph
of a tree in California which apparently was a cross, a very odd
cross--does any one remember about that California tree?
Mr. Wilcox: It was a cross between Juglans Californica and the live oak.
The Chairman: Both the foliage and the nuts were very remarkable and
pertained to characters of these two trees. Such a cross to my mind
would be wholly unexplainable excepting on the ground recently brought
out by Loeb and his followers in crossing the lower forms of animal life
and finding that the cell membrane of the egg, if destroyed, will allow
of very wide fertilization subsequently with other species. It occurs to
me now--I had no explanation last year, but it occurs to me now,
knowing of Loeb's experiments--that it is possible that one of the
parents, the parent California oak tree carrying the female flowers,
might have had its sex cells subjected to some peculiar influence like
acid, sulphurous acid, for instance, from some nearby chimney.
Sulphurous acid perhaps from someone merely lighting a match to light a
cigar under the tree; he might have so sensitized a few female flowers,
may have so injured the cell membrane of a few female germ cells that
cross pollinization then took place from a walnut tree. It is only on
some such ground as the findings of Loeb that we can explain such a very
unusual hybridization as that, which appeared to me a valid one, of a
cross between an oak and a walnut.
(Secretary Deming then called attention to hybrids in the various
exhibits.)
Professor Smith: I should like to ask why, if this free hybridization
takes place in nature among the hickories, you do not have a perfect
complex of trees showing all possible variations in the forest.
The Chairman: In answer to Professor Smith's question I will start from
his premises and remark that we do have such complexities. The hickories
are so crossed at the present time, like our apples, that even crossing
the pollen of various hickory trees of any one species does not promise
interesting results unless we cross an enormous number. They are already
so widely crossed that it is very difficult sometimes to determine if a
certain tree is shagbark or pignut or shellbark or mockernut. For the
most part the various species and varieties of hickories retain their
identity because their own pollen is handiest, and different species do
not all flower at the same time. Their own pollen from the male flowers
is apt to fall at the time when their own female flowers are ripe and
under these circumstances the chances are very much in favor of the tree
pollinizing its female flowers with its own pollen. On the other hand,
there is hardly one chance in many hundred thousand for any crossed nut
to grow, for the reason that most nuts are destroyed by mice, squirrels,
rats and boys. If you have a hickory nut tree growing in a lot, and
which has produced a bushel of hickory nuts year after year, do you know
of one single nut from that tree which has grown? In this plan of
Nature, this plan of enormous waste of Nature in order to get one seed
to grow, the chance for a hybridized hickory nut to grow under normal
conditions, is so small that we should have relatively few crossed
trees growing wild in Nature, though we do find quite a good many of
them.
Professor Smith: If I am not taking up too much time, I would like to
put some more questions to you.
The Chairman: That's what we are here for.
Professor Smith: Have you ever tried the plan of serving collations to
squirrels? Why wouldn't it pay to give them portions of wheat and corn?
Second, what percentage of the oak pollen kept in cold storage a month
was alive? Third, what is the range of time that the hybridizer has to
make the pollinization? Must we go on the dot or have we two days or
four days or a week, in the case of hickories and walnuts?
The Chairman: I think possibly as these are three direct questions, I
might answer them now. No, I think it would be better to have all
questions bearing on this subject brought out and then I will answer all
together. So if you will kindly ask all the questions, I will then
endeavor to answer them.
Mr. Corsan: The squirrels bothered me last year. I've got forty acres of
land for experimental purposes only and I started planting and the
little beggars would dig down exactly where I planted the nuts, so I
went into town and got a rat trap with a double section so I could catch
them alive; and I caught so many by feeding them cheap pignuts, the
sweet pignuts from Michigan, that I brought them in and my boys sold
them for twenty-five cents apiece. Since then we have never been
bothered with red squirrels. For the white footed mice I laid down large
doors over some hay or long grass and they gathered underneath and then
I lifted the doors up every day and with a stick I smashed hundreds of
them. I have posted a notice to leave the skunk and mink alone; I don't
want anybody on the place shooting them.
The Chairman: I will first answer Professor Smith's questions. This
matter of serving collations for squirrels had best be done as
collations are served at political meetings--with a trap attached. You
don't know how many squirrels there are in the vicinity or how many
white footed mice. You will be surprised at the numbers of the little
rascals, and not only that, but the field mice, the common field mouse
and pine mouse run in mole holes under the ground and can smell a nut a
long way off. They are extremely destructive. What percentage of pollen
grains of the white oak were alive? I do not know. Enough to fertilize
a number of flowers. The sooner pollen is used the better. I cannot
answer the question exactly because I did not make an experiment in the
laboratory to know what part of the pollen was viable. I put on a good
deal of it and there were at least some viable grains in the lot. That,
however, is a matter which can be subjected to exact laboratory tests
without any difficulty. I am so busy with so many things that I can only
follow the plan of the guinea hen that lays forty eggs and sits in the
middle of the nest and hatches out all she can. Now the range of time
for pollinizing is a thing of very great importance and we have to learn
about it. We must all furnish notes on this question. With some species
I presume the duration of life of pollen, even under the best
conditions, might be only a few days. Under other conditions it may be
several weeks; but we have to remember that, in dealing with pollen, we
are dealing with a living, breathing organism.
The Secretary: I believe the experiment has been carried to completion
of fruiting a thousand trees from nuts grown on one pecan tree without
two of the resulting nuts being like one another or like the parent nut.
Is that true, Mr. Reed.
Mr. Reed: Yes, you might say ten thousand.
The Secretary: We have an illustration of the variability of the progeny
of a nut in this collection of chestnuts by Mr. Riehl out in Illinois.
This is a parent nut, the Rochester, and these others are seedlings from
the Rochester, except where marked otherwise, some showing a tendency to
revert to the parent, and some promising to be improvements on the
parents.
The Chairman: Mr. Secretary, I think we'd better confine ourselves to
the hybrid question at the present time.
The Secretary: Are not those all hybrids?
The Chairman: I don't believe any man can tell, unless you get the
flowers, because you have the American and European types merging
together so perfectly. Some of them show distinctly the European type;
others show distinctly the American type. That is what I would expect,
however. The practical point is the question of quality. Which one keeps
the American quality and which one retains the coarseness of the
European type?
Mr. Harris: Speaking of variations of nuts I think it is well known that
there is quite a variation in the nuts of the oak. I noticed in one
species, michauxii, which is an oak in the South, that its nuts varied
a great deal. It is something of the type of the chestnut, the white oak
or the rock oaks and it varies a great deal.
I found one on my father's range in New Jersey and also one on the
Potomac. The variations extend to the trees as well as the nuts.
The Chairman: The oak tree properly belongs in another tree group and
some of the acorns are not only edible, but first-rate. In China there
are at least three species found in the markets to be eaten out of hand
or roasted. Our white oaks here, some of them, bear very good fruit,
from the standpoint of the boy and the pig, anyway, and it seems to me
that we may properly include the oaks in our discussion. There would be
great range in variation of type from hybridization between oak trees
and I have seen a number of oak trees that were evidently hybrids, where
the parentage could be traced on both sides, that were held at very high
prices by the nurserymen. I asked one nurseryman, who wanted an enormous
price for one hybrid oak, why he didn't make ten thousand of those for
himself next year? It hadn't occurred to him.
If there is no further discussion in connection with my paper we will
have Mr. Littlepage's paper on Nut Promotions.
Mr. Littlepage: Dr. Deming said that he thought it might be time that we
have something just a little lighter--that either he should read a paper
or I. (Laughter.) Inasmuch as he included himself, I took no offense
whatever. The subject I have written on, roughly and hurriedly, is
Fraudulent and Uninformed Promoters.
FRAUDULENT AND UNINFORMED PROMOTERS
T. P. LITTLEPAGE, WASHINGTON, D. C.
[Illustration: MR. T. P. LITTLEPAGE
OF INDIANA
_President of the Association_]
In the beginning, let me assert my confidence and interest in
agriculture in general. This is one of the basic industries, upon the
proper understanding and growth of which depends the food supply of the
nation. It is admitted by scientists that, other conditions being equal,
an adequacy or inadequacy in the supply of proper food makes the
difference between great people and undesirable people. This being true,
the various operations of agriculture must always be of the greatest
concern to those who are interested in the nation's welfare.
The "back-to-the-farm" movement is being discussed today in various
periodicals, but back of the "back-to-the-farm" movement is a philosophy
that has not been generally understood. It is not proper here to take
time to discuss the reasons why the man in the "steenth" story of some
magnificent office building, with telephones, electric lights,
elevators, and all modern conveniences, longs for the time when he can
roam again amidst the green fields in the sunshine and fresh air, but
suffice it to say that in my judgment a majority of the professional
men, and men in other walks of life, would, if they could, abandon their
various employments and turn again to the soil. The boy on the farm
dreams of the days when he can be the president of a bank, have a home
in the city, own an automobile, smoke good cigars and go to the show
every night. The bank president dreams of the day when he can turn again
to the farm and walk in the green fields, where he can shun the various
artificial activities of life, drink buttermilk and retire with the
chickens.
It may be asked what connection these statements have with the subject,
and the answer is this--that in the minds of many thousands of people
there is this supreme desire to some day own a portion of God's
footstool to which they can retire from artificial and vainglorious
environments to those under which they can be their real selves and
follow pursuits to their liking. It is this that makes it possible for
the promoter of various horticultural enterprises to succeed in
interesting in his schemes the clerk, the merchant, the doctor, the
lawyer, the school teacher, the preacher, and all others whose
occupations confine them within the limits of the great cities.
In the beginning, let us distinguish between the fraudulent promoter and
the uninformed promoter. The fraudulent promoter is he who recognizes
this great and worthy ambition of many people to buy a spot to which
they can some day retire and work and rest and dream and enjoy the
coming and going of the seasons, and the sunshine and the shadows, and
who capitalizes this ambition, with that industry as his stock in trade
which, at the particular moment, happens to offer the most attractive
inducements. Those familiar with the industry he is exploiting, can tell
him by his actions, by his words, by his nods and winks. It is hard for
the crook to disguise himself to the informed.
Distinguished from the fraudulent promoter is the uninformed promoter,
but, so far as results are concerned, there is not much difference
between them for the innocent investor. They both lead him to failure.
They are unlike only in this, that the pathway of the one is lined with
deception, crookedness and chicanery; of the other, with blasted hopes
based upon good intentions but bad information. Both lead to the
self-same sepulcher which in the distance looks white and beautiful but
when reached is filled with the bones of dead men.
There is not much difference after all, when one comes right down to the
facts, between the crook who starts out deliberately to get one's money
and the fellow who starts out in ignorance and makes great promises of
returns that he knows nothing about. Both succeed in getting one's money
and both succeed in misleading those who have a desire to lay aside
something for their old days. We naturally feel more charity for him who
has good intentions, but who fails, than for him who starts out with bad
intentions. But, after all, only results count.
Did you ever receive the literature of one of these various concerns
that has pecan or apple orchards to sell? How beautiful their schemes
look on paper! With what exquisite care they have worked out the
pictures and the language and the columns of figures showing the
profits! While writing this article I have before me a prospectus of a
certain pecan company that prints columns of attractive figures.
Fearful, however, that the figures would not convince, it has resorted
to all the various schemes of the printers' art in its portrayal of the
prospective profits from a grove set to pecans and Satsuma oranges, and
it tells you in conclusion that it guarantees by a bond, underwritten by
a responsible trust company, the fulfillment of all its representations.
Yet what are the facts? Their lands are located in a section where the
thermometer falls to a point that makes highly improbable the profitable
growing of Satsuma oranges. And all their figures are merely estimates
of the wildest character, printed in attractive columns, based upon
nothing.
As a member of the National Nut Growers Association I was this year
chairman of the committee on orchard records. I sent out blanks, with
lists of questions, to many prominent nut growers to see if I could
secure data upon which to base a report to the association. The replies
I received showed the existence of some very promising young orchards of
small size, well cared for, but they also showed that there was no such
thing as an intelligent report upon which reliable data as to the
bearing records of orchards could be based for any future calculations.
There are two reasons for this. First, most of the figures we have are
based upon the records of a few pet trees around the dooryard or garden,
grown under favorable conditions. Second, the young groves are not yet
old enough for anyone to say, with any degree of accuracy, what the
results will be. Therefore, the alluring figures printed in these
pamphlets are only guesses.
Furthermore, what of the contract of these concerns? What does it
specify? You would be surprised to know the legal construction of one of
these contracts, together with their guaranty bond. In most cases they
advertise to plant, and properly cultivate for a period of five to seven
years, orchards of the finest varieties of budded or grafted pecan
trees, with Satsuma oranges or figs set between. But the guaranty
company is usually wise enough to have lawyers who are able to advise
them of their liabilities, and about all they actually guarantee is
that, after a period of five years, provided all payments have been
promptly met, there will be turned over to the purchaser five acres of
ground with trees upon it. Five years old? No, they may not be one year
old. Budded or grafted? No, they may be mere seedlings. Oranges set
between them? No, the orange has passed out of the proposition before
the bond stage. The companies generally print a copy of the bond, but
usually in such small type that the victim does not read it, though the
heading is always prominent. It thunders in the index and fizzles in the
context.
Moreover, suppose suit is brought on one of these contracts and bonds?
What is the measure of damages? What basis has any court or jury for
fixing damages? And be it remembered that courts do not exist for the
protection of fools against their folly. The principle "caveat emptor"
is as old as the common law itself, and it means that the buyer must
beware, or in other words, that he should inform himself, and that he
cannot expect the courts to protect him where he has failed to exercise
due caution and diligence. Therefore, as a lawyer, I should very much
hesitate to take on a contingent fee the suit of one of these various
victims against a promoting orchard corporation.
However, in any jurisdiction where there is a criminal statute against
fraudulent representation and obtaining money under false pretenses, I
should not hesitate, if I were the prosecuting attorney, to indict every
member of such a corporation, and, to sustain the case, I would simply
present to a jury of honest men the representations in their advertising
literature, and then have the court instruct the same jury as to the
validity and limitations of their contract. Their advertising is
brilliant enough to dazzle the sun. Their contract is as dull as a mud
pie.
In addition to all of this comes the question of orcharding by proxy,
and the success of the unit or acreage system, and many other similar
questions; and let me say that I doubt if there is today in the United
States one large development scheme, either in pecan or apple orchards,
that will prove of ultimate financial profit and success to the
purchaser. The promoter may get rich--he has nothing at stake. In most
instances he has the price of the land in his pocket before there is a
lick of work done on it, and the payments come in regularly and promptly
to take care of his salary and the meager and unscientific development.
Of course I would not be understood as saying that pecan or apple
orchards cannot be made profitable. I am of the opinion that reasonable
sized orchards in proper locations and proper soil, of proper varieties,
with proper care in handling, are good investments, and, as proof of my
confidence, I am planting orchards both in the north and south. The
adjective "proper" which I have used here may seem insignificant at the
start but, believe me, before you have begun to clip the coupons off
your orchard bonds this adjective will loom up as important as Webster's
Unabridged Dictionary. In fact you will wonder how it has been possible
for anyone to forecast in one word such comprehensive knowledge. Think
of a man a thousand miles away putting money into the hands of some
unknown concern, for five acres of unknown land, to be set in unknown
varieties of trees, to be cared for by unknown individuals. Can he not
see that, in keeping with all the other unknown factors, his profits
must also be unknown?
We look at a great industrial enterprise, such as the steel trust, and
marvel at its success. But it must be remembered that this industry
started many years ago, and step by step built furnace after furnace and
mill after mill, after the owners had tried out and become familiar with
all the factors of that industry, and after great corps of trained
experts had been developed, and after science had given to this industry
many of the most marvelous mechanical inventions of the age. These facts
are overlooked, however, when some fellow steps up and proposes to put a
steel-trust-orchard on the market in twelve months. In most industrial
enterprises there are well-known and established factors to be
considered. In horticultural enterprises, however, no man knows what
twelve months hence will bring. I read the other day with great
interest the prospectus of a great pecan orchard started several years
ago by a very honorable and high-minded man, and the promises of success
were most alluring. What are the facts? The boll weevil came along and
wiped out his intermediate cotton crops. The floods came later and
destroyed acres of his orchards, and, if he were to write a prospectus
today, it would no doubt be a statement of hope rather than a statement
of facts. He would no doubt turn from the Book of Revelations, where at
that time he saw "a new heaven and a new earth," and write from the Book
of Genesis, where "the earth was without form and void."
How many people have been defrauded by these various schemes, no one
knows. How many clerks, barbers, bookkeepers, stenographers, students,
preachers, doctors, lawyers, have contributed funds for farms and future
homes in sections where they would not live if they owned half of the
county. How many people have been separated from their cash by
literature advertising rich, fertile lands in sections where the
alligator will bask unmolested in miasma for the next fifty years, and
where projects should be sold by the gallon instead of by the acre.
Some time ago it was reported that inquiries in reference to the
feasibility and profits of various orchard schemes had come in to the
Bureau of Plant Industry of the Agricultural Department, at Washington,
in such numbers that the officials of that Bureau had considered the
advisability of printing a general circular, which they could send to
the inquirers, advising them to make due investigation, and giving a few
general suggestions about proxy farming and orchard schemes. I was
advised by a friend in the middle west that the contemplated issuance of
this circular by the Bureau of Plant Industry had aroused a number of
protests throughout the country, and that various Senators and Members
of the House of Representatives had entered strong protests with the
Secretary of Agriculture against it. A number of these protests have
come to my notice, and they take various forms of opposition, but are
all unanimous against the Department of Agriculture offering to the
prospective purchaser any information. Various reasons for their stand
were given by the protestants, but how flimsy and ridiculous they are
when analyzed. Congress for a number of years has been appropriating
money and authorizing certain work by the Department of Agriculture. It
is the people's money, and the people's Department, and the information
gathered by the experts in this Department ought to be the people's
information, and it ought to be possible for any citizen to write the
Department a letter about any proposition that he has received from any
of these various promoters, and have the advice of those who know most
about it.
I suppose the Department of Agriculture has entirely too many duties to
perform to undertake a work of this kind, but what an inconsistent
position it is for a Member of Congress, who has been voting for
appropriations to carry on this work, to appeal to the Secretary of
Agriculture to suppress such information in order that some exploiter
may get somebody's money under false representations. I think if it were
possible today to know the list of concerns and companies who
registered, directly or through agents, their opposition to this
proposed warning circular, you would have a correct index of the
concerns good to let alone. For no honest, reputable individual or
company need be afraid of the work or suggestions of that great
Department. I have the pleasure of knowing many of the officials in the
Bureau of Plant Industry, and never anywhere have I seen a body of men
so conscientiously engaged in the work of promoting legitimate
horticultural and agricultural knowledge. It is the very life of that
great Department, and its officers and employees above everyone else are
most interested in seeing the land produce the most and best that it can
be made to produce, and they are best qualified to pass upon these
matters.
Most of the questions in these various schemes are questions of soil and
horticulture. One letter in opposition to the Agricultural Department's
attitude, that was brought to my attention, stated that crops varied
under different conditions, and that no one was able to tell what a
certain soil would or would not produce throughout a period of years,
and intimated that the Department of Agriculture might mislead the
public; and yet the concern that sent it printed columns of figures
guaranteeing returns from pecans and Satsuma oranges in a section where
orange growing is of very doubtful possibility. Boiling down these
objections by the promoters, they come to simply this: That the
Agricultural Department, with no motive but to tell the truth, and with
its corps of trained experts, might mislead the public, but they (the
promoters) could not possibly be mistaken in their fabulous figures
compiled for the purpose of getting money from some misinformed victim.
Proxy farming never was a success and I do not think it ever will be.
One of my friends told me a short time ago of a very successful young
pecan orchard on the gulf coast. Upon inquiry I found that it was of
reasonable size, nine years old, and that the owner had lived in it nine
years. It was not 500 acres in extent, or 1,000 acres, or 2,000 acres,
but about 20 acres. Last summer I went into a beautiful apple orchard in
Southern Indiana and saw about forty acres of trees bending to the
ground with delicious Grimes Golden apples. On that particular day there
were great crowds of people walking among the trees and admiring the
fruit. I too walked among the trees a short time, but of greater
interest to me than the trees was the old, gray-haired man who had made
the orchard. The trees could not talk, but he could, and he told the
story of the years of care, and diligence, and work, and thought, and
patience, that showed why it is not possible to cover the mountains of a
state with orchards bringing almost immediate and fabulous incomes.
Some time ago I stood talking to the old superintendent of the Botanical
Garden in Washington--William R. Smith, now deceased--and while
discussing with him the requisites for tree culture, he said "Young man,
you have left out the most important one of them all," When I asked him
what I had left out, he said "above all things it takes the eye of the
master." So it does, and the master is he whose vigilance is continual,
who watches each tree as if it were a growing child--as indeed it is, a
child of the forests--who has the care and the patience, and who is not
dazzled by the glitter of the dollar, but who loves trees because they
are trees.
Theoretically, one can figure great successes in big horticultural
development propositions, but these figures rest upon theory and not
fact. It would be difficult to state all the reasons why I have a firm
conviction that such big schemes of every kind will fall, but I believe
this conviction is shared by the foremost thinkers in the horticultural
world. A four-year-old boy was once taken to see the animals in a
circus. He was very much interested, but, when shown the tremendous
elephant, shook his head and said "he is too big."
A small grove properly handled ought to be an excellent investment. The
various uncertainties and vicissitudes involved can, in a degree, be
compensated for by great care; and I suppose it would be possible even
with some of these big schemes--by placing enough money behind them--to
insure a fair degree of success. It must be borne in mind, however, that
these promoters, of whom we have been speaking, are not so much
concerned in the successful orchard as they are in big salaries and
profits, and, if one has money enough to pay big salaries and profits,
and still pay for the proper care of the orchard, then he does not need
an orchard. Most of these promoters charge too much for a proper and
honest development alone, and too little for the proper development plus
the profits and salaries of the promoters. I wish it were not so. I wish
the old earth could be made to smile bountiful crops without such
expensive tickling, but this is one of the checks and balances that
nature places upon her great storehouse of wealth.
* * * * *
The Chairman: This is a matter of very great importance and I hope we
shall have a good discussion, from a practical point of view, by men who
know about fraudulent promotions and their effect. We ought to go on
record in this matter right now. I know of numbers of teachers, doctors
and other poor people who have put money into nut promotion schemes
without knowing anything about the ultimate prospect of profit.
Mr. Hutt: One noticeable thing about the promoter's literature is that
he never knows anything about crop failure, and in the agricultural and
horticultural world that is a thing that is painfully evident to a man
who has been in business a great length of time. In the promoter's
literature it is just a matter of multiplication; if one tree will
produce so much in a year, a hundred trees will produce a hundred times
as much. I got a letter the other day from Mr. S. H. James, of Beaumont,
Louisiana, and he said, "I have been very fortunate, I have actually had
two good crops in succession," and when you come to compare that with
the promoter's literature--why he knows no such thing as crop failure.
Anybody who knows anything about agricultural or horticultural work
knows that we have winter and floods and everything else to contend
with.
The Chairman: Someone might tell us about failures they happen to know
of in promotion schemes.
Mr. Smith: I would like to ask if Mr. Littlepage isn't going to open up
that barrel of actual facts that he has about yields?
Mr. Littlepage: Mr. President, I didn't know that I had a whole barrel
of actual facts. When I started in several years ago a barrel wouldn't
have held all of them, but I think that now I could put the actual facts
in a thimble. I've got several barrels of good pecans, however, I'd like
to open up and let Mr. Smith sample if he wants to.
The Chairman: Let's hear about frauds from someone who knows how the
land was managed and how the trees were managed and how it actually
occurred.
Mr. Van Duzee: Mr. President, I feel that I ought to say something,
first in commendation of the paper itself. It is a question how far we,
as an Association, are responsible for the care of our fellowmen, but at
this period when the industry is new, I feel that it is a very
legitimate thing for us to do a little work to try and prevent these
people from preying upon our fellowmen. The president remarked this
morning that something was an evidence of the tremendous waste in
Nature. It is true, Nature, in building a forest, wastes a vast amount
of time and energy. These people who are preying upon the nut industry
today find as their victims the weaklings which Nature buries in the
forest. Those things are incidental and we must expect them, but I feel
that a paper of this kind, at this time, is a very valuable thing and I
hope it will receive wide publication. We cannot say too much to
discourage this sort of thing. Now, to respond, in a measure, to the
President's request for actual facts, I am confronted with this
proposition, that some of the men who have made the greatest failures
are men who have done so through ignorance. They are honest men, they
are personal friends of mine. I don't care to go too much into details,
because they are just as sorry today as I am, but I have seen this done.
I have seen hundreds of acres of nut orchards in the South planted with
the culls from nurseries bought at a very low figure. I have seen these
trees neglected absolutely, not in one case but in many cases. I have
seen the weeds as high as the trees at the time when a telegram was
received by the the local agent that a carload of the purchasers of
these tracts was about to leave to look over their property. I have seen
the local manager hustle out, when he got that telegram, and hire every
mule in the community to come in and, with a plow, throw a furrow or two
to the rows of trees so that they could be distinguished from the weeds
they were growing among. As Mr. Littlepage has said, there can be no
success in such operations; and I feel, looking at it in a very broad
way, that this is a very good time to emphasize the point that those of
us who have the greatest experience in the growing of nut trees do not
feel that these enterprises are legitimate, or that they promise very
much success. (Applause.)
Mr. Pomeroy: I live just a short distance from Buffalo. A few months
ago--I got it on the very best authority--there was some salesman in
Buffalo who didn't have time to call on all those who wanted to give him
money for pecan propositions. He didn't have time, Doctor, he just had
to skip hundreds of them, he said; he was just going from one place to
another, making his collections. Buffalo is a city of only about 450,000
people and there must be some money being collected and sent in to
somebody.
The Chairman: Very glad to hear of that instance; let's hear of others.
Mr. Littlepage: I would like, if possible, to answer Mr. Smith's
question. I didn't know that he referred to facts about these
promotions, I thought perhaps he meant facts about nut growing.
Mr. Smith: You said you had made inquiries as to nuts, harvest yields,
orchard yields; it was those, particularly, that I had in mind.
Mr. Littlepage: Oh well, I could give those to you readily. There are
some very promising orchards, making a good showing under investigation,
handled under proper conditions and of proper size. I would not want to
say that those things are not possible. Talking specifically of these
overgrown schemes, one of them is recalled to my mind, a development
company in southern Georgia, that advertises very alluringly. It set out
one year a lot of culls; they all died. I am told that they went out the
second year and, without any further preparation, dug holes and set out
another lot of culls. They too died; and then they went out the third
year and planted nuts, and those trees, at the end of a year's growth,
were perhaps six or seven inches high, and the salesman from that
company, I understood, took one of the prospective purchasers over into
a fine grove owned by another man on the opposite side of the road, and
let him pick out his five acres from the orchard across the road. That's
one type I could multiply indefinitely.
Mr. W. C. Reed: I think this is a very important matter. As a nursery
man who has sold a great many trees to promoting companies, I want to
say that I have never, with one exception, seen an orchard that has been
a success, but I have seen hundreds of failures, some of them where they
have set out orchards of 150,000 trees and sold them off in one and ten
acre tracts, and in only one case have I seen a success. I think these
promotions should be avoided by the nut growers of the North.
The Chairman: This is very valuable information, coming from a dealer.
Mr. Van Duzee: I have found this in the yields of my orchards. Six or
seven or eight years ago, I discounted every source of information that
I could have access to, as to yields, brought them to a conservative
point, submitted them to the best informed men in the United States, and
then divided those figures by five as my estimate of what I might hope
to accomplish as my orchards came into bearing. I have since been
obliged to find some excuses for failing to even approximate those
conservative figures. I had this year in our orchard, a 35 acre plot of
Frotscher trees which is one of the most promising varieties, six years
of age, and there were not five pounds of nuts in the whole plot. I have
had an orchard of 36 acres, mostly Frotscher and Stewart, go through its
sixth year with less than 200 pounds of nuts to the entire orchard. I
have another orchard of 30 acres which in its sixth year has produced
less than 100 pounds of nuts. Now many of these promoters guarantee to
take care of these orchards, which they are selling, for 10 per cent or
20 per cent, or even half the proceeds of those orchards, from the fifth
year. You can see readily that the entire crop of such orchards as I
have been able to produce, would not begin to pay their running expenses
the sixth and seventh year.
The Chairman: You took good care of yours?
Mr. Van Duzee: I think so. I think there are many gentlemen in the
audience who have been through them, and it is conceded that my orchards
are at least fairly good representatives of what can be done under
normal conditions.
Mr. Corsan: Are yours southern orchards?
Mr. Van Duzee: These pecan orchards are in south-western Georgia.
Mr. Corsan: The Northern Nut Growers Association, as I understand, is a
collection of men who are interested in finding out what we can do in
the way of growing nuts for the North. We go to the markets and see
baskets of cocoanuts, Brazil nuts, California walnuts, but no nuts
growing for the market around our neighborhood. In my own city, Toronto,
I can see some nut trees because I look very closely at everything, but
the average person cannot see them because they are very few. I have a
number of experiments on hand. If I succeed in even one of these
experiments, I am satisfied to spend my whole life at it. I am not
nervous, I can watch a hickory tree grow. (Laughter.) I want to grow
some nuts for the next generation. I haven't the slightest thought of
making a copper of money out of it but I am going to enjoy the thing,
and that's the idea of the Northern Nut Growers Association, or else I
have made a mistake.
The Chairman: Is there any further discussion on the matter of frauds?
Does anyone else wish to speak on this subject?
Mr. Littlepage: It is indeed very gratifying to hear the President of
the National Nut Growers' Association, Col. Van Duzee, speak on this
subject and to have the honor of having him with us as a member of our
Association. It is gratifying to have him come out in such strong terms
on this question. It has always been his policy and his reputation, so
far as I have heard, to stand for what is best and squarest in nut
culture.
The Chairman: The paper of Mr. Littlepage is one of very great
importance, because the number of frauds associated with an enterprise
is an indication of the fundamental value of the cause. These fraudulent
nut promoters capitalize the enthusiasm of people who want to get back
to the land, just as porters at the hotels capitalize the joy of a newly
married couple. (Laughter.) We have in this "back-to-the-land" movement,
a bit of philosophy of fundamental character which includes the idea of
preservation of the race. Preservation of the race!--why so? Nature made
man a gregarious species and, being gregarious, he has a tendency to
develop the urban habit. Developing the urban habit, he fails to oxidize
his proteins and toxins. Failing to oxidize his proteins and toxins, he
degenerates. Recognizing the degenerating influence of urban life, by
means of his intelligence he has placed within his consciousness that
automatic arrangement, as good as the automatic arrangement which turns
water on to a boiler, which says to him, "go out and oxidize your
proteins and toxins." That is what "back-to-the-land" means. You've got
to begin from this fundamental point. Now then, if this represents a
fundamental trait in the character of our species and we are acting in
response to a natural law, then must we be doubly careful about having
our good intentions, our good methods, halted by unwisdom. That brings
to mind the point made about our present Secretary of Agriculture. I am
very glad this has been made a matter of record here, for I am sorry to
say that in connection with another subject--(health matters)--wherever
there has been opportunity for the Secretary to act, he has decided as a
matter of policy on the side of capital and against the side of public
interest. Almost every time, so far as we have a record of the action of
the present Secretary of Agriculture and of Dunlap and McCabe, his
assistants. We ought to state here, in connection with fraudulent nut
promotions, that he has acted in favor of capital and against the public
interest if it is true. It ought to go as a matter of record from this
Association. We may be bold in this matter, but we should be righteously
bold because we are speaking for the public interest ourselves. We have
nothing to gain; there is nothing selfish about this organization. We
may be kindly and say that the Secretary is at the mercy of shrewder
men.
Mr. Corsan says that we are interested in scientific work only. That is
true at the present time, because all progress must be from a scientific
basis. If our care in managing experiments is such that we cannot avoid
getting rich, we will accept the result. (Laughter.) I am glad that in
connection with this discussion Mr. Corsan made one epigrammatic
remark,--that he was not nervous and could watch a hickory tree grow. I
tell you there's a lot of wit in that.
Mr. Littlepage: He has good eyesight, Mr. President.
The Chairman: The reason why we have so many fraudulent promotions is
largely because of our American temperament; we are so nervous that we
can't watch a hickory tree grow. In matters of public health, our
Secretary of Agriculture has prevented actual criminals from being
brought to justice--he made that his policy.
I think those are the points that I wish to make in commenting upon Mr.
Littlepage's paper and if he will make any concluding remarks we will be
very glad to hear them. In regard to Mr. Hutt's suggestion that we
cannot count on crop success or crop failure mathematically--now, there
are fortunes to be made from the proper management of good nut orchards.
We know of orchards where very large incomes are at present being made,
and I am very glad that the sense and sentiment of this meeting is
against quotation of that feature. I have not heard here one word in
quotation of orchards which bring incomes of $10,000 a year or more from
various kinds of nuts, and we know there are many such orchards. It is
the failures upon which we should concentrate our attentions right now,
and the reason for failure is not that nut growing is not going to make
progress but that we cannot count on our nuts from a mathematical basis.
One of my friends, an old Frenchman, became very enthusiastic about
raising poultry. He sent out requests for circulars to every poultry
fancier who published circulars, and I will wager that he got 50 per
cent of answers to his requests for circulars about fancy poultry. He
began to raise chickens, and my father-in-law met him on the street one
day and asked how he was getting on with his pullets that were going to
lay so many eggs. "Oh," he said, "Ze trouble is with ze pullet; she no
understand mathematique like ze fancier. If I have one pullet, she lay
one egg every day; if I have two pullet, _perhaps_ she lay two egg every
day, and if I have three pullet, she _nevaire_ lay three egg every day."
(Laughter.) Now I think that the remaining time this morning we had
better devote to the executive session, then we had better meet at two
o'clock for the election of our committee. The meeting then is at
present adjourned, with the exception of those who will take part in the
executive session, and we will meet again at two P. M. There is one
point I wanted to make in connection with Col. Van Duzee's remarks that
a certain number of really honest men have allowed their names to be
used in connection with promotion propositions. Men who are quite
skillful at learning the use of names, have gotten men of good
intentions and kindly interest, I know, to lend their names as even
officials of nut promotion companies. Besides that, a good deal of
garbled literature of recommendation has gone out in their circulars. I
have had a number of circulars sent to me quoting abstract remarks that
I had made relative to nut culture in general, and this has been applied
concretely in circulars; the context did not go with it. I asked a
lawyer what I could do about it, and after going over the question he
said that I probably was powerless.
After announcements by the Secretary, the convention took a recess until
2 P. M., at which time it was called to order by President Morris and
the regular program was resumed as follows:
The Chairman: The executive session will be held after the meeting, as
many are here to hear the paper on the chestnut blight, so we will
proceed at once to the order of business and listen to the first paper
by Mr. Rockey.
Mr. Rockey: This paper deals more particularly with the work that has
been done in Pennsylvania. But what has been done here may be considered
to be typical of what has been done elsewhere.
RECENT WORK ON THE CHESTNUT BLIGHT
KELLER E. ROCKEY
Forester in charge of Demonstration Work, Pennsylvania Chestnut Tree
Blight Commission
The history of the blight, briefly outlined, is as follows:
In 1904 the diseased condition of the chestnut trees around New York
City was noted and an examination of them showed that they were being
attacked by a disease at that time unknown. Investigations since then
have shown that the blight had been at work there and elsewhere for a
number of years before that time, but it has been impossible to
determine just when it first appeared or where. The disease was studied
and described at that time.
On display here are specimens and photographs showing the appearance of
the blight so that I will not go into that part of the subject in
detail. I hope that you will notice, however, the symptoms by which the
disease is recognized: 1st. The small red pustules which produce the
spores and, on rough barked trees, appear only in the crevices. 2nd. The
peculiar mottled appearance of the inner bark of the canker. 3rd. The
discoloration of the outer bark. 4th. The danger signals, such as
withered leaves in summer or persistent leaves or burrs in winter,
suckers which develop at the base of cankers, and the yellowish cracks
which soon appear in the bark over the cankers.
Workers in the Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, D. C., have been
studying the blight since 1908. In the Spring of 1911, a bill creating
the commission for the investigation and control of the blight in
Pennsylvania was passed, and the active work began in August 1911. The
method upon which the Commission is working is outlined in Farmers'
Bulletin No. 467, of the Department of Agriculture, and consists briefly
of determining the area of blight infection and in removing diseased
trees west of a certain line, with the purpose of preventing the western
spread of the blight.
This Commission has ascertained as accurately as possible the amount of
infection in the various parts of the state and the results are given in
a map on display here. The state is divided into two districts by a line
drawn along the western edge of Susquehanna, Wyoming, Columbia, Union,
Snyder, Juniata and Franklin Counties, which is approximately the
western line of serious blight infection. West of this line a large
portion of the state has been scouted, and the remainder will be
finished early in 1913. We have learned by experience that in the
winter, after the fall of the leaves, the best scouting work can be
done. Persistent leaves and cankers along the trunk are readily seen,
and more and better work can be accomplished than in the summer, except
when the snow is very deep.
Blight infections have been found in counties adjacent to this line:
also in Fayette County, near Connellsville, in Warren County, near
Warren, and in Elk County, near St. Mary's. These three infections were
directly traceable to infected nursery stock, and in one case the blight
had spread to adjacent trees. A large area of diseased chestnut in
Somerset County illustrates the harm done by shipping infected nursery
stock. The centre of this infection is a chestnut orchard where about
100 scions from an infected eastern orchard were grafted to native
sprouts in 1908. The percentage of infected trees in the orchard from
which the scions were obtained, according to a count made this Fall,
averages 80 per cent. Evidently these scions brought the disease into
this region, for the grafts have all been killed by the blight and every
tree in the orchard is killed or infected by disease. On adjoining
tracts over 5,400 infected trees have been cut, and there are a number
of others in process of removal, radiating in all directions from the
orchard as a center to a distance of three miles. Another infection of
143 trees was found in Elk County. It is thought that three trees at the
centre of infection were diseased in 1909, although it is possible that
one of these trees was already infected in 1908. In 1910, 27 additional
trees were infected; in 1911, 50 additional trees, and in 1912, 228
additional trees. The disease spread in all directions from the center
of infection to a distance of 700 feet.
These infections are interesting in showing the rate at which the blight
may travel in healthy timber.
These infections have all been removed and it is the expectation that by
the end of January 1913 all scattered spot infections will be removed
from the territory west of the line previously mentioned, and that, to
the best of our knowledge, these western counties will be free from
blight. In 1913 the field force will be concentrated on the advance line
and the work will be carried eastward. The Commission has the power to
compel the removal of infected trees. In the western part of the state
this power has been exercised in the few cases where it was necessary.
As a rule, however, the owners are not only willing but anxious to get
rid of the infected trees, and our field men are given hearty support by
individuals, granges and other organizations. The timber owners of Elk
County had printed and posted an announcement that the chestnut blight
had been found in the locality and warned the people to be on the
look-out for it. In addition the Commission has had a man, for a short
time at least, in each of the eastern counties of the state, and their
time has been taken up principally by those who requested inspections of
timber with the view of determining the percentage of blight infection
and the best method to be pursued in combating it and realizing on their
timber. Our men are all deputy wardens, with the authority which is
attached to this office, and are instructed to do their utmost to
prevent fire damage.
An exhibit which consists of specimens showing the blight in various
stages together with photographs, literature, etc., was placed in about
30 of the county fairs throughout the state. The appreciation of the
public has been so clearly shown that next year it is the intention of
the Commission to continue and perhaps increase this phase of the work,
and to place large permanent displays at the Commercial Museum,
Philadelphia, the State Capitol, Harrisburg, and other places.
Many of the Annual Teachers' Institutes have been reached with a display
and lecture. We have arranged also to have a speaker at fully one
hundred of the Farmers' Institutes this winter. We are also arranging to
have a permanent display at many of the public schools, normal schools
and colleges, where instruction on the blight is given. An effort was
made last winter to enlist the service of the boy scouts and we are
indebted to them for considerable work, chiefly in an educational way.
The successful outcome of all our work will depend in a large measure
upon the owners themselves, and it is our purpose to give them all the
information possible upon the whole subject.
The Commission established a Department of Utilization which is
collecting information on the various industries which use or might use
chestnut wood, listing the buyers and owners of chestnut wood, thus
assisting owners of blighted chestnut trees in marketing their timber to
the best advantage. The Department is trying to increase the use of
chestnut wood by calling attention to its many good qualities, and thus
utilize the large quantity which must necessarily be thrown upon the
market. There has been more or less discrimination against blighted
chestnut timber. This has been in many cases unjust, since the blight
does not injure the value of the wood for most purposes for which it is
used. However, the owners sometimes fail to realize that the blight
cankers are the most favorable places for the entrance of the borers,
and that where a large number of trees are being considered, a
percentage of them will be materially injured by insects which follow
blight infection. Where telegraph poles are barked, it is often seen
that borers have attacked the wood under blight cankers, and have not
touched any other part of the tree. All blighted timber should be cut
before death to realize its best value, since insects and
wood-destroying fungi cause the very rapid deterioration of dead,
standing timber. There has been a good market in almost every locality
for poles, ties and the better grades of lumber. Cordwood presents the
difficult problem of disposal. The best market for this is in the
central part of the state, at the extract plants. The Commission has
secured from the Pennsylvania R. R. a special tariff on blighted
chestnut cordwood so that this product may be profitably shipped from
greater distances than before.
The Commission has inspected all chestnut nursery stock shipped from
nurseries within the state and has also provided for inspection of all
chestnut stock entering the state. This should prevent a repetition of
infections in the western part of the state which might destroy millions
of dollars worth of timber.
From time to time publications have been and will be issued by the
Commission, which are obtained free of charge upon request, or they may
be consulted in the leading libraries throughout the state.
An appropriation for $80,000 was given by the last Congress for
scientific research work upon the blight disease and work is being
carried out in cooperation with the various states. Several of the
Government investigators are now at work upon our force. Some of the
most important unsolved scientific problems of the blight, as given by
Secretary Wilson, in his message, to Congress, are as follows:--
First, the relation of the disease to climate.
Second, the relation of the parasite to the varying tannin content of
the tree.
Third, the origin of the disease.
Fourth, relation of birds and insects to the dissemination of the
disease.
Fifth, the nature and degree of resistance of the Asiatic species.
Another problem in relation to tree treatment may be added, that is, the
relation of spores and mycelium to toxic agents.
The Pennsylvania Commission maintained laboratories during the summer at
Charter Oak, Centre County, and at Mt. Gretna, Lebanon County. The
latter has been moved to Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, for
the winter. We have also had a laboratory at the University of
Pennsylvania, which has been greatly enlarged this fall.
The number of people who informed us that they had discovered a sure
"cure" for the blight made it necessary to obtain an orchard near
Philadelphia where all such discoverers were given an opportunity to
demonstrate the efficacy of their remedies. It might be noted that in
every case the blight is thriving as usual. These cures consisted
largely of an injection of a toxic principle by some means into the
circulation of the tree. In some cases this was accompanied by a
fertilizer of some kind, and this fertilizer may account for the
apparently improved condition of the tree in some cases, after such
remedies were used, since the growth was increased and the leaves and
branches had a healthier appearance. This increased growth has not had
any appreciable effect upon the rapidity of spread of the blight
mycelium. As the experiments are not officially finished and recorded it
is too early to give any further data. Our pathologists have also
conducted experiments in this same line but no medicinal remedy or
fertilizer has yet been found.
The varying chemical constituents of chestnut trees, principally tannic
acid, have often been suggested in regard to the origin and spread of
the blight. Investigators are now working along this line and we hope,
for valuable results before long.
The origin of the disease, as already stated, is something of a mystery,
and there is as yet no generally accepted theory, although many people
have very pronounced views on the subject. Many puzzling facts have been
noted since investigating the disease in Pennsylvania, among them being
the large percentage of infection in eastern York and southern Lancaster
counties, the relative small percentage in certain localities around
which the blight is generally prevalent, and recent infections found in
Warren and other western counties, a great distance from what is known
as the western advance line of the disease.
Our pathologists have reported some very interesting facts in regard to
the dissemination of the blight. In the preliminary report of the
summer's work at our field laboratories the results tend to show:
First, the prolific ascospore stage is very important in causing the
spread of the blight, the spores at this stage being forcibly ejected
from the pustules and borne through the air for some distance. This
ejection of spores takes place under natural field conditions only when
the bark has been soaked by rain, but the expulsion of spores is also
dependent upon temperature conditions and ceases entirely at
temperatures from 42 to 46 degrees F. and below.
Second, the wind plays a large part in local ascospore dissemination.
Third, birds and insects (except ants) are apparently of very little
importance in the dissemination of the blight except in providing
wounds. Further investigations of the importance of ants is being made
during the present winter.
Several kinds of beetles have been observed eating the pustules and are
in this way beneficial, since tests show that they digest and destroy
the spores. It has also been suggested by workers in the Bureau of
Entomology that such beetles, which are of several kinds, may be of
value in the attempt to control the disease. These are perhaps the only
natural enemies discovered to date.
The proper classification of the chestnut blight fungus has also been
the subject of much discussion. Last winter specimens of what in
external characteristics appeared to be Diaporthe parasitica were found
in western Pennsylvania, Virginia and elsewhere, growing upon chestnut,
oak and other species. This condition was puzzling and the subject of
some controversy. It has been found, however, that this fungus, called
the "Connellsville fungus," is a distinct species closely related to the
true blight fungus, being, however, entirely saprophytic. Cultural
distinctions are apparent and the ascospores differ in size and shape so
that no further confusion need occur.
Upon the question of immunity of certain kinds of Asiatic stock, there
is very little to report beyond what was known one year ago. In the
investigations made the work has been hampered by the fact that much of
the so-called Japanese stock is in reality a hybrid of European or
American species. In 1909, 45 Japanese seedling trees were set out at
Gap, Lancaster Co., for experimentation along this line. A recent
examination showed that 90 per cent are infected. Concerning the variety
or purity of this stock, I have not been informed. Our force as well as
others are at work upon the problem which will require many years'
study.
Previous investigations seem to show that certain pure strains of
Japanese and Korean chestnut are resistant to the blight. Blight cankers
may be found upon them but they are less easily infected and suffer less
than the more susceptible varieties. With this as a working basis,
considering the results that have been attained in other fruit by
selection and hybridization, the situation is hopeful. Prof. Collins
said at the Harrisburg Conference in February that "There is no reason
to doubt that we may eventually see an immune hybrid chestnut that will
rival the American chestnut in flavor and the Paragon in size".
In southern Europe chestnut orcharding is a well established and
profitable industry. In the United States chestnuts have been considered
a marketable commodity ever since the Indians carried them to the
settlements and traded them for knives and trinkets. The demand has
always exceeded the supply and at the present time about $2,000,000
worth of nuts are imported from Europe annually. With the development of
the better varieties of the American nut has come an increased activity
in the United States and the chestnut orchard industry promises to
become one of very large importance. It has an added advantage that the
trees can be grown upon the poorer types of soil which are not adaptable
for farming or the raising of other fruit.
At the present time there are in what is known as the blight area of
Pennsylvania, or eastern half of the State, about 100 orchards ranging
from 12 trees up to 400 acres in extent. These orchards are in varying
stages of blight infection, some of them being almost entirely free, due
to the attention which has been given them. In order to protect such
orchards the Commission is compelling the removal of infected trees
within a certain radius of them.
As you know the blight has been a very serious factor in this industry.
Some of the orchards have been completely annihilated and the income
reduced from several thousand or more dollars per year to nothing.
Whether or not the blight will completely wipe out the orcharding
industry is a subject of large importance. Personally I believe that
chestnuts will be raised commercially in Pennsylvania in increased
abundance, and as the various phases of the blight subject are brought
to light, keeping the disease under control can be more easily
accomplished. At the present time this is being done in certain orchards
by the present methods of examining the trees often, treating each
infection, or removing the tree. If this policy is successfully pursued
for several more years it will demonstrate conclusively that chestnuts
can be grown in spite of the blight and this will mean an opportunity to
use vast areas of waste land in Pennsylvania and in the other states, in
a highly profitable manner.
* * * * *
The Chairman: The subject of the next paper is Some Problems in the
Treatment of the Chestnut. It will be presented by Mr. Pierce, after
which we will have a general discussion of the entire subject.
Mr. Pierce: Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: I see that, as we wrote
our papers separately, some of the things I had in mind will be similar
to those Mr. Rockey had.
SOME PROBLEMS IN THE TREATMENT OF DISEASED CHESTNUT TREES
BY ROY G. PIERCE
Tree Surgeon, Pennsylvania Chestnut Tree Blight Commission
The problems that present themselves to the growers of chestnut trees
concerning the present disease may be summed up under three heads:
first, what the disease is, how it is caused, and how it may be
recognized; second, what is to be done with diseased trees to bring them
to health or to prevent them from infecting other healthy trees nearby;
third, what means in the future can be undertaken to keep a tree
healthy, that is, to prevent reinfection.
First, what the disease is, how it is caused, and how it may be
recognized. The disease known as the chestnut tree blight is caused by
the fungus, _Diaporthe parasitica_, which usually finds entrance to the
tree through wounds in the bark. The mycelium or mass of fungous
filaments gradually spreads through the bark in much the same manner as
mold spreads over and through a piece of bread, even penetrating the
wood to a depth of sometimes five annual rings. The spread of the
fungus, resulting in the cutting off of the sap flow, is the immediate
cause of the wilting and dying of the leaves and branch above the point
of girdling. This wilting of the leaves, followed later by the death of
one branch after another as the fungus spreads, has given rise to the
term "blight" of the chestnut trees.
The danger signals which the chestnut tree displays when diseased are
not a few. In summer, when the tree is first affected, the leaves turn
yellow-green and wilt, later turning brown. Small burs and withered
leaves retained in winter are some signs of the diseased condition of
the tree. At the base of the blighted part a lesion, or reddish brown
canker, is usually found. This lesion may be a sunken area or, as is
frequently the case, a greatly enlarged swelling, known as a
hypertrophy. After a branch has become completely girdled sprouts or
suckers are very apt to be found below the point of girdling. In old
furrowed bark on the main trunk of the tree the presence of the disease
is seen in the reddish brown spore-bearing pustules in the fissures. In
determining the presence of the fungus in the furrowed bark of old
trees, one must learn to recognize the difference between the light
brown color characteristic of fissures in healthy growing bark, and the
reddish brown color of the fungus. When the disease has been present
several years the bark completely rots and shrinks away from the wood,
and when the bark is struck with an axe a hollow sound is produced.
Many of the owners of chestnut trees throughout Pennsylvania do not
acknowledge that a fungus is causing the death of the trees. They state
that since they have found white grubs or the larvae of beetles in
nearly every tree that dies, that it has been the larvae that killed the
tree. It is acknowledged that generally white grubs are found in dying
chestnut trees, and that in nearly all of the large cankers or lesions
these grubs are present. However, if one will take the pains to examine
the small twigs and branches or the new shoots rising from the stumps,
that are diseased, he will not find the grubs present.
Second, what is to be done with diseased trees to bring them back to
health or to prevent them from infecting other healthy trees nearby. To
bring the trees back to health implies that the disease can be cured.
This is not always true for the tree may be already nearly girdled, when
the disease is first noticed. A tree taken in time, however, may have
its life prolonged indefinitely though it may have the blight in some
portion of it every year. More particularly does this apply to valuable
ornamental and orchard trees.
Prof. J. Franklin Collins, Forest Pathologist in the Department of
Agriculture in Farmer's Bulletin No. 467 on "The Control of the Chestnut
Bark Disease" gives the following: "The essentials for the work are a
gouge, a mallet, a pruning knife, a pot of coal tar, and a paint brush.
In the case of a tall tree a ladder or rope, or both may be necessary
but under no circumstances should tree climbers be used, as they cause
wounds which are very favorable places for infection. Sometimes an axe,
a saw, and a long-handled tree pruner are convenient auxiliary
instruments, though practically all the cutting recommended can be done
with a gouge with a cutting edge of 1 or 1-1/2 inches. All cutting
instruments should be kept very sharp, so that a clean smooth cut may be
made at all times."
All of the discolored diseased areas in the tree should be removed.
Small branches or twigs nearly girdled are best cut off. Cankers in the
main trunk or on limbs should be gouged out. Carefulness is the prime
requisite in this work. If the disease has completely killed the
cambium, the bark should be entirely removed as well as several layers
of wood beneath the canker. By frequent examination, however, diseased
spots may be found on the tree where the mycelium of the fungus is still
in the upper layers of the bark. It is not necessary then to cut clear
to the wood, but the discolored outer bark may be removed and a layer of
healthy inner bark left beneath the cut. The sap may still flow through
this layer. The border of the diseased area is quite distinct, but
cutting should not stop here but should be continued beyond the
discolored portion into healthy bark, at least an inch. The tools should
be thoroughly sterilized by immersion in a solution of 1.1000 bichloride
of mercury, or 5 per cent solution of formaldehyde, before cutting into
the bark outside of the diseased area. Experiments have shown that a
gouge or knife may carry the spores into healthy bark and new infection
take place. Experiments are being carried on in the laboratory to
determine the length of time which spores will live in solutions of
different strengths of fungicides.
It has been shown that a cut made pointed at the top and bottom heals
much faster than one rounded. The edges of the cut should be made with
care so as not to injure the cambium. The chips of diseased bark and
wood should not be allowed to fall on the ground then to be forgotten. A
bag fastened just below the canker will collect most of this material as
it is gouged out and prevent possible reinfection, which might take
place if the material were allowed to scatter down the bark. Canvas or
burlap spread around under a small orchard tree might be sufficient to
catch all of the diseased chips of bark and wood cut out of the lower
infections. This diseased material should be burned together with
blighted branches. After completely cutting out all of the diseased
parts the cut surfaces should be either sterilized or covered with a
waterproofing which combines a fungicide with a covering. Among these
might be mentioned coal tar and creosote, or a mixture of pine tar,
linseed oil, lamp black and creosote.
The trees which have been killed by blight, or nearly girdled, have been
overlooked. These should be cut off close to the ground, the stump
peeled and the bark and unused portions of the tree burned over the
stump. The merchantable parts of the trees should be removed from the
woods promptly, as all dead unbarked wood furnishes an excellent
breeding place for the blight fungus.
Third, what means in the future can be undertaken to keep a tree
healthy, that is, to prevent reinfection. The spores may be carried by
so many agents that it is difficult to prevent reinfection. However it
is clear that the farther infected products or trees are removed from
healthy trees the less liable they are to have spores carried to them.
Cooperation with nearby owners of diseased trees will help solve this
problem.
Spraying on a large scale has only been carried on, so far as I know, on
the estate of Pierre DuPont, Jr., at Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. At
this place there are many large chestnut trees ranging from sixty to
ninety feet in height, many of which were planted some sixty-five years
ago. Mr. R. E. Wheeler started the work of cutting out diseased limbs
and cankers in October 1911, and began spraying with Bordeaux mixture in
April 1912. The formula 5-5-50, five pounds of copper sulphate and five
pounds of lime in 50 gallons of water was found to be injurious to the
foliage in the Spring. This was changed therefore, to 4-5-50, which had
one pound less of copper sulphate. This did not seem to injure the
foliage.
About 70 trees were sprayed twenty times during the season. Nearly all
of these were gone over four times to remove diseased branches and
cankers, once in October 1911, then in early summer and again in
September and November 1912. As an example take tree No. 6 which was
studied, December 14, 1912. It is 39 inches in diameter at breast
height, and approximately 70 feet in height. On this one tree six
diseased limbs were removed, and sixteen cankers were cut out. Of these
sixteen, two infections continued, that is, were not completely cut out,
and had spread; three had infections below old limbs which had been
removed, and eleven were healing over. This tree was about 1000 feet
away from other badly infected trees, though but 25 feet away from other
chestnut trees in the same row. The experiment of Mr. DuPont in spraying
shows what can be done on valuable lawn trees. On the whole, these trees
look well and healthy. Trees which were not sprayed over three times and
were within 50-100 feet from badly blighted trees, became infected in so
many different places that it will be necessary to remove them.
One of the problems to be solved next year will be that of the least
number of sprayings which will be effective in preventing new infection.
* * * * *
The Chairman: The question of the chestnut blight is now open for
discussion.
Mr. Littlepage: I should like to ask these gentlemen how far west they
have heard of chestnut blight--that is, heard of it with any degree of
authenticity, and also whether or not they care to express an opinion as
to what the prospects are in the middle west, say out in Indiana,
Illinois and Ohio?
Mr. Pierce: In answer to that question, I will say that in Pennsylvania
we have found infections in Wayne County and also in Fayette County,
both near the western extreme of the state, but those have been attended
to, very largely, and the boundaries closely determined. In Ohio there
have been several reports of the blight being found, but I don't think
either of the reports have been proven. There has been a fungus that I
have spoken of as the Connellsville fungus, that has been all around in
that neighborhood, south-western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio.
The Chairman: Is the Connellsville fungus also _diaporthe parasitica_?
Mr. Pierce: Yes, sir. It was placed by Mr. Anderson, who did the work
on that, in the same genus as diaporthe, but he preferred the name
_endothia parasitica_.
The Chairman: The question is of changing the generic name, from
_diaporthe_, on the basis of the previously established species?
Mr. Pierce: Yes, sir, previously established species of _endothia_. It
is only a suggestion of Mr. Anderson; it was made by him. This was very
similar to the true blight fungus and when our men first went out into
the western part of the State, they reported these various cases that
came up there as chestnut blight, and none of the pathologists of our
force then were competent to determine the difference, except that the
fact was noted even then that it was not growing as a parasite in the
sense that the true blight fungus has been growing in the east.
The Chairman: That may be due to varietal differences, though, rather
than specific?
Mr. Pierce: Yes, although Mr. Anderson seemed to think it was specific.
The Chairman: Is there any further discussion? The subject is worthy of
a good deal of comment.
Mr. Pomeroy: I want to ask the speaker what the approximate cost would
be for one spraying of a tree about that size, 70 feet in height?
Mr. Pierce: We have photographs on the table there showing our eight
hundred dollar spraying machine, the same kind used in Massachusetts in
gypsy moth work. With this two men can spray about ten such trees in a
day. I haven't got it down in black and white but I figured that, on
those chestnuts at DuPont's, they sprayed about 600 gallons a day. Ten
trees a day would make it, say, with a $2.50 man, not very high for a
tree. I think it costs in all something like four dollars a tree during
the whole season, but that is a very rough estimate and the materials
are not included.
The Chairman: The cost will have to be calculated on a sentimental basis
for the ornamental trees, and on a commercial basis for the commercial
trees. The actual value of the spraying has not yet been determined.
This spraying cannot reach the mycelium in the cambium layer; if the
disease has been carried in by a beetle or woodpecker your spraying
would be ineffective.
Mr. Pierce: Yes indeed, that was just the thought Mr. Galena had,
notwithstanding the fact that they cut out all visible infections and
the trees were so blue with spray that you could see them for half a
mile.
The Chairman: But, later on, cracks and squirrel scratches and all sorts
of injuries would allow new spores to be carried in?
Mr. Pierce: Yes, sir.
Mr. Reed: The future of the chestnut depends so largely on the
conquering of this disease that no other horticultural problem of this
nut is, just at present, imperative. So far as we know, all of the
European and American varieties are highly subject to this disease, so
much so that there is no inducement to plant them, and we are waiting
for Dr. Morris and a few other hybridizers to find some hybrids, or
straight Japanese varieties, that are of sufficient merit, and of
sufficient degree of resistance to this disease, for us to have a basis
for building up the future industry. On the tables there are quite a
number of exhibits from Mr. Riehl and Mr. Endicott of Illinois. Most of
them are hybrids between the American and the Japanese species, but, so
far as we know, they have not been tried in communities where the
disease prevails. We don't know whether they are resistant or not, as
they are being grown in a section entirely outside of the area where the
blight exists. I think I am right in that, am I not, Mr. Pierce? Is
there any chestnut blight in southern Illinois?
Mr. Pierce: There has been none reported.
Mr. Reed: I think that the varieties that these men in Indiana have
originated are the most promising we know of. I think that in examining
these specimens you will agree that they are of fairly high quality and
good size, and if they prove to be resistant to the disease much may be
expected from them.
Mr. Hutt: I have not seen the chestnut blight at all. I hope that it
isn't in our section. I have heard it was brought in from some point but
I do not know whether it was identified exactly as the chestnut blight.
Mr. Pierce: I saw a specimen sent from North Carolina and it proved to
be the Collinsville fungus.
Mr. Corsan: If you remember reading Fuller's book on nuts, he reported
that the chestnut blight extended through the Carolinas but said that
chestnuts were still coming from that direction in great abundance. Up
in Canada we haven't the chestnut blight. The chestnut tree runs from
the Ohio River to the Niagara River but it doesn't cross into Michigan,
except along the Michigan Southern and Lake Shore Railroad where some
enterprising gentlemen have planted the chestnut with the tamarack
alternately all the way from Cleveland to Chicago. I examined the state
of Indiana across and from top to bottom several times in the summer and
I never saw any chestnuts there, but I have seen some newly planted
places in Michigan; near Battle Creek I saw a farm of about fifty acres.
We are having up in Ontario, beyond Toronto, a blight that has attacked
the Lombardy poplar and that looks similar to the chestnut blight. I
have been watching it for the last ten years and the tree seems to have
at last outlived it. It dies down and then a little sprout comes out
from the carcass.
The Chairman: Isn't that the poplar tree borer that always attacks the
Lombardy?
Mr. Corsan: Oh no, it's very similar to the chestnut tree blight. We can
grow chestnut trees all we like but no one has brains enough to grow
them. The farmers grow pigs and things but don't bother with chestnut
trees; consequently the chestnut blight does not exist there.
Mr. Pierce: I didn't answer a portion of Mr. Littlepage's question. Mr.
Littlepage asked whether or not the blight might be expected in the
Middle West. That depends, more or less, upon the results of the work
Pennsylvania is now carrying on. If we can keep the disease from
extending through the territory in which we are working, there is a very
good chance to keep it out of the West. If we are not successful, it may
be expected to develop, in time, over the whole chestnut range.
There seems to be a very good opportunity for growing the chestnut
commercially beyond its present range; that is, where it is so
infrequent as not to be in danger from infected growths nearby.
In the eastern part of the state different people have reported that the
blight seemed to them to be dying out and, a number of these reports
coming from a certain locality, the Commission decided to investigate
one which seemed to be better reported than the others. It was found,
after a very extensive investigation, that this dying out was true only
in the sense that it was not spreading, perhaps, as fast as it had been
spreading before. The mycelium and the spores were healthy and were
affecting the new trees in quite the same manner as the year before and
as in other parts of the state.
The Chairman: The question of controlling blight after it has appeared
is of very great consequence. Concerning any commercial proposition
with chestnuts the people are wide awake to the seriousness of the
blight. They are afraid to go into growing chestnut orchards; they have
had so many fake propositions in the past in pecan promotions that they
are afraid of chestnuts and everything else. Any proposition for
bringing forward chestnuts commercially must be a plain, simple,
straightforward statement of the truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth. We are ready, all through the North and East, to raise
hundreds of acres of chestnuts, such as Mr. Reed has spoken about, ones
which resist the blight, or ones which resist the blight comparatively
well.
Let us consider comparative immunity for a moment. We know how expensive
it is to manage an apple orchard, and yet, with the present high prices,
the profits on apple orchards, well managed, are great. May we not have
chestnut orchards managed with the same degree of relative expense and
the same degree of relative profit? I would like very much to hear from
some of the men who have actually raised chestnuts in orchards
concerning the relative care of the chestnut compared with the apple,
and the relative profit. I see Col. Sober here; can't you tell us about
your experience in managing the blight? Can it be managed successfully
in proportion as apple tree parasites are managed?
Col. Sober: My experience has been this; I have four hundred acres of
chestnuts in bearing. They range from five years to fifteen years old. I
find that I can control the blight easier than I can control the scale
on apple trees. If anyone doesn't believe this I invite him and all to
come to my place and see for themselves. I think I have nearly one
million seedling and grafted paragon trees. I don't think you will find
fifty affected trees on the whole place today. I have men going in every
grove at the present time who have inspected thousands of trees and
found seven that had blight on the limbs, so I know what I am speaking
about.
The Chairman: What is your method?
Col. Sober: Cutting out, cutting off anything I see; if it is really
necessary, cut the tree down; but we don't often find that necessary
because just as quick as we see any affected, or any limb dying or dead,
we cut it off. I had my groves laid out in sections of a hundred feet
wide and numbered; and I had charts made so that they can be inspected
section by section. In that manner, every tree is inspected. One
individual will inspect the trunk and another one the top. In each
section I can show you as far as we have gone. I can show you how many
trees are in each section and how many affected trees there are in that
section, or whether there are any or not. I say I can control it easier
than I can control scale and with less expense and I want that to go on
record. There is no question about it. It can be seen at my place. I go
over my groves about four times a year and have been doing it all the
time, and I don't doubt but that I discovered this disease the first of
anybody in the state, perhaps, in 1902. I was looking around to cut
scions and I saw one tree whose center was dead and around it were the
finest shoots almost that I had ever seen for grafting purposes. I went
to it and saw the center was dead. I cut some scions and today that is
one of the finest trees I've got on my place. From what I know now that
was a blighted tree.
A member: Did you paint over the scars?
Col. Sober: No sir, but we are doing it now, using white lead.
A member: How much blight is there around you?
Col. Sober: I am surrounded with it on all sides. Right up against my
groves about 17 per cent of the trees are affected. That is the report
coming from the parties inspecting now for the Blight Commission. I
shipped Mr. Mayo about four or five thousand trees this fall. I don't
suppose there were a dozen that were thrown out, thinking they were
blighted or diseased. We have records of all that up at my place. There
are some trees right here now that came from my nursery. I wish you
gentlemen could just see for yourselves; come out and see.
The Chairman: In advancing this chestnut on a commercial basis it had
better be stated that it does not blight as badly as the American
chestnut and that when blighted it can be cared for with less cost than
the apple tree. I would suggest that some such notice be sent out with
commercial stock. That would put it on the right basis so that the
chestnut would find its position, which it is not finding now because
the people are full of the blight; and if a frank, full statement of
this sort were made I believe it would be extremely important.
Mr. Rockey: I went through practically the whole extent of Mr. Sober's
orchard recently and found one infected tree. I can vouch for the
statement that he has made that he is almost surrounded by blight.
The Chairman: I have given attention to only a few of my own trees that
were blighted because I have too much else to do and too large a place,
a couple of hundred acres engaged in a small and large way,--a variety
of ways--with nut trees; and the few I have cared to save after blight
has begun I have saved by cutting it out very thoroughly and using
either white paint or grafting wax. I used also pine tar and some gas
tar. I killed some good trees that I wanted particularly to save by
putting on gas tar.
The matter of compelling the removal of infected trees is a very
important one, but it must rest with the authorities. In the vicinity of
New York we have so much hard wood that you cannot sell it unless you
are in some sort of a trade combination. Fine oak, fine hickory, fine
chestnut, you can't dispose of in New York City, because we have such a
lot of it. We have wild deer within fifteen miles of New York City on
three sides of us on account of the forests. You have got to find some
special way for disposing of this blighted chestnut timber. Telephone
and telegraph poles and ties all go for nothing, unless you happen to be
so situated that you can manage the matter commercially, and a way
should be found by the state so that people can dispose of their
blighted timber, which is just as good as any other.
It is very important to note that the boy scouts are interested, and we
ought to encourage their interest. It is a splendid thing, getting the
interest of boys engaged. You know how active a boy is in getting a
snake from under a rock and he will do the same thing with the chestnut
blight. It is his natural tendency to hustle when he gets after
anything. This chestnut blight belongs to the microbe group and the
microbe is the great enemy of mankind. In wars the microbe kills about
eight men for every one killed by missiles. If we can encourage the
interest of boy scouts in fighting the greatest of all human enemies,
the microbe, including this little fungus, we shall have a splendid
working force.
In regard to the injection of poisons and medicines into trees, it seems
to me that a very firm stand ought to be taken by all responsible men
who know anything about plant pathology. We know that a poison injected
into a tree must either act injuriously right there upon the cells of
the tree, or else must undergo metabolic changes. A tree cannot use
anything that is thrown into it, poison or food or anything else, until
it has undergone a metabolic change; you must have a distinct, definite
chemical process taking place and we ought to state that most of the
substances which are alleged to be of value, when injected into a tree,
are either absolutely worthless or injurious. One man tried to persuade
me that his medication if applied to the cambium layer would be
absorbed, and said that if I would only use it on a few of my trees I
could see for myself. He said it would drive off even the aphides. I
tried it on four trees affected with aphides and found that he told me
the truth. It drove them off, because the trees died and the aphides
left. One tree lived a year before being killed; it was a most insidious
sort of death, but the aphides left that tree. (Laughter.)
Some of the Asiatic chestnuts resist the blight very well. Curiously
enough when grafted upon some of the American chestnuts they then become
vulnerable. Two years ago, from a lot of about one thousand Corean
chestnuts in which there had been up to that time no blight, I grafted
scions on American stump sprouts and about 50 per cent of those grafts
blighted in the next year, showing that the American chestnut sap offers
a pabulum attractive to the Diaporthe, and that is a fact of collateral
value in getting our negative testimony upon the point.
Concerning the question of carrying blight fifty miles, there's no
telling how far birds will fly carrying the spores of Diaporthe upon
their feet. The spores are viscid and adhere to the feet of beetles, or
migratory birds which sometimes make long lateral flights following
food, rather than direct flights north and south. It is quite easy to
imagine birds carrying this Diaporthe over an interval of possibly fifty
miles, making that distance in one night perhaps. Someone may have
carried chestnuts in his pocket to give to his granddaughter fifty miles
away, and in that way carried the blight. If any grafted trees have been
carried fifty miles, or any railroad ties, with a little bark on,
carried fifty miles and then thrown off, it might blight the chestnuts
in that vicinity. One can have as much range of imagination as he
pleases as Longfellow says, There is no limit to the imagination in
connection with questions of spreading the blight of Diaporthe.
Some of the Japanese and Corean chestnuts and some of the Chinese
chestnuts resist blight fairly well. Among my chinkapins, I have the
common _pumila_ and the Missouri variety of _pumila_, which grows in
tree form forty or fifty feet high. I have the alder-leaf chestnut,
which keeps green leaves till Christmas, sometimes till March when the
snow buries them, and those comparatively young trees have shown no
blight; but one hybrid, between the chinkapin and the American chestnut,
about twelve years of age, has blighted several times. I have cut off
the branches and kept it going, but this year I shall cut it down. It
will start at the root and sprout up again. I thought I'd give up that
hybrid, but having heard Col. Sober's report I will begin at the root
and look after some of the sprouts. That hybrid is the only one of my
chinkapin group that has blighted at all.
In regard to the use of bichloride of mercury or formaldehyde, it seems
to me that formaldehyde will be a better germicide than bichloride of
mercury, because bichloride of mercury coagulates the albuminous part of
the plasm and may destroy the cell structure, whereas the formaldehyde
will be more penetrating and less injurious. One would need to know how
strong a formaldehyde solution can be used safely. I presume the most
vulnerable part of the tree would be at the bud axils. Spraying must
require considerable experience at the present time and is of doubtful
efficiency for timber chestnuts I am sure. We would like very much to
hear any further comment upon this subject.
Prof. Smith: Mr. Sober's orchard is so unusually large that evidently it
does not apply to average cases. The average man is buying chestnut
trees for the garden or yard or lane. Prof. Collins has an acre on the
top of a hill at Atlantic Forge and there he has fought diligently with
the skill of a highly trained man, and the blight is gradually driving
him back. I think that in a short time the trees on Prof. Collins' acre
will be gone. I believe we need much more information before we can
offer any hope that chestnut trees from a nursery will be safe against
blight. I should like to ask the Blight Commission if they are at the
present time planning to breed immune strains of chestnuts, and if not,
I wish to suggest that it is a piece of work well worthy of their
consideration. They might try grafting on American stocks, or on their
own seedlings, some of the Korean chestnuts, on any variety that
promises resistance, and also hybridizing, with the hope of getting a
good nut that will resist the blight.
The Chairman: That is a very important matter, no doubt. In regard to
the few chestnuts bought for lanes and gardens, I know a good many men
who have bought a few grafted chestnuts with the idea of setting out a
number of acres if those few did well, being men of a conservative sort.
Men of that sort are the ones we want to have in our Association. We
want to have men who will buy four trees, and if they do well, set out
four hundred acres. That is what a great many men have had in mind in
buying two, four or six trees of any one kind; they want to try them
out. That is the wise way, the conservative way, the truly progressive
way. If we are going to have very large numbers of any one kind of
chestnut set out, we must make a statement of the dangers, so that men
may be forewarned. If they set them out without warning and are
disappointed, they drop the entire subject and go to raising corn and
hogs; and then, to save trouble, turn these hogs into the corn and get
to doing things in the easiest way, rather than carry on the complicated
methods of agriculture that belong to the spirit of the present time. I
would like to know if many efforts are being made toward breeding immune
kinds. I am at work on that myself.
Mr. Pierce: Our Commission has recently gotten, I think, about fifty
pounds of Chinese chestnuts of several kinds, which they expect to plant
for experiment. Besides that they have made some other arrangements of
which I know very little. This investigation will take years. The
Commission has been compelled to devote itself to so many lines of work
that I am afraid this question has not been given the attention it might
have had. I think in the future there will be a good deal done along
that line.
Two of us have been given the title of tree surgeons, and we work, or
make arrangements to have someone else work, sometimes the scout, in the
orchards throughout the state. I have a list of two hundred owners of
cultivated chestnut trees that I got in the last month from various
sources. Anyone in Pennsylvania who has a cultivated chestnut tree, can
send a postal card, get one of us out to examine the tree and see
whether it is blighted, and we will demonstrate what can be done in the
way of treating it. I have done that right along in the last two months.
If it is only a single tree I cut out all I can myself.
The Chairman: There are two distinct questions; first, the chestnut as a
food tree, and second, as a timber tree. Your work has been chiefly with
the chestnut as a timber tree?
Mr. Pierce: No, mine has been mostly on the lawn, so that it is for
nuts.
Experiments made on one or two species of Japanese chestnuts show about
9 per cent of tannin; the tannin in the American chestnut runs only 6
per cent and in the small American, runs less. We know that the Japanese
is somewhat more immune than the American. We have already found that it
has 50 per cent more tannin. I believe one of us wrote you about
experiments to find out the percentage of tannin in Corean, North
Japanese, South Japanese and Chinese chestnuts. The investigation will
be carried on for the next two or three months.
Mr. Corsan: May I ask if there is any soil food that would increase the
amount of tannin? Trees protect themselves. We have watched the black
walnut and seen him fight all sorts of enemies. The tree has poisons
everywhere and the nut a thick shell to boot and doesn't coax enemies to
get at him or to eat him until he is ripe.
A Member: Have you found that fertilizing a tree increased the
percentage of tannin?
Mr. Rockey: That hasn't been determined yet but it will be studied.
The Chairman: It is a question if the tendency would not be for tannin
to go over to sugar and cellulose under cultivation. I don't remember
the chemistry on that. Aren't there any expert chemists here who can
tell us? The natural tendency of the tree under high cultivation would
be to change tannin over into sugar and starch.
Mr. Corsan: This talk of the chestnut blight reminds me of a remark made
by a gentleman at a peach growing convention. He said the best thing
that ever happened to this country was to get that San Jose scale
because it stopped lazy men from growing peaches. He said, "I don't mind
it a bit and can make more money than when peaches were nothing a
basket." Probably nature will help us some way.
The Chairman: We have to consider what nature wants to do.
Mr. Mayo: If I am in order, I would like to know whether this fungus
trouble is likely in the future to attack or has at any time attacked,
the apple, pear or quince?
The Chairman: I think it has been pretty well decided that they are not
in danger. I will, however, ask Mr. Rockey and Mr. Pierce to answer that
question.
Mr. Rockey: Up to the present time there has been no indication that the
blight will get into them. This might be a good occasion for me to
mention the Connellsville fungus again. It was found on some of the oaks
and other trees in this section of the country, and for a time it
looked as though the blight was getting into other species, but since
that fungus has been identified there has been no indication that the
blight will extend beyond the chestnut group as a parasite, although you
can inoculate oaks and other trees with the fungus and it will live in
them, but only on the dead portion of the tree and not as the parasite
lives on the chestnut.
Prof. Smith: I should like to ask Mr. Sober if he has found any evidence
that the paragon chestnut differs from the native chestnut in resistance
to the blight, and if his paragons are different from other paragons?
Col. Sober: I cannot say whether my chestnuts are different from the
other paragon chestnuts or not, or whether they are as resistant to the
blight. I know it is a very sweet chestnut. In regard to keeping my
groves clean--from 1901 to 1910, we had three broods of locusts and two
hailstorms that opened the bark in almost every tree and branch. The
limbs were stung by the locusts thousands of times, so that I didn't
have a crop of chestnuts. Professor Davis was cutting off limbs for a
couple of months so you see my trees were open, if any ever were, to
receive the blight. The hailstorms destroyed the leaves and I didn't
have any chestnuts that year in one part of my grove and with all
that--you people come and see how clean it is, that's all there is to
it. I know what I've done and what I can do.
The Chairman: The next paper in order is that of Professor Smith.
NUT GROWING AND TREE BREEDING AND THEIR RELATION TO CONSERVATION
PROFESSOR J. RUSSELL SMITH, PENNSYLVANIA
Prof. Smith: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen; I am going to ask your
indulgence for including in my subject a matter that perhaps goes a
little beyond the scope of this organization, for I wish to speak of
fruit as well as nut-bearing trees. Conservation, whose object is the
preservation of our resources for future generations, as well as for
ourselves, finds its greatest problem in the preservation of the soil.
The forests can come again if the soil be left. It is probable that we
can find substitutes for coal, and for nearly everything else, but once
the soil is gone, all is gone; and the greatest danger to the soil is
not robbery by ill cropping, because no matter how man may abuse the
soil, scientific agriculture can bring it back with astonishing speed.
But the greatest enemy of conservation is erosion, the best checks for
erosion are roots.
Thus far, the only man who has been telling us anything about planting
roots upon the hillsides is the forester. But he usually sets nothing
but wood trees, which at the end of fifty or a hundred or a hundred and
fifty years, we can cut down, and which, during the intervening time,
have done nothing but cast shade, drop leaves and retain the soil. My
doctrine is that the potentially greatest crop-producing plants are not
those on which we now depend for our food, but are the trees,; that the
greatest engines for production are not the grasses, but the trees. Our
agriculture is an inheritance from the savage, and the savage found that
he could do better with annual grains than he could with nut trees,
because he didn't know how to improve the nut crop by selection of the
trees, while there came involuntarily an improvement in the other crops.
No man today knows the parentage of some of the cultivated plants and
grains on which we now depend. Thus we came down to the present day of
science, with the purely chance discoveries of savages as the main
dependence of mankind for the basis of agriculture.
We have within a decade discovered the laws of plant breeding. We know a
good deal more about it now than ever before and are in a position to
start about it very deliberately and with a reasonable certainty that we
are going to get certain combinations of qualities if we keep at it long
enough. Thus the hickory and walnut offer perfect marvels of
possibilities. Look around on these tables and see the size of some of
these things. There are hickory nuts 1-1/4 inch long and there are
shagbarks as full of meat as pecans and probably quite as good. There
are in Kentucky, I am told, hickory nuts that you can take in your
fingers and crush. Here we have the pecan, this great big shellbark from
Indiana, the shagbark from the North, and the thin shell nuts from
Kentucky. Now hybridize these and I think, if you work at it long
enough, you will get a tree that will have all those good qualities.
The wonderful black walnut is a tree of hardiness, and the delicious
Persian or English walnut is a nut of acceptable form. The pair offers
splendid possibilities in their hybrid progeny.
We have fruits thus far recognized as of little value which offer great
possibilities as forage producers. The mulberry bears from June to
September and the persimmon from September till March and the pig
harvests them himself.
We have the possibility of a brand-new agriculture, depending not upon
grains, but upon tree crops, provided someone will breed the
crop-yielding trees which we can use. This will permit us to use
entirely different kinds of land from that now considered best for
agriculture. The natural necessities for plant growth, I believe, are
heat, moisture, sunlight and fertility. Now they are not all the
limiting factors with man, because man adds the fifth, the arbitrary
fact of arability, and that right away bars out about half of the
fertile earth, because when we insist on heat, light, moisture,
fertility _and arability_, we leave out that rough half of the earth
equally fertile, idle, subject only to the work of the forester, who
will give us a forest about 1999. It might just as well be planted with
a host of crop-yielding trees, the walnuts, hickory nuts, pecans,
persimmons, mulberries--and the list is very long. There are at the
present time in use in Mediterranean countries twenty-five crop-yielding
trees other than the ordinary orchard fruits. I am told that they have
oak trees there which yield an acorn that is better than the chestnut. A
pig will fill himself with acorns on the one hillside and with figs on
the next hillside and then lie down and get fat. We are too industrious,
we wait on the pig; I want the pig to wait on himself.
But who is going to breed these things? These crop yielding trees? A
gentleman told us this morning that he was not nervous, that he could
watch a hickory tree grow, and stated that he had forty acres of land
and was breeding trees for fun. Here is Dr. Morris, who is having a
delicious time doing the same thing. We should not have to depend on
enthusiasts who are working for fun; we must not depend on such sources
for the greatest gifts in the line of food production that man can
imagine. This work should be done by every state in the Union. I believe
that it is capable of proof that we can get just as much yield from a
hillside in untilled fruit and nut-yielding trees, as we can from
putting that same hillside under the plough and getting wheat, corn,
barley, rye and oats and a little grass once in a while. It will make
just as much pig or just as many calories of man food from the tree
crops as it will make under the plough. And under the plough that
hillside is going down the stream to choke it and reduce the hillside to
nothing.
We have three classes of land. The first class is the level land, which
belongs to the plough now and for all time. The third class, which is
the unploughable steep mountain and hill land, is probably as great in
area as the level land, and between the two is the hilly land that we
are now cultivating to its great detriment, visibly reducing the earth's
resources by bringing about rapidly that condition which has led to the
saying in the Old World: "After man, the desert." The Roman Empire,
where men have had possession for two thousand years, proves, "After
man, the desert." It is equally proven in much of China, but it can be
prevented if these hill lands are put to trees. But we cannot afford to
put those lands into trees unless the trees yield.
I move that this Association memorialize those persons who are in
position to promote the breeding of fruit and nut-yielding trees, that
we may bring nearer the day of tree-crop agriculture. I want a letter to
go from this Association with the authority of the Association and its
sanction, to the Secretary of Agriculture at Washington and to all the
men in authority in the Bureau of Plant Industry at Washington, to the
Presidents of the State Agricultural Colleges, the Directors of
Experiment Stations and professors who are interested in plant breeding.
That will make a list of three or four hundred persons and involve an
expenditure of a few dollars but I believe it will be productive of
good. I hope that the Association will see fit to lend its name and a
little cash to that proposition, because if we can get the authority of
the state and the money of the state, the results will come much more
rapidly than if there are just a few of us doing it independently.
(Applause.)
* * * * *
The Chairman: Will someone put Prof. Smith's suggestion in the form of a
motion?
A Member: I move that it be referred to the Committee on Resolutions.
(Motion carried.)
Mr. Corsan: Undoubtedly we all agree with Prof. Smith. He spoke of the
persimmon. When I speak of the persimmon in my country nobody knows what
I am talking about. I found two trees in Battle Creek, Michigan, in a
front yard. The person who owned them was an old lady. I said, "Will you
give me these persimmons?" She said, "Yes, take them all; the neighbors
come here and while they are getting the persimmons they bother me a
lot. Everybody seems to like them." They were delicious persimmons that
were quite edible before frost, they are probably the two furthest north
persimmon trees in the world. I went a little way around Devil Lake, and
found pawpaws. They are a very good fruit when cultivated. The idea of
preserving the soil and not sending it all into the Lakes and down into
the Gulf of Mexico--that is a good idea of Prof. Smith's.
Mr. Gardner: I submit that that Battle Creek woman should start a new
breakfast food. (Laughter.)
Mr. Corsan: Every second year there is an immense crop on one of the
persimmon trees; they are a male and female, I think. You can't see the
branches for the fruit, and the thermometer there falls to 22 degrees
below zero.
The Chairman: You can graft the male trees with pistillate grafts if you
want to, or you can transfer grafts both ways. The persimmon and pawpaw
will undoubtedly both grow at Toronto. They are not indigenous there
because of natural checks to development in their sprouting stage, but
if you buy Indiana stock for Toronto, such transplanted trees will both
grow there, I am sure. This is not quite relevant to Prof. Smith's
paper. It seems to me that Prof. Smith gave us a very comprehensive
resume of facts bearing upon the situation, perhaps not particularly
calling for discussion. We are very glad to have his arraignment of
facts.
The next paper on the program will be that of Dr. Deming. While Dr.
Deming is getting ready, I would like to have the trees shown. Mr. Jones
will speak about his pecans, these specimens of young trees here.
Mr. Jones: These are pecans that Mr. Roper brought up from the
Arrowfield Nurseries. (Here Mr. Jones described the trees.)
The Chairman: Would those trees grow after they have been dried as much
as that?
Mr. Jones: I don't think so; pecans don't stand much drying.
The Chairman: No, unless you cut off all the roots.
Prof. Smith: If we should dig up a tree like this and cut it off a foot
and a half down, would it be all right to transplant it?
Mr. Jones: Yes, if your season should not be too dry.
The Chairman: What has been your experience with the Stringfellow method
of cutting off every single root?
Mr. Jones: We cut the tap-roots off, but leave an inch of the lateral
roots.
The Chairman: I think you can do better by following the Stringfellow
method and cutting off all the laterals.
Prof. Smith: If you were going to transplant those for your own use
where would you cut them off?
Mr. Jones: About here, a foot and a half down.
The Secretary: And the top?
Mr. Jones: Yes, sir, I'd reduce the top about that much; I think we will
have to work for a better root for the North.
BEGINNING WITH NUTS
DR. W. C. DEMING, WESTCHESTER, NEW YORK CITY
In his official capacity as secretary of the Northern Nut Growers
Association the writer is frequently asked, by persons wishing to grow
nuts, about climate, soils, varieties and methods.
The following observations are intended to apply only to the
northeastern United States, the country lying east of the Rockies and
north of the range of the southern pecan. They are intended more for the
person who already has his land, or is restricted in his range, than for
the one who can range wide for larger operations and will study deeper
before deciding.
It is probable that most nuts will grow wherever the peach will. Outside
the peach area there is probably not much use in trying to grow the
pecan or Persian walnut. Yet it must always be remembered that nut
growing in the North is, at present, almost entirely experimental and
that anybody may be able to disprove the authorities. We are all
experimenting now. By and by it will be different.
In severer climates the chestnut, shagbark, black walnut, butternut,
hazel, beech, pine, Japanese cordiformis and hardy Chinese walnuts can
be grown or, at least, offer possibilities. In such climates the
development of the native nuts by selection and crossing, and the
adaptation of alien nuts, deserves, and will repay, experiment.
It is to be supposed, as before said, that the hopeful beginner already
has his land. Let him choose the best part of it that he can spare. By
"best part" is meant the most fertile, not too wet nor too dry nor, if
possible, too hilly to cultivate. Hard pan near the surface, and too
thick to be easily broken up by dynamite, is not desirable.
A nut orchard ought to have much the same preparation as an apple
orchard. A practical way would be to plow deeply and harrow well in
summer and sow a cover crop like rye and vetch or clover. The more
stable manure, or other fertilizer, applied the better.
Let the field now be staked off thirty feet apart in squares, or in
triangles if preferred. Late in the fall dig the holes and plant nuts,
three or four in each hole, two to four inches deep, according to size,
and six inches apart. Put a good handful of ground bone in each hill.
Unless the soil and subsoil are mellow, so that the long tap roots may
penetrate deeply, it would be best to dynamite the holes, using a half
pound of 20 per cent or 25 per cent dynamite at a depth of two and a
half feet. This is a simple matter and the dynamite companies will
furnish materials and instructions. It is also some fun.
There is some danger that nuts planted in fall may be destroyed by
rodents, that some will "lie over" and not sprout the first year, or
that all the nuts in a hill may make inferior plants, so that some
authorities advise putting them in a galvanized wire cage, the nuts only
half buried, then covered with a few leaves during the winter and
otherwise left exposed to the elements. In the spring they must be taken
from the cage and planted in the hills before the sprouts are long
enough to be easily broken.
The different kinds of nuts should be planted in "blocks" rather than
mingled, to facilitate handling.
These nuts are to furnish trees that are later to be grafted or budded.
After they have grown a while the weaker ones are to be removed, as
necessary, until only the strongest remains in each hill. When grafted
and grown to great size the brave man will thin them out to sixty feet
apart. Interplanting with fruits or vegetables may be practised.
As to the kinds of nuts to be planted that depends on what you want to
grow. If chestnuts it must be remembered that the bark disease is very
likely to attack them, in the East at any rate. Experiments with
chestnuts outside the range of the blight are very desirable. The
American (_Castanea dentata_) and European (_C. sativa_) chestnuts are
specially susceptible. The Asiatic chestnuts (_C. Japonica_, etc.) seem
to have a partial immunity, especially the Korean, and it is possible
that the native chestnut grafted on these may be rendered more or less
immune. It is being tried and is an interesting experiment.
The Asiatic chestnut trees are dwarfish in habit, come into bearing
early, the nuts are generally large and some of them of pretty good
quality. They may be planted as fillers between the trees of larger
growth. The nuts may be bought of importers. (See circular on "Seedsmen
and Nurserymen".) The small Korean chestnut has been especially
recommended.
If you wish to grow the shagbark hickory (_Hicoria ovata_) plant the
best specimens of this nut you can get, or the bitternut (_H. minima_)
which is said to be a superior stock for grafting.
High hopes are held that that other favorite hickory, the pecan (_H.
pecan_) may be grown far outside its native range, and the Indiana pecan
is the nut on which these hopes are founded. Seed nuts may be obtained
from reliable Indiana dealers, but it is said that some of them are not
reliable.
The hickories may be budded and grafted on one another so that one kind
of stock may serve for both shagbark and pecan.
If you want to grow the Persian walnut (_Juglans regia_), often called
the "English" walnut, the black walnut (_J. nigra_), seems to afford the
most promising stock, though _J. rupestris_, native in Texas and
Arizona, has been recommended and _J. cordiformis_, the Japanese heart
nut, is also promising. This nut can be recommended for planting for its
own sake as the tree is hardy, a rapid grower, comes into bearing early
and bears a fairly good nut. There are no grafted trees, however, so the
variable seedlings will have to be depended upon.
On any of these walnut stocks the black walnut and the butternut (_J.
cinerea_) may also be propagated if worthy varieties can be found. There
are none now on the market.
The nuts mentioned are enough for the beginner and the three stocks,
chestnut, hickory and walnut, will give him all he wants to work on and
furnish plenty of fascinating occupation.
The hazel, the almond and others, though offering possibilities, had
better be left to those further advanced in the art of nut growing.
Now the nut orchard is started and the owner must push the growth of the
trees by the ordinary methods, cultivation, cover crops and fertilizers.
See any authority on growing fruit trees.
In from two to five years the trees will be ready for budding and
grafting, they will have made a good growth above ground, and a bigger
one below, they are permanently placed and haven't got to be set back a
year or two, or perhaps killed, by transplanting, with loss to the tap
roots and laterals. In the writer's opinion that natural tap root of the
nut tree growing down, down to water is not to be treated as of no
importance.
So let your seedlings grow up and down happily while you get ready the
stuff with which to build their future character, for seedling trees are
very slow in coming into bearing, and uncertain in type and quality of
nut. Grafted trees bear early and true to type.
Take your choicest bit of ground and put it in the best shape you know
how. Then order the finest grafted trees you can find on the market.
(See circular on "Seedsmen and Nurserymen".) Your choice will be limited
for there are as yet only a few grafted varieties of the Persian walnut
and the Indiana pecan, and but one of the shagbark hickory to be had. Of
chestnuts there are more and, in the South of course, plenty of pecans.
But pecan growing in the South is another story. If you order chestnuts
be sure that they do not come from a nursery infected with blight. Get
young trees because they are more easily established.
Order from two to four of each variety. Fewer than two gives too small
an allowance for mortality and more than four, besides the not
inconsiderable strain on the pocket, will divide your attention too
much; for you have got to give these trees the care of a bottle baby.
Set them sixty feet apart if you have the room. If not set them closer.
Better closer if that means better care. They may be set in the fall but
probably spring is better, as early as you can get them in. Follow the
instructions of the nurserymen closely. Digging holes with dynamite is
probably good practice. Put some bone meal in the soil around the roots
but no strong fertilizer. Some soils need lime. Tamp the soil about the
roots with all your might. It cannot be made too firm.
Then water them all summer, or until August if they have made a good
growth. Give them all they can drink once a week. Sink a large bar about
a foot from the tree and pour the water into the hole, as much as the
soil will take.
Keep up cultivation and a dust mulch or, if you cannot do this, mulch
with something else. Mulching doesn't mean a wisp of hay but something
thick or impervious. Six inches of strawy manure, grass, vines or weeds;
an old carpet, burlap, feed or fertilizer bags or even newspapers, held
down with stones or weeds or earth, all make good mulches.
These trees ought to grow and, whether you ever succeed in grafting your
seedlings or not, you should have at least a small orchard of fine nut
trees.
The second summer with the trees will be something like the baby's.
Worms may bother them. Look out for bud worms and leaf-eating
caterpillars. Give them all the water they can drink in the dry dog
days. Nurse them, feed them and watch them and they will grow up to
bless you. Some of them may bear as early as apple trees.
These trees, and such scions as, from time to time, you may obtain
elsewhere, are to furnish your propagating material.
The plan just described may be modified in various ways, but the general
principles are the same. Instead of planting the nuts in their permanent
positions they may be put in nursery rows where they may have the
advantage of intensive cultivation. The best of the resulting trees may
be grafted or budded in the rows, or after they have been transplanted
and have become well established. This method is an excellent one and
has distinct advantages and many advocates.
Yearling seedlings may be bought and set either in permanent positions
or in nursery rows.
Of course the man who is in a hurry, who can disregard expense and who
does not care for the experience and gratification of grafting his own
trees, may set his whole plantation with expensive grafted trees and
replant where they fail.
The technique of budding and grafting you must work out yourself with
the help of the instructions obtainable from several authorities, or, by
far the surer way, study the art with a master. The essentials are good
stocks and good scions, the right moment--and practice.
Excellent publications giving instructions in methods of propagation
are: "The Persian Walnut Industry in the United States," by E. R. Lake;
Bulletin 254, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture,
1913: "The Pecan," by C. A. Reed; Bulletin 251 of the same department,
1912: "Walnut Growing in Oregon," published by the Passenger Department
Southern Pacific Company Lines in Oregon, Portland, Oregon, revised
edition, 1912; and "Nut Growing in Maryland," by C. P. Close; Bulletin
125 of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, College Park,
Maryland. Any of these may be had free on application.
The files and current issues of the nut journals are full of
information. Join the nut growers associations, subscribe to the nut
journals, get all the literature (see Circular No. 3) and you will soon
be happily out of the fledgeling stage of nut growing and begin to do as
you please.
* * * * *
The Chairman: Comment upon this paper is now in order.
Mr. Lake: You say you are going to issue that?
The Secretary: On my own responsibility, but subject to modification.
Mr. Lake: If that is going out as a circular of the association, I would
like to suggest two slight changes. For instance, you wouldn't expect
the ordinary nut tree to begin to bear as early as the ordinary
transplanted apple tree.
The Chairman: Some would.
Mr. Lake: A summer apple would begin to bear much earlier than the
ordinary nut tree.
The Secretary: Well, chestnuts begin to bear very early after grafting.
I refer only to grafted trees here.
Mr. Lake: I thought that the paper had to do with trees that were
planted as nuts.
The Secretary: No, I think I made that perfectly clear.
Mr. Lake: What is that new statement about roots, that it is desirable
to leave them?
The Secretary: That it is better that a tree should go undisturbed than
that it should be transplanted.
Mr. Lake: Isn't there a question about that?
The Secretary: A question would arise in the hands of an expert,
perhaps, but I think for an amateur, that a tree growing where the nut
was planted is more likely to live and do well than a transplanted tree.
Mr. Lake: I am not so certain about that, but what I had in mind was
that the planter would get the idea that the tap-root was not to be cut
off and that it is very desirable to the tree.
The Secretary: That's a good point.
The Chairman: About cutting the tap-root I have said yes and no so fast
that I don't know which I've said last, and it seems to me that we ought
to have discussion on this very point.
The Secretary: I have said that in buying these grafted trees you should
set them out following the instructions of the nurseryman closely.
Mr. Lake: But that statement about the tap-root would lead the average
planter to think that it was very desirable to have the tap-root.
The Secretary: Has it been settled that it is not desirable?
Mr. Lake: Well, I think it has been generally accepted that it is of no
special value.
The Secretary: That trees will grow as well transplanted as if they have
never been transplanted?
Mr. Lake: Well, I shouldn't want to put it that way, but this is the
point: I would like to have the tree planter understand that a walnut
tree doesn't need the tap-root and if he cuts off the tap-root in
planting, there is no great loss. I wouldn't want to say that his trees
wouldn't begin to bear earlier or bear larger if left in the original
place. I prefer to transplant my own tree after it is grown, rather than
run the risk of getting scrub trees in the post hole or on the hill. I
prefer to select the grafted trees even without the tap-roots, which
would be removed in digging, and planting them all uniform, rather than
to plant the seeds. Speaking for the amateur, I think the latter is good
practice. The point I had in mind was that many people will not take the
time to plant nuts but will want to set grafted trees, and the question
is, should they have considerable tap-root--the grafted trees?
The Secretary: Following my plan, a man would buy a small number of fine
trees and set them out at once; that would probably be all he would
undertake and all he could probably manage. He would also plant a small
number of nuts on which to experiment in propagation. My experience up
in Connecticut has been that all my southern transplanted trees, almost
without exception, have died. I have planted pecans and Persian walnuts
from a number of different nurseries. I have done it personally and done
it as carefully as I could, but they have either made a very feeble
growth indeed or have all died. On the other hand, the seeds I have
planted have grown into very vigorous trees.
Mr. Rush: I have had a little experience with the tap-root theory. You
can't dig a walnut tree without cutting the tap-root, and that tap-root,
I find, is practically of no benefit at all after you have your upper
laterals, and an abundance of them; by cutting the tap-root growth is
stimulated and a new tap-root is made. It is very largely in the mode of
pruning the tap-root. You can readily stimulate the tap-root system.
The Chairman: You try to keep an equilibrium by cutting down the top in
proportion?
Mr. Rush: Yes, sir.
Mr. Pomeroy: In examining transplanted trees I found ten times as many
roots where the tap-root had been cut; and there were two tap-roots. I
like a tree with a good tap-root system and I am positive that if you
transplant a tree you get a better root system, get a great many more
roots.
The Chairman: The tree development, it seems to me, depends not upon the
number of roots which are carried with it when it is transplanted, but
upon the feeding roots which develop. Now, if we cut back the tap-root,
cut back the laterals, cut back the top, we have a tree carrying in its
cambium layer, food, just as a turnip or beet would carry it--and I look
upon a transplanted tree much as a carrot or beet, with stored food
ready to make a new root.
Mr. Harris: I planted last fall a year ago a lot of English walnuts.
Would the gentleman advise taking those up, cutting the tap-roots and
planting them again?
Mr. Rush: I don't think that would be advisable.
Mr. Harris: They were grown from the nuts sown in a row last fall a year
ago and grew very well.
Mr. Rush: In propagating the English walnut we have had them do the best
by transplanting when the tree is about two years old, but it will more
or less disturb the vigor of a tree to transplant it. That is
self-evident; it needs some time to heal those wounds that are made both
in the root and the branch.
Mr. Harris: What time of year do you bud them?
Mr. Rush: In August.
Mr. Hutt: I notice some trees here that are evidently two-year old
pecans that have been cut back, and you notice that in every case
several tap-roots have taken the place of the one. Here are some others
that have not been cut. These have gone straight down. They are strong
roots with few fibers on them. On these other trees that have been cut
the formation of tap-roots continues. They will go down till they strike
a permanent water-table and then the tap-root will stop. In Hyde County,
North Carolina, near the ocean, the water-table is close to the surface
and there is a deep black alluvial soil with a great deal of water in
it. In order to grow anything there they have to put in ditches to get
the water out. The pecan trees growing there have absolutely no
tap-roots at all, it rots off as soon as it strikes the permanent
water-table; and I think that's the reason they produce such enormous
quantities of pecans in that county. In bottomless, sandy land where
there is no clay the root keeps on going down till it finds the
permanent water-table, even if that is six or eight or ten feet down.
These roots, as you see, were going right down to China to look at that
king on the other side if they got a chance. It's the same with the long
leaf pine. It has a tap-root below ground thicker than the trunk above
ground. The reason is that it grows naturally on those bottomless
places; the root goes down till it strikes water, then runs off
laterally. If you cut the roots they are bound to make new tap-roots.
You can see the place where they have been cut and in place of one
tap-root you have two, going right down into that sandy soil till they
find a water-table. I believe that a nurseryman who will cut off the
root of the pecan tree when it is transplanted, will cause it to form
more lateral roots and make a better tree. There's a great number of
vigorous roots in this tree than in this, and this tree whose root has
been cut off will make a tree much easier to transplant and will be a
better tree than those with great thick roots without the fibers that
have the root hairs upon them.
A member: You wouldn't recommend cutting back that tap-root too
severely, would you?
Mr. Hutt: In planting a tree of this kind, I'd cut off a foot or 18
inches. If you get about 24 inches in a specially good soil, or about 30
inches of root ordinarily that's all you want.
A member: I should think that would depend quite a little on the height
of the water-table. If you were planting on land where the water-table
is low, you would leave more tap-root?
Mr. Hutt: Yes.
A member: That was the reason I brought up the point, because I think
cutting so short would be too severe.
Mr. Hutt: The cambium is the only part of the tree that maintains
growth. Every wound kills the cambium to a certain extent, so I always
cut off roots of any size with sharp shears as smoothly as possible. I
cut far enough back to find good, fresh, living tissue. In moist soil
that will callous over. In the South the soil is moist and we have
growing conditions in the winter time, so it will callous over during
the winter. In the North, I understand, you make a practice of planting
in the spring, because of the weather conditions.
Mr. Harris: In Western Maryland we have in the mountains a deep, sandy
soil; there doesn't appear to be any water bottom to it; what would the
tap-root do in that case?
Mr. Hutt: It will go down until it finds what it wants, finds sufficient
moisture.
Mr. Harris: Gravelly bottom?
Mr. Hutt: If you have ever seen the roots of a long leaf pine, you've
seen where the roots go to when they get a chance.
Prof. Smith: I should like to ask Dr. Deming if he would give us his
experience in propagating the walnut and hickory?
Dr. Deming: A very important thing indeed for us nut growers in the
North is to learn how to propagate. Dr. Morris has had some success; I
haven't had any. I have tried it summer and spring, year after year. I
believe there are a few pieces of bark, without buds, still growing.
Chestnuts I haven't found very difficult, but with the walnut and
hickory I have had no success whatever, although I have practiced the
best technique I could master. I think one reason why I have had no
success is that I haven't had good material. I have had good stocks, but
I haven't had good scions, not the sort of scion that the successful
southern nurserymen use. Still, Dr. Morris has had success with the same
kind of material that I have failed with.
The Chairman: Not very much success.
Mr. Lake: Dr. Deming said that the land ought not to be too dry nor too
wet. Would you feel like saying that a water-table at 24 inches was
neither too low nor too high?
Mr. Hutt: It depends a great deal on the nature of the soil, the
water-pulling capacity of the soil. Take a soil like that I mentioned,
in Hyde County, near the ocean; you can see it quake all around you.
Mr. Lake: But would you say that the northern nut grower might safely
put his orchard on soil that had a water-table within two or three feet
of the surface?
Mr. Hutt: I could tell if I saw that soil. If it is craw-fishy, or soil
that is ill-drained or won't carry ordinary crops, I'd say keep off of
it, but if it will bear ordinary crops it's all right; in some cases
where the soil is very rich the plant does not need to go down into that
soil anything like the depth it would in a poor soil. The poorer the
soil the further the roots have to go to find nourishment.
Mr. Lake: I think that is an extremely exceptional case in relation to
northern nuts. There is very little such North Carolina land in this
section of the country, if I judge right. We don't plant nut-growing
orchards up here in peaty soils, so Dr. Deming's recommendation was
rather for very good agricultural soil. A water-table here must be eight
or ten feet deep; in that event, it would not make any difference
whether you left three feet of tap-root or 15 inches.
Mr. Hutt: No.
The Chairman: In the soils of some parts of New England, a tree would
have to have a root three or four hundred feet deep to get to flowing
water, but nevertheless trees flourish there.
Mr. Lake: But the capillarity of the soil provides water for the tree
above the water-table.
Mr. Corsan: It all depends on the kind of nut. At St. Geneva I came
across a butternut that was growing in a soil that would kill a chestnut
very quickly. The soil was very springy and wet and the butternut just
loves that soil. I found that while other butternut trees bore nuts in
clusters of one to three, this butternut tree was bearing them in
clusters of ten and eleven. At Lake George, right in front of the
Post-Office, there was one tree twenty-four years old, two feet through,
that grew butternuts in clusters of ten and you could get a barrel of
nuts from it. It bore again this last summer heavily, not in clusters of
ten but in clusters of seven or eight. When we have damp soil we can't
grow the chestnut but the hickory nut will grow in a swamp, and so will
the butternut.
The Chairman: And the beech.
Mr. Corsan: The beech wants clay; it won't grow unless there is clay.
The Chairman: Our beech will grow where it has to swim.
Mr. Reed: Before we get away from this discussion I think that we ought
to commend Dr. Deming in the selection of this subject and in the
handling of his paper. In my position in the Government, we have a good
many inquiries about nut matters, and they are usually from people who
want to know how to start. The great call for information at the present
time is from the beginners, not from the advanced people, and I am glad
that Dr. Deming took that subject and handled it as he did, and I am
glad that he proposes to issue it as a circular from this Association.
It will be a great relief to others who are called on for information.
I should like to have a word, too, about this tap-root question. From
what has been said it is pretty clear that there is quite a difference
of opinion. We sometimes think we can improve on nature in her ways by
harsh methods and, while I know it is customary in the nurseries of the
South to cut the tap-roots back pretty severely, I wonder, sometimes,
whether that is always the best thing.
I haven't had any personal experience, but I have observed quite a good
deal, and the tendency, it seems to me, is to try to develop as much as
possible the fibrous root. Sometimes that is brought about by cutting
the tap-root, or putting a wire mesh below where the seed is planted, so
as to form an obstruction to the tap-root, so that it necessarily forms
a fibrous root. Where the tap-root is the only root I doubt very much
the advisability of cutting back too severely.
Col. Van Duzee: I have heard this subject discussed all over this
country, in meetings of this kind, and a great deal of energy has been
wasted. I do not think any of us know anything about it, but I do wish
to say this, that when you come to transplant a tree from the nursery to
the orchard, there are things of infinitely more moment than how you
shall hold your knife between your fingers when you cut the roots. The
exposure of the roots to the air, the depth to which the tree is to be
put in the ground, the manner in which it shall be handled--those things
are of infinitely more importance, because we know we can transplant
trees successfully and get good results when the tap-root has been
injured or almost entirely removed. I do not consider that the question
of cutting the tap-root is of very serious importance, but I do think we
should insert a word of caution as to the exposure of the roots of trees
to the atmosphere, and make it just as strong as we are capable of
writing it.
The Chairman: That is a very interesting point, that we have fixed our
eye on the tap-root and talked too much about it. Not long ago one of
the agricultural journals decided finally to settle the question about
the time for pruning grapes, whether it should be done in the fall,
spring, winter or summer, and after summing up all the testimony from
enthusiastic advocates for each one of the seasons, the editor decided
that the best time is when your knife is sharp; and that is very much
the way with the tap-root. Be very particular in getting the root in and
caring for it.
Mr. Pomeroy: Prof. Close, in a bulletin issued two years ago, spoke as
does Col. VanDuzee about protecting the roots of the trees; he said
"when the trees are taken from the box that you receive them in, don't
expose them to the sun or air, puddle every tree, and plant as soon as
possible." I think that is pretty good advice. It doesn't cost any
money, and takes very few minutes, to puddle the trees and it saves many
of them.
The Chairman: I have tried the Stringfellow Method of cutting back top
and root until my men asked me if I didn't want to transplant another
tree instead, and they have grown just as well as trees on which I took
great pains to preserve fine branching roots.
The Secretary: The last thing in my thought was to start a discussion of
this perennial subject of the tap-root, but I should like criticism of
this little circular, no matter how severe, because I am not finally
committed to it and want to make it as useful as possible.
Prof. Smith: Every man likes to ride his own hobby horse. Would it not
be wise to suggest that some of these seedlings be put in odd corners?
Certainly the hickory and walnut are adept in making themselves a home
in the roughest kind of land.
The Secretary: I have tried that, but I don't think, as a rule, the
trees do well when stuck around in fence corners and odd places. To be
sure the trees I put behind the barn or pig pen have grown beautifully,
so that at one time I thought of building barns and pig pens all over
the farm to put trees behind, but where they were set in fence corners
and out of the way places they have not done very well. I think the
experience of others is about to the same effect.
Prof. Smith: My experience has been different from yours. I have some
chestnut and walnut trees, on an unploughable hillside in the corner of
my father's farm in Virginia which I stuck there ten or a dozen years
ago and have done very little to them. Of course they are native. They
have thriven. Nature does it exactly that way.
The Secretary: It seems to me there is no question that they will do
better under cultivation. Of course they may do fairly well in odd
places if they can dominate the other growth.
Prof. Smith: A man could take a pocketful of the various kinds of nuts
and go around his fence corners and plant a few. In an hour he can plant
fifty, and if he gets one to grow it is good return for that hour's
work.
The Secretary: I have advised people to take a handful of nuts and a
cane when they go out walking and occasionally stick one in.
The Chairman: In our locality, people would ask, "Why is that string of
squirrels following that man?"
Mr. Corsan: I have been planting nuts in that way for years.
The Chairman: If a man planted trees which belonged in his neighborhood,
nuts that were already in the dominant ruling group, then his chances
for success would be very good, but if he introduced in fence corners
trees that had to adjust themselves to a new environment, he would find
very few growing and the squirrels, other trees and various obstacles to
development in the midst of established species, would wipe out most of
them. Nevertheless, as it isn't much trouble, I would advise anybody to
take a pocketful of hickory nuts out with him when he goes for a walk
and plant one every little way.
A Member: The idea is good; let us follow it up.
Mr. Rush: I don't think it is feasible at all to plant trees around
fence corners.
The Chairman: In our locality it would not do at all.
A Member: It won't do in any locality. The sods and grass around the
tree will dwarf it and cause a very slow growth. Our time is valuable
and we can't wait on that kind of a tree to bring results. Cultivation
is the main need. Sometimes trees will do well where the soil is rich
and competition absent. In Burlington, N. J. we found a walnut tree
bearing enormous crops in a back yard. I have seen the same thing in
this county, and also in Carlisle, and the Nebo tree, famous for its
wonderful productiveness, has a similar environment. But it is high
cultivation that usually is necessary for the best results in all trees,
and walnut trees particularly.
The Secretary: Here is a note relating to this subject:
"The women of Sapulpa, Okla., who recently organized for city and county
improvement and advancement, have determined to plant pecan, walnut and
hickory trees on both sides of a road now being constructed through
Creek County, basing their action on the theory that two pecan trees
placed in the back yard of a homestead will pay the taxes on the
property. They believe that when the trees begin to bear they will
provide a fund large enough for the maintenance of the road."
The Chairman: That's all right if you can look after them.
Mr. Littlepage: It is very interesting to listen to these discussions of
roadside trees and I have until recently been a strong advocate of them,
but I have changed my opinion. I don't think there is anything in the
planting of trees in fence corners or along the roadside, for several
reasons. The first reason is that nobody knows how long it is going to
take that tree to amount to anything. I wouldn't give two cents a piece
for trees stuck out where you cannot cultivate them and get to them to
fertilize them. Another thing, we are right up against the problem of
the insect pests of these trees and who is going to take care of them
along the roadside? The insect pests will get on them and come into the
fields of the man who is cultivating and raising trees legitimately.
Down in southern Indiana, now, we find along the roadside hundreds of
walnut trees that are every year eaten up with caterpillars. They love
those trees and come over on to my trees. I keep my trees cleaned off
pretty well. There's that problem. Up to a short time ago I was an
advocate of roadside trees. It would be all right if there was some
means of cultivating them. If there is land somewhere that is of no use,
so that it doesn't make a bit of difference whether the trees on it have
insect pests or not, you can go out there and scatter nuts and let it
alone and wait the length of time you've got to wait. I don't think it's
of much value, however, even then. I don't think there is a thing in it.
I used to pride myself on the fact that I had set out more trees than
anybody else in the State of Indiana. I haven't bragged about that for a
long time, though I have set out, perhaps, in the last eight or ten
years, or had set out under my direction, about 750,000 trees; I am not
particularly proud of that any more, but I am proud to meet the fellow
who has set out twenty or thirty acres of trees on good land, the best
he's got, and cultivated them and kept the insects off of them and
burned them up instead of letting them prey on the neighborhood. I think
there should be a law passed that these trees along the roadside must be
cut down or that somebody will have to take care of them.
The Chairman: The original idea of roadside trees was constructive in
its nature but failed to include the idea that, with the increase of
orchard trees, or trees of any one species, we increase the insect pests
because we disturb the balance of nature; and by disturbing the balance
of nature we give advantage to insects which then remain on neglected
trees to prove a menace to our own orchards. It we have various towns
setting out roadside trees and detailing the children to look after
them, asking the children to report on them, I believe the thing can be
made a success and that the taxes of many a small town can be paid from
the nut trees along the roadside, provided you have one boy or one girl
for each tree, their services to be given free and the profit from the
tree to be given to the town.
Mr. Corsan: How about the cattle? Let them keep grazing around?
The Chairman: Oh, my, yes.
Prof. Smith: I think we sometimes let our feelings make us say things
that our brains would scarcely approve. I believe Mr. Littlepage's
charge against the tree on the roadside is not necessarily
substantiated. I don't know just how he is going to take care of his
trees, but if it requires a vehicle carrying spray, I submit that a
roadside tree is about as well fixed as one in his field. If it requires
a man with a stick or a hoe or a ladder, the tree on the roadside is in
about as eligible a location as one in the field. If care implies the
idea of turning over the soil, the roadside is handicapped, but nature
has got along without having the soil upturned. My point is this; there
is on nearly every farm in the East a little patch of land somewhere, a
little row between a road and stream where a few trees can grow, and if
fertilization is required, a few barrels of manure can go there as well
as anywhere else. The fact that a tree is put in a place that is not
ploughed doesn't mean that it is beyond all care. My point is that with
care we can get trees in fence rows without tillage and that, in
addition to Dr. Deming's formal and carefully cultivated plot, there is
about every farm a place where a man can stick a few trees and give them
such care as can be given without tillage.
Mr. Littlepage: I agree heartily with Prof. Smith's theory, but having
had some experience, I find those things that he describes are not done;
there is just that difference, always, between theory and fact. I read a
beautiful book once, written by a woman, entitled, "There is No Death,"
and I found on inquiry that she had already buried four husbands.
(Laughter.) I was much interested in reading, once upon a time,
Rousseau's beautiful story of domestic life and I found that while he
was writing it, his children were in an orphan asylum. A fellow teaching
in the high school in Terre Haute, Indiana, married one of the beautiful
attractive young ladies of that town. Shortly after they were married he
was busy writing and turned and told her that he didn't love her any
more and he wished she'd go home. She was heartbroken and left and it
turned out later that he was writing a book on how to get to Heaven.
(Laughter.) There's just the difference between theory and fact. This
is a beautiful theory. I used to be the strongest advocate of it, but
all you've got to do is to go on a farm and try it. The trees won't get
big enough to amount to anything in our lifetime, because these things
you say you will do to them you don't do; at least, that has been my
experience, and I would like to ask anyone to point to any section in
the United States today, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, where
this theory is carried out successfully; and yet I know it has been
advocated for fifty years.
The Chairman: How about school children reporting on trees under their
care?
Mr. Littlepage: Whenever you give the proper care to them you solve the
problem--whenever anyone will convince me that that will be done. There
is no reason, of course, why the tree won't grow in these places, but my
experience is that they don't thrive.
The Chairman: I've put out thousands of them for public-spirited
citizens, but it would be difficult to find one of them today.
Mr. Rush: In France and in Germany the land is very valuable and they
take a great deal of pride in their nut trees. The nuts we have here in
the Lancaster market, Persian walnuts, are largely brought from France,
Spain, Italy and Germany. The land being so valuable there, they devote
much of their waste land to nuts, like Mr. Smith's idea of planting
along the wayside, and they plant and cultivate them in their yards and
in all corners. They would not, under any consideration, plant a maple
tree just for the shade; the tree must serve for both fruit and shade,
and those are some of the sources of foreign wealth.
Mr. Harris: I don't think the question is so much one of planting in
fence corners as that we have a great deal of waste land on which the
soil is very well adapted to growing nut trees. I know that sometimes in
growing peach trees it is almost impossible to cultivate them. I know
places in western Maryland where the rocks are lying so that you can
hardly plough, and yet the soil is fertile and particularly adapted in
some places for peach trees, and would be for chestnut trees. They have
there a system of cultivation much as if you used the plough, and yet
they are on steep hillsides. There is no reason, I think, why nut trees
shouldn't grow there as well as on the level field where you can
cultivate every inch of soil.
The Chairman: They are looked after, that's the whole thing.
Mr. Gowing: I come from New Hampshire and we have what used to be an old
farm, but it is now a pasture and the soil is quite a potash soil, I
think, amongst the rocks, and there's some apple trees planted there by
the original man that worked this place. It was too rough to plough, but
they have borne us as good apples some years as we have had on the
place; and on this same piece of twenty acres or so, there's some
chestnut trees more than two feet through that were cut off when the
land was cleared, and they must have done well, for they grew to be such
enormous trees.
The Chairman: The trees are planted on this same old stump land?
Mr. Gowing: Yes, sir.
The Chairman: A great deal of stump land can be planted in this way.
Mr. Corsan: That wouldn't be planting them along roadsides and in fence
corners.
The Chairman: No, they would be looked after; the whole thing is looking
after them.
A Member: My idea is that there would be very few nut trees planted if
every one was to start his own trees. They put off planting the trees
even when they can get them at the nurseries, and if they had to start
their own nurseries there wouldn't be one planted to where there's
10,000 now; and I think that in the end the nurserymen are going to
attend to the planting of trees and the other people are going to attend
to growing them. Maybe I'm mistaken but did this Government ever produce
any trees? Prof. Smith spoke of appropriating money and letting the
Government get us some new variety. Hasn't it always been private
individuals who get the new varieties? I have been trying to think of
some fruit tree, apple or something, that a state or the Government has
propagated.
The Chairman: In this country I believe the Government has never done
it, but in some parts of Europe, especially Switzerland, the taxes of
some towns are paid by the trees along the roadside; but there every man
has to report on his own trees and the proceeds go to support the town,
and the taxes of certain small towns are actually paid today by roadside
trees; but this is in a country where land is valuable, and every tree
is under the direct supervision of a citizen who must report on it, and
the product of that tree goes to the Government, he giving his labor
instead of paying taxes.
Prof. Smith: I was merely pleading for the continuation and spread of
that work, both geographically and in increasing the varieties of trees.
Mr. Lake: I am heartily in favor of that, but I think it ought to be
referred to a committee. I want Prof. Smith to write it out in the form
of a letter.
Prof. Smith: I am glad you called my attention to that.
Mr. Lake: The Government and the states are now engaged in such work and
this ought to give it impetus. I think that the time and labor of the
Nut Growers Association, since its organization, will have been well
spent if we succeed in bringing to fructification this one resolution. I
want also to suggest that Prof. Smith include among the nuts, the
beechnut, because there's more meat in beechnuts for the amount of shell
than any other nut we grow.
The Chairman: If there is no further discussion, we will have now to
spend a short time in Executive Committee work. I think we will ask to
have a Nominating Committee appointed first. Mr. Rush, will you kindly
read the list of the names of the men you proposed to act as a
Nominating Committee?
Mr. Rush then moved that the Nominating Committee consist of Messrs.
Lake, Hutt, C. A. Reed, Smith and Deming, and the motion was adopted,
after which the Nominating Committee reported as follows: For President,
Mr. Littlepage; for Vice-President, Mr. C. A. Reed; for Secretary and
Treasurer, Dr. Deming. On Executive Committee: Dr. Robert T. Morris, in
place of Mr. C. A. Reed. On Hybrids, Prof. J. R. Smith, in place of Mr.
Henry Hicks. On Membership Committee, Mr. G. H. Corsan, in place of
Prof. E. R. Lake. On Committee on Nomenclature, Dr. W. C. Deming in
place of Prof. John Craig; the other committees to stand as heretofore.
Mr. Lake: I move that the secretary be instructed to cast the ballot of
the association for these nominations.
The motion was seconded and adopted and the ballot cast in accordance
therewith.
The Chairman: Now I will appoint as a Committee on Resolutions relating
to Prof. Craig, Dr. Deming and the Chairman; Committee on Exhibits, Col.
VanDuzee, Mr. Roper and C. A. Reed, and they will be here this evening
to report on exhibits. Committee on Resolutions, Prof. J. Russell Smith
and Mr. T. P. Littlepage. There is no Committee on Incorporation. Will
someone propose that we have such a committee?
The Secretary: Isn't it a desirable thing that the society should be
incorporated? It was mentioned to me by a wealthy man that if anyone
wished to leave, or give, some money to this association, they would be
much more likely to do it if the society were incorporated.
The Chairman: I think it would be better for someone to make a motion.
Mr. Lake: I move that a Committee on Incorporation be appointed by the
chairman; a committee of three.
(Motion seconded and adopted.)
The Chairman: The Committee on Incorporation will consist of Mr.
Littlepage and Prof. Close. This evening we will meet informally here at
about eight and tomorrow at ten we have the meeting at the Scenic to
hear the papers of Mr. Rush and Prof. Lake and Prof. Reed, and see the
lantern slides. We will first meet here at nine o'clock for an executive
meeting and to look over the exhibits. The Committees will report at
that time.
(After discussion, on motion of Prof. Smith, seconded by Mr. Littlepage,
the selection of the place of the next meeting was left to the Executive
Committee.)
The report of the Secretary and Treasurer was then read.
(SEE APPENDIX)
The Chairman: You have heard the Secretary's report. We had better take
up, first, the question of deficit. What are we going to do about the
$66.00? What prospects have we for the balancing of that account?
The Secretary: That account will be easily balanced, and more than
balanced, by the dues coming in and then I will proceed to run up a
deficit for next year.
The Chairman: You have heard the Secretary's report. If there is no
discussion, a motion to adjourn will be in order.
(Adjourned till December 19th.)
* * * * *
The Convention met, pursuant to adjournment, December 19th, 1912, at
9:30 A. M., President Morris in the Chair, and went into Executive
Session.
It was moved and carried that the President be empowered to appoint a
committee to attend the conference at Albany, called for the
consideration of the hickory bark borer, by the Commissioner of
Agriculture of the State of New York.
The question of the publication of reports of the Convention proceedings
in the American Fruit and Nut Journal, was next taken up and it was
moved by Mr. Lake and carried that the papers and discussions of this
Society shall be used for its own publications exclusively, except as
the Executive Committee deems it to the best interests of the industry
to furnish them for separate publication.
The Secretary: On November 8th, I received a letter from Calvin J.
Huson, the Commissioner of Agriculture of New York, to this effect.
Dear Sir:
At the coming land show in New York this department proposes to have, as
a part of its exhibit, a collection of native and introduced New York
grown nuts.
Can you give us the names of growers of the better strains of nuts who
might be able to furnish material for such an exhibit. Perhaps your
association would be able to assist in the matter. The Department will
be able to stand a reasonable expense for cost of nuts, expressage, etc.
Perhaps a few seedling trees would add interest.... By the exhibit as a
whole we wish to show the variety and quality of nuts that may be grown
in this state....
Very truly yours,
CALVIN J. HUSON,
Commissioner.
He wished me to assist in getting up an exhibit, but as he only gave us
a week I was unable to do anything. I do not know that there is any
action to be taken on that, but I read the letter simply to show that
the interest in nut growing is increasing and that this is an
opportunity for us to make an exhibit another year.
Mr. Lake: Would the secretary take the trouble to make a collection of
nuts covering the territory of the association and submit it for exhibit
at a meeting of this character, this land show, giving credit to the
donors for material, somewhat as Mr. Reed has done in pecans for the
National Nut Growers Association?
The Secretary: I think I'd have a few minutes to spare to do that.
Mr. Lake: I think it would be an admirable thing.
The Chairman: Yes, it would advertise the organization extensively and
be a constructive step in agriculture.
* * * * *
Mr. Littlepage, have you any report from the Committee on Incorporation?
Mr. Littlepage: That is a matter that will require considerable thought
and attention. It will require attention from several standpoints, as
for example under what laws we might wish to incorporate, so I think the
committee will reserve its report to make to the Executive Committee at
some later meeting.
The Chairman: We have no other business, I believe, and will now retire
to the hall where we will have the lantern slide exhibition. The morning
session closes the meeting and we are to meet at two o'clock at the
Monument and from there go out to see certain trees in the vicinity. Mr.
Rush and Mr. Jones are to show us these an
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