“ A man of strong personality, capable of large operations and unaccustomed to failure he found it hard to admit defeat of his deeply cherished purpose, and success already within his grasp, by that great national calamity the invasion of this country by the fatal chestnut blight. Undoubtedly he foresaw, as did other advocates of nut culture, the great help and stimulus to the industry that would result from the commercial success of chestnut culture, and it was a bitter disappointment to him to find himself helpless before the irresistable progress of the blight. ”

“ The association is particularly well equipped in having a faculty, so to speak, than which there is none better in the country—yes, the world—in whose hands our recommendations, to the planter of nut trees, can be entrusted with absolute safety. For genuine scientific research in nut culture of the northern states this association stands singly and alone. This tribute is born of vivid remembrance of the really scientific work done by several of our worthy members, notably, Jones, Bixby, Morris, Deming and Vollertsen. ”

“ I'm heart and soul in favor of the movement for better nut trees. I'm tired of having trees planted that produce nothing but litter, and for the small boy to keep breaking all the time instead of going fishing. As I said the other day through the committee on trees of the Bird and Tree Club of Decatur we have placed in that city a hundred and fourteen nut trees. I believe that I can go to the different purchasers and say that this association is anxious to increase the knowledge of the people as to the value of nut orchards and nut trees for food and shade and I can get them to become members. ”

“ The association feels that no one can ever quite take the place of Dr. Van Fleet in the field of his life work, in experimental nut breeding and in the hearts of the members of this association who had the privilege of knowing him, and it wishes to put on record its great sorrow at his untimely death in the very midst of his beneficent activity for the benefit of mankind. ”

“ We know that all people can't have the best. We know that some people have to eat cheaper steaks. The trouble with this country today is that everybody wishes the very best. The packers tell us they have great trouble in disposing of the cheaper cuts of the meat. I do not imagine that the nut growers are going to have much trouble in disposing of the round steaks, but we are going to furnish the best nuts. The market for cultivated pecans has developed in a most marvelous way. There has never been any advertising, except in a very small way, and yet the demand has always exceeded the supply. ”

“ In all of our cultural periods we are sure to rise to a certain point, decline, and go out, and somebody else will follow, so that we never can really have over-population excepting as a matter of choice rather than one of necessity. On the question of food supply we may avert over-population by taking up something new to meet the conditions. That new thing right now is the development of the nut trees which furnish all of the food essentials and will take away any fear whatsoever of any over-crowding of the people of this country. ”

“ If each one of the 6,000,000 farmers in the United States would plant and maintain an orchard of ten acres of black walnuts, the annual crop, with little or no attention, would yield not less than 3,000,000 tons of nut protein, the equivalent of more than 12,000,000 tons of meat, besides more than 6,000,000 tons of fat of the finest quality, sufficient to supply every one of 100,000,000 people with an ample amount of protein, and, in addition, the fat equivalent of 6-2/3 ounces of butter. ”

“ DEAN MANN: We have adopted this platform: "Anything which will interest the people of New York State." We must, as a state institution, limit our horizon very largely to the state of New York. We do slip over occasionally, but anything which will interest the people of New York State in trees of any kind, for any purpose, is a step towards forest conservation. Take your city dweller in New York City, get him interested in a shade tree in front of his apartment house, or in a group of shade trees in the adjoining park, and you have converted that man along the line of King Forest. ”

“ You might as well expect a fish to live out of water as to expect those trees to live. If we send the average person a tree he may make it grow but the chances are he will not, so why let him ruin a good grafted tree with his initial experiments in planting a nut tree. On the other hand you will emphasize the distinction between seedlings and grafted trees, because on his coming into the association you will present him with a seedling and explain to him in advance just the purpose for which it is being given. ”

“ If the uncultivated lands of this country not now occupied as farms were occupied by nut trees in good bearing, the annual crop of nut protein and fat would be amply sufficient, in connection with the corn, wheat and other crops harvested by our 6,000,000 farmers from our big billion acre farm to easily support a population of 1,000,000 persons. If the nut is given a chance, it will not only save the human race from perishing from starvation, but will give it a good boost upward in the direction of race betterment. ”

“ In proportion to their weight, nuts contain more lime than any other class of foodstuffs except legumes, the average being more than one-third grain to the ounce (.370 grs.) . Certain nuts are surprisingly rich in lime. For example, the almond affords one and one-third grains of food lime to the ounce, while the hazel-nut or filbert affords one and three-quarters grains of lime to the ounce, or 11.3 per cent of a day's ration of lime. The pecan and the walnut are also fairly rich in lime, as is also the peanut. ”

“ We have heard much about the desirability of the experimental nut orchard and the association has repeatedly urged the planting of such by each one of the agricultural experiment stations in the country. These have been advocated in order that we might learn of the behavior of the fine varieties of nuts that we now have under varying conditions of soil and climate, and in this way accumulate the experience out of which to make positive recommendations as to the species and varieties that might be planted in any given section with reasonably assured prospects of success. ”

“ It is worth while to know that vegetable milk prepared from almonds, by adding five parts of water to one part of blanched almonds made into a smooth paste, supplies two and a half times as much iron as does cow's milk in equal quantity, and furnishing the same amount of protein. It is worth noting, just here, also, that the protein of the almond is, like that of milk, a complete protein, that is, a protein out of which human tissues may be readily formed, which is by no means true of all vegetable proteins. ”

“ President, I'm a life member of the Wisconsin Horticultural Society which has offered a thousand dollars for an apple better than the Wealthy. We also offer premiums for new members every year. Sometimes it is a seedling apple tree. Among those premium trees may be a seedling which will win the prize. We do not know what the seedling nut tree will do. We may get something from a seedling which is far better than anything we have today on the table before us. Nature is something wonderful and no one can tell you what she will do. Only this last year has what is called the "O'Connor" come out. ”

“ MR. RAWNSLEY: I hope that there are no medical doctors in the place or any butchers because if there are I am liable to go through the door or window. The nuts that you people are growing I hope will be the only thing, along with fruits and vegetables, that will be eaten in the future. As Mr. Patterson said tonight, since God put nuts and fruits and vegetables on this earth, those are what we ought to use from the commencement of life. The nut is one of the cleanest and most wholesome foods that is grown. ”

“ Those pessimistic economists who predict that by the year 2000 the American Continent will be so densely populated that means will have to be adopted to limit the increase of population because of the scarcity of foodstuffs, are evidently not aware of the activities of the Nut Growers Association and of the marvelous efficiency of nut trees as producers of protein and fats, the two elements of our foodstuffs which are most costly because hardest to produce. ”

“ Some Indiana trees planted this spring are growing and I am hoping they may prove hardy.
The Sober Paragon chestnuts have shown wonderful growth and bear nuts most abundantly. Each year, however, a tree or two is killed by the blight and I suppose soon my orchard will meet the fate of all the other chestnuts in the East. It seems as if someone ought to discover a remedy for this destructive pest. Tomorrow I hope to see you all at my farm where you can see what use one woman has made of her opportunities for nut culture. ”

“ I hope before long there will be classes in nut culture in the women's horticultural schools.
What is more delightful than to plant a tree? Planting flowers is a pleasure of the present but a tree is a link with the future.
My interest in growing Persian Walnuts in this region was started in 1912 by reading in a newspaper that these nuts could be grown in any climate suitable for peaches. Then I remembered that when a child I had picked walnuts from a tree on our lawn here in Rochester. ”

“ There is a world of opportunity in this country for a commercial nut. They are used as delicacies now, most of these nuts, but they are food, and they are food of the very highest type. I expect to see the day when all our best hotels and restaurants will have on their menus nut steaks, almond and pecan steaks, and when a great many of their guests will order these steaks in place of the beef steaks that they are ordering now. ”

“ I spent a very pleasant year in California and saw some of the operations of the California nut growers, where they are growing English walnuts on a most extensive scale. I believe I will be making no false statement when I say that those areas in southern California which are growing nuts produce more in fats, proteins and calories for the maintenance of the health and strength of the human race than do the acres which are given up to the growing of animal crops. ”

“ The Lord has not given us a perfect climate. He gives one climatic feature here and another one there and another one some place else. He distributes his benefactions. It seems to me he has been lavish with you people, especially in New York and all through the middle West and the East. You have so many things. Why should you want to grab off the nut business? But just for the sake of letting you have a little variety and having some real good things to eat, I am willing to have you discover some real good commercial nut and then the time will come when we will have this national organization. ”

“ Today, Illinois has over 11,000,000 bearing apple trees, and they raise just as good apples there as any where, but they haven't got the organization, they don't advertise, and we don't know it generally. If we can organize and distribute our information, get these vice presidents from two or three cities to join with the chambers of commerce and have a meeting down at Evansville, among the nut growers, for instance, the growers of Indiana pecans, and see what they grow, and what they are worth, why then you can get the people interested. ”

“ I should like to tell you what happens in our association in the south of Georgia. For a number of years our treasurer has come up with a deficit each year. The only practical way that we have found in the southern nut growers' association for increasing our membership and getting additional funds is to do it by subscriptions taken at the meeting. Let each man pledge so many members and turn over the money to the treasurer to pay up for the members that he has pledged. ”

“ The writer feels very confident that if this association and other similar organizations will continue their efforts in behalf of nut growing, and will at the same time adopt measures to inform the public concerning the remarkable nutritive properties of these products which have been created expressly for the use of man and which are so wonderfully adapted to his sustenance, there will be a steady advance in their acceptance by the public and in the not far distant future, the raising of nuts will come to be as nearly universal among farmers as the production of apples or other fruit crops. ”

“ Some have been planted on soil that was not adapted and there are some cases of insufficient or unwise care, and some of not having the proper stock to plant. For one reason or another a good many groves have not proven successful today. Others have proven quite successful. There is no question but what that which was a hope fifteen years ago is today a reality and that the cultivated pecan is today an established industry. I do not mean by that that we have reached the stage which our friend Mr. Taylor has reached with his almonds or which the almond growers have reached. ”

“ McGlennon's request I agreed to give some of my experiences in nut growing at this meeting I had no idea such a large and comprehensive title was to be given to my brief remarks.
Are not such opportunities wide and open to all? Women are now taking up so many branches of agriculture, gardening, farming, landscaping, that specializing in nuts is but one more. A real love for growing things, perseverance in face of many discouragements, and incidentally a place to grow the trees, are all that is necessary. ”