“ In addition to this, the North is the home of the black walnut, the fine shagbark hickory, the butternut, the chestnut, the hazel-nut, and the chinkapin, and is also adapted to the hardy varieties of the English and Japanese walnuts. All of the nuts just named certainly offer an ample field for our interest and enthusiasm, and, in addition to the keen delight which comes from the successful growing of these trees, there is a possibility of profit which I do not think is excelled in any horticultural undertaking today. ”

“ The farmer or nut grower, who does not keep a set of books and can't tell you at the end of the year whether he has made enough money to pay off his bills and legitimate expenses, and allowing himself a compensation for the time energy and experience put in the business, is not successful, and I don't care to consider him, because he is not a farmer as I see him. ”

“ I am not referring to products ill-adapted to our climate, nor to those which, owing to scarcity and high price of labor, we are unable to produce profitably, but to such nuts as the walnut, hickory, butternut, pecan and chestnut which we can raise as readily as peaches, apples and pears. ”

“ However, nut culture doesn't mix well with politics or law, and, therefore, it is more or less of a side issue with me. I have gone into nut culture only on a small scale. On my lot in the city of Marion where I live I have set out some pecan trees, and after a hard battle in court all day it is quite a pleasure to get home in the evening and to pull off my coat and to get on some old clothes and go out among my trees. There is nothing better to get one's mind off the daily combat of life. ”

“ While it is true that the South has a long start of the North in pecan culture, yet the North affords an opportunity for the cultivation of nuts which is not possible in the South. The South is today the home of the delicious varieties of pecan which are a delight to the consumer and a source of fascination and profit to the intelligent producer, but it must be remembered that the northern pecan belt has many excellent varieties that are "good enough." ”

“ The fifth annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association will now come to order, and I have the pleasure of introducing to you Dr. Worsham who represents the Mayor of Evansville.
Dr. Worsham: Ladies and Gentlemen of the Northern Nut Growers Association:
Some men are born to greatness and others have it thrust upon them. I stand in the position this morning of a man that has had his greatness thrust upon him. The secretary of the Evansville Business Association, who frequently takes liberties with me, told me a few minutes ago that, in the absence of our Mayor, I was to welcome you. ”

“ There certainly can be no excuse for the neglect of such nut trees on the score of cost of labor in propagation and planting, because our streets and highways are lined and shaded with equally expensive kinds, although they are absolutely worthless for any other purpose than shade or shelter, yielding nothing in the way of food for either man or beast. ”

“ I believe we were told we must cultivate our nut trees. I believe the fact is that in the greater portion of the United States, we can grow trees, even nut trees, without cultivation. If anybody doesn't believe that, go to Washington by the Chesapeake Railroad and you will see thousands of walnut trees along the way. I believe the human race can grow trees on a hillside without cultivation, and I want to suggest to persons putting out nut trees to put out a few in places where they don't have to be plowed, and see if they don't get good results. ”

“ I have seen pecan groves ten and fifteen years old for which I would not have given any more than the land was worth on which they were growing. If any one has a notion that he can make money in nut culture, without intelligent exertion, he had better go into some other line of business in which there are men having a fair degree of success with unintelligent effort. ”

“ As I came through this wonderfully fertile section of the country, I observed people building bungalows and cottages and setting out trees other than pecan in their dooryards. That is the pity of it. As Dr. Smith says these people here are living close to some of the most magnificent natural trees I have ever seen, and yet they will go and plant around their gardens trees that will do nothing in the world but produce shade. It seems to me there is room for the best kind of missionary work here. I am glad the nut growers met here and I hope the effect will be to cause people to think. ”

“ I believe the best cultivation you can give a tree of any kind is a good mulch of straw and manure. You that have had experience in this part of the country know that is the best way to cultivate trees.
I grew a peach orchard once in one year, but I have quit that, I [Pg 33] have learned better. It is simply a question of water and plant food. If you will mulch any kind of a tree, nut tree or any kind, with ten or fifteen inches of straw and stable manure, you will have a steady growth from early spring until late in the fall, and it will make a strong tree. ”

“ If we have a tree growing on a hillside in a soil that easily transmits moisture and it gives that tree constantly a stream of pure water going through its root system, and there happens to be enough fertility in that vicinity, that moisture is impregnated with plant food, and the tree will get all it wants. ”

“ These men have become specialists in the pecan industry and they know more about it than we do in the North. Consequently they do not need our assistance, even if we were able to give it, and, therefore, without any fear of our being criticised for using the adjective "northern" we can limit our investigations and discussions to nut culture in the northern part of the United States with a full knowledge that our southern brethren can take care of themselves, and, in addition, can render us much valuable assistance which assistance we most cheerfully invite. ”

“ Lockwood's trees because he had a magnificent pecan orchard, possibly five hundred trees, and they were contemplating having the trees cut down because they thought they were in the way of the cultivation of the land for corn. This is not the case because the pecan tree goes away down deep for water and is not like the surface root trees. I have seen large wheat fields in the same location with large pecan trees in them, and men have told me that they produce just as much per acre on the land where the pecan trees are as where there are no pecan trees. ”

“ We ought not to take up this idea "back to the farm" too largely at once but gradually grow into it. I know what it is to be on the farm and work hard day after day; there is no chance for us under the old conditions; but in higher forms of agriculture or horticulture the American people will find the greatest benefits and pleasures. It gets monotonous for a man who has a profession to stick to that all the time, day in and day out without change, week in and week [Pg 15] out, year in and year out, and he gets to driving in a rut. If he will take up a side line it will do him much good. ”

“ Suppose you want to plant an acre of nut trees, and you buy an acre of land, and you buy your trees and have them planted. Who is going to take care of them? You hire a man who knows about the care of trees. You couldn't afford to hire one who didn't, and you would expect him to put in part of his time some other way. If he didn't your investment would amount up to so much you couldn't make anything on the deal. I emphasize this fact because I believe you should make your nut orchard propositions large [Pg 65] enough so that you could afford to hire the best men to handle them for you. ”

“ There have been very few plantings of commercial orchards, but on every hand there is an interest shown in using nut trees for shade trees. The hardy varieties of Persian walnut are being planted more each year to ascertain the most promising sorts for commercial planting. Larger plantings will no doubt follow when some of these varieties have gained the confidence of the people, for one of the chief drawbacks to nut planting in the past has been the common belief that a semi-tropical climate is essential to the production of such nuts as almonds, pecans and Persian walnuts. ”

“ In this state so far as the nut growers industry is concerned we have not done anything at all. There is a large field for work but I must confess I am wholly unprepared to give you a talk on this subject. Where I was raised, back in Pennsylvania, we have several well known bugs that the nut growers have to contend with, and they are especially abundant with the chestnut. That of course would not be of so much interest to the people of this state until the chestnut growing industry has developed more than at present. ”

“ The department does not like to discourage a good thing nor to encourage a thing that is too risky. There is one thing quite sure and that is that so long as nut trees are selling for from one dollar to two dollars apiece, very few people are going to buy them and plant many of them on these hillsides and experiment with them. People cannot afford to do that. We have found, [Pg 35] taking the country over, that nut trees thrive best when they are given treatment; that is they must be given cultivation and fertilization; be given some degree of attention the same as an apple or peach orchard. ”

“ Seedlings will go back toward the mean type. The mean type hickory, walnut or chestnut is the type that nature wishes to preserve, but these are not best for man's purposes. What is best in nature's plan is not always best in man's plan. We have got to dynamite nature. We have got to put a charge of dynamite under nature's seat and blow her up, in order to get what we want for our own purposes. How do we do it? How do we break up the mean type of a variety or species? ”