“ I tried to get information as to the parent Hales hickory and the most I could learn was that the family had gathered as high as two or three bushels in one year. But when I saw that the tree stood on the side of a well traveled road with only a low stone wall to get over, and that the squirrels were plentiful and the children undoubtedly likewise, I thought it a wonder that the Hales got any of the nuts. ”

“ There is not a home or a residence street but desires fine shrubs and fine trees. It is especially so with the farmers. They want these beautiful things that the city people have been having for many years in their front yards. They are going to demand shrubbery and trees beyond any call that ever has been made for them in the past. So you can readily see from our work, although much of it is to be carried on in a public way by our agricultural colleges and state institutions of that kind, that they will be able to furnish only one tree or one plant in a hundred of those that will be demanded. ”

“ It is necessary also to solve better the propagation problem. We cannot expect to get any large amount of planting of any of our nut trees until we can put the trees to the public at a price at which it will feel that it can afford to invest. To the members of this association, or to other people vitally interested, two or two and a half or three dollars is not any [Pg 72] thing for a good tree; but to the average planter of home ground or farmstead that is too much money. We all know that it is not an easy task to propagate these trees and we are not condemning the nurserymen. ”

“ People are prone to take anything that they please from anything which is so impersonal as a country. Nut trees planted in public places would have their crops carried off by every passer by to such an extent that revenue for the upkeep of the trees would be difficult to obtain. In some of the European countries this obstacle has not been insurmountable. There are many villages in Europe in which privately owned fields are not even fenced and fruit and nut trees growing for the benefit of the village are left untouched by the passer by in this older civilization. ”

“ During my short experience as your president I have found that inquiries have come from all over the United States asking how they may procure these trees and especially asking how they may procure the finest varieties. It is along that particular line that the nurserymen certainly could extend their business greatly; because as this movement of road-side planting goes along the man who has a good farm, the general farmer in his business, or any man with a small piece of ground that he can call his own, will want to plant a good nut tree thereon of a most improved variety. ”

“ I don't know how the laws are in most of your states but in Michigan the law is that the owner of land owns not only his farm but the land to the center of the highway subject to the right of the public to have the use of it for travel. Then how are you going to plant trees on a man's land if the highway belongs to that man? They did it on the theory that the trees were necessary for the maintenance of the highway. ”

“ An energetic campaign for new members is the most obvious desideratum. The committee to prepare and issue a bulletin on the roadside planting of nut trees, arranged to give information for every part of the country, has been innocuous as well as useless. ”

“ My connection with the Northern Nut Growers' Association has been of a most pleasant character. I have found a group of men and of women who are interested not only in their own welfare but in the welfare of the race. What we have started today—or rather completed so far as organization is concerned—will do as much good in the United States in the next decade as any movement that has been started by any organization or association. It means re-forestation on a larger scale with right trees and right plants, as stated by my friend Mr. Littlepage. ”

“ It may well be said, show me a man who loves and cultivates trees and I will show you a man who loves his fellow men and puts that love into practice. That cannot be said, unfortunately, of every man who graduates from college. It is to be doubted whether the name of John Harvey, considered abroad as worthy of a higher place in the annals of American horticulture, is greater than the name of Johnny Appleseed, the man who took apple trees out into the frontier of the open road. ”

“ Nut trees which are indigenous to any locality, or allied species from other countries having similar soil and climatic conditions, will grow and thrive on public grounds quite as well as upon private property. They will be as beautiful and as useful upon public grounds as they are upon private property, speaking in a large way, although disposal of their products will go along different channels perhaps. Nut trees of various species will be quite as beautiful and distinctly more useful than any of the other trees that are commonly selected for planting upon public grounds. ”

“ I tried to get apple trees to grow on the opposite side of the road but could not and it could not be accounted for by any other reason. I know other people have come to the some conclusion that certain things would not grow near a walnut tree. Some grasses will. If you go down through Lancaster County along the Lincoln Highway you will find a quantity of locust trees thriving there. Wheat and things will grow right up to the roots of those trees, but I do not think you will find that they will grow up to a black walnut. ”

“ Millions of copies of the agricultural papers reach our farm homes every week. They are read largely by the boys and girls who are always very much interested in nuts.
State Laws
I do not know how much can be accomplished by passing laws that will encourage the planting of nut bearing trees, especially along the roadside. All of us will watch with much interest the Penney Law of Michigan. A very careful study should be made of this phase of the problem and then urge the passage of such laws in each state as will be most favorable to the development of the whole proposition. ”

“ As a matter of fact farmers are complaining continually of the depredations on their orchards resulting from the increase of automobile parties—perfectly respectable people going out on the road-side and helping themselves. If fine fruit and nut trees were planted along the road-sides and the crops were being picked, it seems to me that, under a general understanding that the public was to let these trees alone, and that any one caught or seen picking the crops would be reported by the one following, it would automatically police itself. ”

“ There are places where it is urged that trees are not desirable. On stretches of road where the soil is naturally wet the heavy shade cast by certain species of trees is undoubtedly objectionable; but there are also trees whose shade is very light. Some trees make such a dense mass of foliage that they tend to prevent air currents and thus keep the moisture in the road from drying out. Along such stretches of road the method of planting may affect the matter of light and air, and species of trees can be chosen which will be practically unobjectionable. ”

“ Just as soon as we consider a program of roadside planting we must also consider a program for the control of pests. Regardless of whether they be pecan [Pg 49] trees or hickories or walnuts we are bound to meet with these pests. Whenever we begin a systematic planting, or collection of plants, it does not make much difference whether oak trees, or catalpas or chestnuts, or what not, we can look forward to the time when we will be confronted with a pest control proposition. As to roadside planting in New England it would not make much difference whether it was a walnut or butternut or pecan. ”

“ It is better to plant well in the first place. Trees do not grow at the same rate throughout their life. They usually grow slowly at first and then fairly rapidly between the tenth and thirteenth years, after which the rate of growth usually falls off gradually. If small trees, about ten feet high are used for planting they should reach the following sizes in twenty years on favorable soil:
Certain trees such as the horse chestnut and the evergreens generally appear to better advantage alone or in groups while others like the elms, maples and box elder show to fine advantage in long rows. ”

“ For twelve years your association has stood for all that is good in American nut culture. You have considered the different classes and varieties that are worthy a place in American horticulture. You have discussed how the various classes may best be propagated and cultivated and have disseminated whatever information is available concerning the control of fungous and insect enemies of nut bearing trees. ”

“ I speak of that because in Rochester during the war when it was deemed necessary not to run automobiles on Sunday it was as much as his life was worth for a man to be out with his car on Sunday, not because of any police officer but because of the other fellow who was staying at home. I think that the other travelers along the road will take care of the fellow that violates the understanding about roadside fruit and nut trees. ”

“ But the man that makes the mistake is the man who fails to set nut trees. How about the Stabler walnut bearing? It bore matured nuts at the age of four years on my farm in Maryland this year. The nuts are here. That answers that question. I have very grave doubts about pecan trees thriving in the Lancaster latitude; yet it may be that I am wrong about that. There may be some particular variety that will thrive here. If I lived in this section I would set out the trees so that when the one, two, three or four varieties are found that will thrive here we will have something to work on. ”

“ The highways offer an almost limitless field for ornamental planting and they also offer opportunities for raising certain food producing trees of which at present the nut trees are the principal species used. A time may come when we can safely plant fruit trees along the roadside but until provisions can be made for their systematic care and spraying, such trees would be liable to spread disease to nearby orchards. ”

“ I was talking to your secretary a few minutes in the hotel lobby this morning and he told me that while some of you were in the nut business with a majority of you it was a hobby. That is the altruistic spirit that counts in these days when most of us look upon things in a materialistic way.
There was a time when I thought that most nuts came from Brazil, but I am glad to learn that we grow the nuts we eat here in the good old U. S. A., and some right here in Pennsylvania and in Lancaster County. ”

“ When people write to us that they have certain types of land we always tell them if they can grow an average crop of corn, wheat, clover or potatoes on that land there probably isn't any question but that if they plant English walnuts they will be successful in raising some English walnuts. Whether they will raise them profitably or not is another question. But nothing can take the place of one or two good trees on every farm, especially in southeastern Pennsylvania. ”