“ I can understand that it is interesting to search off in vast spaces to ascertain facts, but it is hard to understand why more people cannot find interest in rare and useful nut sports that can be strived for and, in addition to that enthusiasm, help give to future mankind that first of all essentials, food. ”

“ Climate and soil are both limiting factors within this general section. No nut trees are likely to prove hardy to the extent of bearing heavily where winter temperatures are extremely trying or where soils are not of high grade. A fundamental principle involving plant ecology, which with reference to planted nut trees is too often lost sight of, is that, regardless of species, plants are unlikely to be altogether hardy in any locality where minimum temperatures of winter are appreciably lower, or growing periods much shorter, than at the place where the variety in question originated. ”

“ The Living Tree Guild appreciates the privilege of presenting a paper at the silver anniversary convention of the Northern Nut Growers' Association. We feel in a humble mood when talking to you. We are new comers in the field and the work we have done in furthering interest in the subject of northern nut culture is only taking what you have created and endeavoring to make it intelligible and useful to the public. It is something which arouses our enthusiasm. We have great faith in the value of planting grafted nut trees in the North. ”

“ Those who have the interest of the association at heart should do all they can to obtain and grow any new varieties that offer any promise of being adapted to their locality. It is only by carrying out such a program that we shall have any real basis for making recommendations as to varieties adapted to different regions.
I must confess that I am still skeptical about a commercial nut industry in New York on the basis of our present varieties. After more than 20 years of variety testing in Ithaca only the Thomas black walnut has shown any real merit. ”

“ Our function is in educating more people to an appreciation of what improved nut trees are and what they can do as they are at present developed. Nut growing is just beginning to come into its own and the nut tree should take its place as a valuable shade tree, should be included in the home orchard and used as a paying crop by the farmer in the North. ”

“ An analysis shows that Guild nut tree plantings range from the true farmer to the gentleman farmer, from the small lot owner to the owner of hundreds of acres of non-dividend paying land, from the keen horticulturist to the youth who is taking his first step in following a fascinating new hobby.
The selling of nut trees is a very special problem. It is not like selling other kinds of trees. We recognize the fact that those who plant Pedigree nut trees are in a class by themselves and we, therefore, set up a separate department for them, making a special study of the subject. ”

“ It means that we should plant more nut trees instead of so many fruit trees, especially the apple, which has proven more liable to cold injury than even the pear, if we would have any of the delectable valuable products of the tree kind. Why, just think of it, a few nut trees planted around every home in the country would do more to relieve the present depression than all the other agencies and remedies put together. Frost does not impair their fruit. Nuts will keep through the year or longer. Insects do not injure them as they do the soft, unprotected fruits. ”

“ Tree is in a poor location on the edge of wild timber competing for soil space. The nut is a big step in the elimination of the central division, so pronounced in most heartnuts. This is the outstanding feature of this nut. Cracking and other features are still undetermined but promising. I have a number of others that are promising. One is the Flavo Heart, a heartnut and butternut cross. This is a seedling of Callender heart and butternut. The outstanding features are the shape of nut, flavor of kernel and ease of extraction. This is its first crop. ”

“ No one would expect to grow the same farm crop on a plot of ground for many years without fertilizer. Prepare to conserve moisture for the hot, dry season either by cultivation or mulching. One of the thriftiest best bearing nut tree plantings I know of is on very sharp, hilly clay ground in Rockport, but the owner fertilizes these trees annually and gives splendid cultivation.
A non-bearing nut tree is no better than any other kind of a tree, so it is not a question of how many nut trees you have, but how many good bearing nut trees you have. ”

“ We believe the hazel hybrids and filberts are of value as a secondary nut crop, as fillers-in between the black walnuts or used as ornamental bushes for screening around the grounds. Where local conditions justify it we recommend that the home orchard include a variety of nut trees, the English walnut, the northern pecan, certain hybrid hickories and a highly blight-resistant chestnut. The Guild has realized from the start that most laymen know little or nothing about the planting of nut trees. We, therefore, work with them individually, advising them in detail on their particular plantings. ”

“ Unfortunately for the nut-growing industry, and still more unfortunately for the American people, the claims of nuts to consideration in this re-adjustment of the bill of fare have been generally overlooked, and it seems evident that the only hope for the nut industry lies in the creation of a larger demand for these nutrients from the plant world by acquainting the public with their superlative merits. ”

“ Moisture conditions in spring and early summer determine the size of the nut, and later in the season the quality of the kernel. Plenty of moisture in spring and early summer will make a large size nut. After the shell once forms the growth of nut is done. Then the plumpness of the kernel depends on the amount of moisture after the shell is formed. Lack of moisture the entire season spells a small, poorly filled nut. Trees growing in a crowded position, or on hard, dry ground, seldom ever have all the moisture they need to produce a good crop of well filled nuts. ”

“ What makes children so puny and so unwilling to do any real work today? It is because emigration from nut-eating countries being shut off, and our native nut trees cut down or uncared for, there is nothing to keep up the supply of the best food for the body today. ”

“ However, we have a good deal of hardy wood, as our trees are growing bushy and we intend to use the butternut seedlings for stocks on which to graft the black walnut. By this method we will not have to wait so long to get a good supply of trees. There is no question whatever about the future success of the butternut, as we have this year the third generation of them bearing, which is ample proof that they have become entirely acclimated. The butternuts grow fully as large as in eastern Canada, as do also the black walnuts, and as far as I can see the quality is equal if not better. ”

“ This change in the eating habits of the American people has been brought about by disillusionment respecting the importance of meats. Fifty years ago, every physiologist taught that the liberal consumption of meat was essential. This idea was based, first, upon the supposition that protein, the chief constituent of lean meat, is the most important source of energy; and, second, the belief that food of animal origin is better adapted to human sustenance than plant foods, through having undergone a process of refinement and concentration in the transformation from plant to animal. ”

“ Two men stand out as pioneers in Illinois nut growing: the late George W. Endicott of Villa Ridge, who crossed the native American with the Giant Japanese chestnut in 1895, his [Pg 48] work resulting in the origination of the Boone, Blair, and Riehl varieties, the fruit of which combines the size of the Japanese with the quality of the American parent; and the late E. A. Riehl of Godfrey, who for over 30 years, until his death in 1925, carried on experimental work in nut culture, originating, among others, the Fuller and Gibbens chestnuts, superior late and early varieties. ”

“ Young as we are in the field we have given authentic information on the planting of northern nut trees to several thousands of tree lovers. We have found a definite demand for detailed knowledge, and recognition of our work has been shown by the great interests in exhibits we have staged and from several awards which we have received from such organizations as the Horticultural Society of New York. ”

“ If we are ever to make any real progress in the breeding of nuts, one of the first things we need to know is the value of the different materials with which we have to work and the varieties that are used as parents. The Stabler, Thomas and Ohio are relatively superior black walnuts, but we do not know which is the best of these for breeding for size or vigor of tree or productivity or quality of nut or any other quality. ”

“ If nut trees were planted along all our highways and railway thoroughfares, a food crop would be produced of greater nutrient value than that yielded at the present time by the entire live stock industry. ”

“ I once made an ape so angry by offering him a bit of meat that he threatened to attack me and finally, as I persisted in offering him the meat, seized it and flung it as far away as possible, then scrubbed his soiled hand with dust and wiped it on the grass to get rid of the taint of the meat. He gave every evidence of feeling deeply insulted. Biology classifies man as a primate along with the great apes and, according to the great Cuvier, assigns to him along with other primates, a diet consisting of nuts, fruits, soft grains, tender shoots and succulent roots. ”

“ From one standpoint, at least, there is a typical group or class of problems that arises in connection with a crop like the peach or apple or pear. If you knew that tomorrow or next week or next month you were to attend a meeting of peach or pear growers, you would have a pretty good idea of the type of questions that would be raised. They concern variety, insect and disease control, fertilization, and many questions relating to harvesting, packing and marketing the crop. On the other hand, suppose you were to attend a meeting of peony, delphinium, or dahlia growers. ”

“ I believe that the government ought to take an interest in this matter of nut tree planting, for I believe that is the best way in which it can be promoted. I have for several years been trying to find someone who has made a fortune out of raising nuts but I have not yet found such a man. I believe, however, that it is a veritable gold mine of value but will have to have governmental aid. I think the government should require all of these slaughtering lumbermen to plant nut trees in the place of the trees they are cutting down. ”

“ It is seldom that the pecans mature a crop as the summer season is too short in Ontario, but they grow well and make a beautiful tree. We find that hickories grafted on pecan stocks do well, putting on two and one-half to three feet of new growth in a year. The butternut is so common around certain parts of Ontario and Quebec that the people do not even bring it to market, but they do appreciate it. ”

“ We are no longer left to be led astray by guess-work or fancy in supplying our nutritive needs, and have verified the truth so aptly expressed by that shrewd old Roman philosopher, Seneca, who said, "There is nothing against which we ought to be more on our guard than, like a flock of sheep, following the crowd of those who preceded us." ”

“ We have some pretty good peaches, but ten years from now the producers in Michigan will be growing very few of the varieties that they are [Pg 106] growing today, and I dare say that twenty-five years from now they will be growing hardly any of them. We have some very attractive delphiniums and dahlias, but in 1950 few of today's favorites will be in cultivation. They will be superseded by new and superior varieties. In 1950, or 1975, we should be growing nut varieties that are far superior to what is available at the present time. ”

“ No successful fruit grower would plant an orchard of peach or apple trees on poor or waste land, forget about them for a few years and expect to go back and harvest a crop of fruit, and neither need the nut grower expect to. ”

“ If every lumberman had been required by law to plant a nut tree for every ten timber trees cut down during the last 50 years, a food source would have been provided which would insure more than an ample supply of precious protein and satisfying fat to feed 120,000,000 of Americans if the cereal food crops were destroyed by a drouth or predatory insects. ”

“ Franklin Roosevelt likes trees. Do you suppose we could get him to be a king to lead for the finest in tree planting, grafted hickory-nut trees?
Another thing. Every bit we can add to the feeling and knowledge of our securing is a help to us. We have many people whose make-up is not one that enables them to provide for their later years, not even if they earned ten dollars a day over a long period of time. ”

“ The shell of the nut is thinner than the average and the cracking quality distinctly superior. The kernels of nuts promptly harvested, hulled and cured have been bright, plump, rich in quality, and especially pleasing in flavor. The one weak point of the Tasterite appears to be in the matter of size, but this smallness is well offset by superiority in the points just mentioned, and also in what is perhaps more important, the latitude and altitude of the place of origin. ”

“ The black walnut, the shagbark hickory, the sweet hickory, the butternut and certain hybrid hickories are now believed to offer greater inducement to prospective planters of nut trees [Pg 104] in the northernmost zone east of the Rocky Mountains than do other species. Varieties of strictly northern origin are now available to those who are capable of doing their own grafting. Many of these are of considerable promise, apparently, at least, equal in merit to any of the older varieties now being offered by nurserymen. ”

“ The general belief that nuts are an expensive food is an error. When a man pays a dollar for three pounds of steak, he is probably not aware of the fact that three-fourths of what he buys is simply water, so that the actual solid nutriment purchased amounts to not more than three-quarters of a pound, making the actual cost of the water-free food $1.33 per pound.
Two pounds of almonds or other nut meats which might be purchased at the same cost, would yield twice as much and better food.
If the whole beef industry were wiped out, the country would be the gainer. ”

“ Subsequently a very large graft on one medium sized black walnut tree died, but this was due to injury at the point of union rather than to the graft above. The remaining scions made a good growth this season. Seedling trees of another strain of Chinese walnut showed some variation in their hardiness. Some came through in good condition and made a vigorous growth but others were more or less injured. The limited number of trees under observation scarcely justifies definite conclusion, but it would seem as though this form of Juglans regia is worthy of a wider trial in southern Michigan. ”

“ We are in the nursery business just in a small way. We have only the best of varieties.
I have discovered also a thin-shell hickory nut with a wonderful meat. I don't know if I will get any of the nuts this year as they have been stealing them every year, I am told by the man who owns it. I succeeded in getting one growing on a young pecan tree I had. ”