Northern Nut Growers Association, Report Of The Proceedings At The Tenth Annual Meeting. | Page 7

wondering if that has been done recently and could
not be emphasized in some way to the advantage of larger membership.
You have got to do something more than say that there is in existence
an association devoted to these purposes and everybody is invited to
come in. Maybe the secretary has something on that line.
MR. BIXBY: I have no suggestion. It is very evident that there is a
greatly increased interest in nut growing over what there was when I
first took up the office. That is very clearly brought out by the amount
of mail received. You may know that Capt. Deming, when in the
service, took the position of editing the nut department of the American
Fruit Grower. I saw him recently and it looks to me as if, as editor of
that department, he is answering about as many correspondents on nuts
and trying to boost the association in that way as he did when he was
secretary before. And that would appear to be in addition to the
communications that are coming to me now.
MR. OLCOTT: There is interest. We get at the Journal office a great
quantity of inquiries but only a small per cent of them result in
memberships and subscriptions, and while this interest is so strong,
ought not this association to study that which is something of a
problem--perhaps something that ought to be taken up in view of the
interests and the benefits of the association shown.
PRESIDENT REED: I think that is a good suggestion. I think they
need something along that line. Is there anything else we want to bring
up at this morning session?
MR. MCGLENNON: Is this not a very good field to open up
operations along that line, right here at Battle Creek? A large number of
people who come here are people who eat nuts, and I believe that
condition would resolve itself into a material advance of membership. I
think we ought to get busy right here and see if we can not enlist the
membership of a great number of the patrons of this institution.

MR. OLCOTT: That was the principal object of the membership
committee I suppose. My idea was to get the ideas of the individual
members, put them together and present a broadside of benefits in this
organization rather than have one man attempt to outline them.
DR. MORRIS: There is an immense amount of interest. The question is
how to get it together and formulate it in such a way that men will join.
There is an enormous, large loose majority, and we must have a small
compact minority to swing it as the Senators do down at Washington,
you know. Prof. Murrill of the New York Botanical Garden told me
that wherever he went (he is interested in mushrooms, that is his special
subject) he had had no idea in the world there was so much interest of
the public in mushrooms; yet when it comes to getting together
members to form the base of an association to study the subject, he
finds very few members. It is simply because men haven't got the habit,
and we have got in some way to give direction to that in such a way
that it will be focused and concentrated on some one objective point.
How to do it, I don't know.
MR. BIXBY: Dr. Kellogg suggested that at the meeting this evening
there will be the largest number of people, not members, that there has
been at any meeting; and he said he had had requests from people that
they wanted to hear Dr. Morris, and they wanted to hear Prof. Cajori
who used to be here, and he asked me to change those from this
afternoon to this evening in order to accomplish that, and I said we
would switch the program. That was for that very purpose.
MR. OLCOTT: Mr. President, it just occurred to me that in view of the
number of inquiries we get, and I am sure the secretary gets, and I am
also sure Dr. Deming gets from his articles, there is no doubt of the
interest, yet the joining of this Northern Association, and the attendance
of its single annual meeting, does not appeal to many. They do not find
it convenient to attend the convention; they do not see any great
amount of benefit in the membership. It occurs to me that if we had a
list of state vice-presidents and each of those could provide for some
local gathering of people interested in nut culture in the various
communities; rather, I would say that if our members, as fast as we can

increase our membership, wherever they are located, would form a
nucleus of a little circle in their